Stress Fracture

                  So I figured I should resurrect the old blog for a quick update on my life. I have back in the States for about 4 months now and God has been working in my heart just as much as He was while I was in Africa. When I got back in July I felt very out of shape running-wise and that seemed to continue throughout the whole summer. Through August and September I slowly got back to into shape and was even able to run a decent race in the TC 10 mile on October 7^th. I was finally getting excited about running again and was starting to think that I had finally found a good balance of running in my life. But then on October 17^th, only a few days before the Mankato Half Marathon, I was running on the treadmill when I fell down in pain. I could barely walk the rest of the day and ended up going to the doctor finding out that I have a stress fracture in my fourth metatarsal. I would love to tell you that I have been extremely positive during this time because I have so much faith that God will work this together for good, but to be honest, I can’t. There have been times of positivity; times where I have had complete confidence in God’s love and His perfect plan. These times usually occur when I am in the Word, in prayer, or even just thinking about things of God throughout the day. But I have found that whenever I take my eyes off God, even if it’s just for a moment, my flesh takes over and steers me off into feelings of self-pity, anger, and discouragement. I feel embarrassed to admit that this injury has been hard on me, especially considering there are so many people with much worse problems than a foot injury. But the reality is, it has been a struggle and God has really used this to show me a lot of heart issues I have that He still needs to work on.

                  I’ve had a lot of extra time on my hands thanks to this injury, so I have been trying to be very intentional about spending it with the Lord instead of getting lost in ESPN, Facebook, or Youtube. Throughout this time, God has been revealing a lot of things to me, but He has mainly focused on two areas. The first is that God must increase in my life and I must decrease (John 3:30). If I’m being honest, there are many times I do stuff with the motivation that Dan Greeno will be glorified alongside God being glorified. The Lord has really been showing me that as much as I think it’s about me, it really isn’t. This has been a very humbling, difficult thing to go through, and I have so much farther to grow in this area that it’s not even funny. Secondly, God has been showing me just how much I love the world. In 1 John chapter 2 it talks about how we should not love the things of this world, because if we do, the love of God is not in us. This passage has given me fits the last couple weeks as I have realized how much I can idolize the good things in life that God has given me (friends, food, running, sports, entertainment) over God himself.

                          I have just been so thankful for the amazing people that God has put into my life to help me get through my daily struggles. I’m sure some of my friends are sick of talking to me with all of the negativity I’ve been struggling with, but God seems to be giving them the enough grace to love me unconditionally. It has been a battle every single day for me to put my hope in God rather than the things of this world, but God has been giving me the grace to get through it. I am so glad that I can cling to God’s promises knowing that He will meet all of my needs (Philippians 4:19), and that I will not miss out on any good thing when I live for the Lord (Psalm 84:11).

                On a lighter note, with the extra 2 hours a day of free time, I’ve had a lot more time to clean my teeth. I’ve always had soft enamel which makes me susceptible to cavities, but I just recently set the goal of trying to be cavity free for the rest of my life. Since my injury, I haven’t missed a day of fluoride or flossing, and I’ve brushed twice every day. So I’m pretty pumped for my next dentist’s appointment! Also, my hair is currently at 10 months of growth. Although I'd love to make it a year, it's getting pretty annoying so I might have to cut it soon. I've found that you definitely can't get away with not showering in the morning like you can with short hair.

Final Blog: Top 3's!

So we finished up our Cpx program yesterday. It is definitely good to be done, but I'm also kinda sad having to leave so many close friends that I've made over the last couple months. All of these new friends really affirmed what I felt God speaking to me before the trip which was Matthew 19:29- "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life." So as I wrap up the trip I figure I would give a few of my top 3's on some random favorites and non-favorites!

Top 3 things I got to see:
3. Victoria Falls in Zambia. This probably would have been higher up on the list if it had not been so cold. The waterfall made it so that there was a constant rain in the park which made it a little less fun.
2. Chobe Game Park in Botswana. One of my friends and I hitchhiked to Botswana during one of our weekends in Zambia to go get an African safari experience. We pretty much saw every African animal except a lion which was pretty cool.
1. Table Mountain in Cape Town. This is the main tourist attraction in Cape Town and I was worried that I wouldn't get to climb it because it is right in the middle of rainy season down here. Thankfully, God heard my prayers and gave us some really nice weather and I was able to climb it with three good friends. Another added bonus was that we got to see a really nice sunset!

Top 3 foods I've missed:
3. Dairy Queen ice cream. The ice cream is very different here so I'm pumped to go get a few Blizzards when I get back.
2. Panera Bread. They don't have bagels down here, so I've really been looking forward to going to Panera and beefing up my rewards card when I get home.
1. Brats. I have no clue why I miss brats so much since they probably aren't even in my top 10 favorite foods, but I've been craving them hardcore for the past three months so they earn the top spot.

Top 3 favorite things about Africa:
3. Slow pace of life. It's crazy how much slower everything is out here. It can be frustrating at times, but I've really come to appreciate it lately.
2. Seeing oceans and mountains everyday. We are surrounded by mountains and it's only a 3 mile run to both the Indian and Atlantic oceans. I'm definitely gonna miss this when I get back to MN.
1. Warm weather. It's in the middle of winter but it still gets up to 60 degrees everyday. I would not mind at all if I never saw snow again. I can kind of be a Scrooge when it comes to winter.

Top 3 things I won't miss about Africa:
3. Feeling weird for only knowing one language. EVERYONE here seems to know at least two languages, most people actually know three or four. It made me wish I woulda tried harder in my Spanish classes in college.
2. Not having heat or AC. No houses have heat or air-conditioning here, so in the summer it can be brutal to try and sleep in the heat. And in the winter I feel like I am constantly just a few degrees too cold and there is nowhere to go to warm up.
1. The wind. I will never think it is windy again when I get back to MN. It is extremely windy here nearly everyday. So windy that I honestly feel like I'm going to fall over at times on my runs. It is pretty ridiculous.

Top 3 things I have learned from CPx:
3. The importance of living in Christian community. I have very much enjoyed living with lots of people who are all trying to follow Christ wholeheartedly. It makes it a lot easier to stay motivated when you are surround by like-minded people.
2. The importance of 1-on-1 discipleship relationships. I've had two people discipling me while I've been out here and it has been great for my growth. They have done a great job of keeping me accountable on a weekly basis. I look forward to finding similar relationships back in the Twin Cities.
1. It is more about trust than clarity. So many people here seem to be uncertain about their future, yet they are so at peace about it that it blows my mind. From the people I've talked to, they've said that they don't have clarity for the future very often but they know God does so that keeps them at peace.  This is something I'm horrible at, but hopefully I'll keep getting better.

Top 3 things I learned about God's character:
3. God hates pride. This has probably taken me a lot longer to fully realize than most people, but I feel like God really spoke to me about a lot of pride issues in my life. Also I came to realize just how much humbling yourself before God is talked about in Scripture. This is something I'll need to work on as well.
2. God truly wants everything from us. Over this past year I have felt God picking out parts of my life one-by-one asking if I could give that up for Him. And every single time I think that this will be the last thing God will want from me. But it finally hit me in Zambia that God REALLY does want all of me. This was a depressing thought for me at first since I had this feeling that God was just leading me into a life of no fun. This probably would still be a depressing thought for me if my realization for the #1 thing hadn't grown on this trip
1. God's love. I have been so numb to this statement for years. Thankfully, I feel like God really started showing me how much He loves me. He doesn't want my life to suck, or for me to be depressed doing something I don't want to do for the rest of my life. But He truly wants the best for me! And that sometimes means it will include doing things I don't want to do, but ultimately, He wants me to live a life full of joy that brings glory to Him. I feel like I should have understood this long ago, but I guess it took God bringing me all the way out to Africa to teach me this.

So I guess that's it. It has definitely been a life-changing 5 months for me, but I'm super glad to get back and see everyone again. I will also be very happy to get new running shoes as my current pair will have 1,730 miles by the end of tomorrow. I will be getting back to the States later this week but probably won't make it down to the cities until the July 7-9 weekend. Thanks so much to everyone who has been praying for me and to everyone who actually reads this thing. I appreciate you all so much.

God bless!

Wiped out...

My energy level has been on empty for nearly the whole time I have been in Zambia. It takes me back to my H.S. wrestling days because I feel exactly like I did when I was cutting weight. Upon first glance, there is honestly no reason why I should be feeling this tired. I honestly just lay in my tent for all of our non-ministry time. And that is in addition to the 10 hours of sleep I get every night. So I'll usually spend over half the day laying down in my tent just wondering how on earth I could possibly feel this tired. The good thing is, this time will usually turn into prayers for strength and energy which really makes me rely on God throughout the whole day. Some initial reasons that I had for my tiredness were that I have had a very different diet while I've been out here- lots of rice, oats, and veggies instead of lots of meat, sugar, and cereal. Another reason was that maybe being out in the sun all day walking from village to village was really killing me. But after talking with some people I have come to the conclusion that my tiredness is stemming from spiritual warfare. Sounds kinda weird, but it's honestly true. With lots of ancestor worship and witchcraft going on out here, it really opens up the spirit world. And since we are spreading the Gospel, I guess we are an easy target for them to attack. On the weekends, when we come into town, my energy levels come back to normal when I don't even need them. But right when I get to the village I literally feel my energy drop and then feel like I need to take a nap. I was actually so tired that I took a complete week off from running last week, something I haven't done in years, and it still didn't seem to help at all. Thankfully, God's grace has been sufficient, but it has been really frustrating at times.

So I noticed that my left heel has really been hurting on my runs lately. Since I rarely get injured (thank the Lord), I figured it had to be my shoes that were causing the pain. They had been looking a little beat up and I hadn't switched shoes since I had been to Africa yet. After adding up my shoe mileage I realized that I have 1,482 miles on my current pair which is about 3x the amount that you are supposed to put on a pair. Oops. Hopefully I can limp through these last 23 days without having them fall apart.

For everyone who knows that animals and I don't get along very well, I'm sure you will appreciate this story. Our team of 7 people was visiting a pre-school in one of the villages this past week. When we were standing around outside just waiting around I noticed there was a bird flying towards me. It wasn't very close yet but I noticed how it seemed to be coming right at me. As I continued watching it just kept getting closer and closer. Finally, I realized that this bird was coming right for me! So at the last second I did the most awkward twist/scream/duck in hopes that the bird wouldn't hit me. Thankfully it didn't hit my face but it did hit my head. I couldn't believe why a bird would just fly into my head. Afterwards, my hip was sore for the next day because of the weird twist I had to pull to get out of the way. Maybe it's just my long hair?

We have one more week in the villages and then we will be getting back to Cape Town on June 12. Even though I'm super excited to get back to a bed and a shower, I will miss a lot of the people that I've met out here.

Hippos, Crocs, and Scorpions?

Well the good news is that I'm still alive, but as you can tell by the title of the blog, I haven't exactly felt the safest I ever have in my life out here. Last week, a man was actually killed by a hippo in the village right next to ours. Thankfully, we have a village guard that fights off hippos if they get too close to where we are staying. There have been a few crocodile sightings in the river from the place where we usually draw water. But I usually try to stay as far away from the river as possible, so I haven't been too worried about them. A couple people on our team have found scorpions in their tent! So every night before bed, I have been doing a thorough 10 minute tent check. Thank the Lord I haven't found any scorpions, but I have found a few decent-sized spiders. Lastly, there are some pretty vicious dogs in all of the villages which tend to make all of my runs pretty non-relaxing. All this to say, I have felt like God is trying to teach me to trust Him in all of the little things. Even things as small as being worried about the animals I might encounter on a day-to-day basis. I have found myself praying more about the little things in life. It's sometimes easy for me to forget that God not only has control over the big issues in our lives, but also over the little, miniscule details that, on occasion, we don't even notice.

I have found that the easiest way to draw a big crowd in the villages is to do some push-ups or pull-ups. Every time I do a set I try to find a secret place to do them, but by the end, I have 10+ kids huddled around watching me. Then once I'm done, they all try and copy what I was doing. At first, it was kind of awkward and annoying, but I've been trying to have a good attitude about it and have been trying to have some fun with it.

I have been working with one other guy on our team, Nicholas, and we have been focusing mainly on one village that is 4 kilometers from ours. We have found three guys that we have really good relationships with, and with those guys we are spending a lot of time with them and just pouring into their lives. We will continue spending time with them in hopes that, by the time we leave, they will be able to start sharing the gospel with other people around the villages.

These past couple weeks, God has really been revealing a lot of pride issues in my life that I didn't even know I had. It's been really humbling. He has been focusing on breaking down the idea that I can be self-sufficient. I have realized that, just like every human, I have a lot of weaknesses and brokeness and that no matter how much I think I've got it all figured out, I actually never do. He has really showed me how much I need Him every single day, even on the days that I don't think I do. My brother gave me a verse a couple weeks ago, and I have been clinging onto it ever since. It is Psalm 66:10-12 which says, "For you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver. You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance."

Zambia Quick Hits

Thankfully, we can go into town to get internet once a week here, but since it is SOO slow I am just going to write a really short blog.

The bus ride out here was brutal. 52 hours long which spanned two nights of me getting maybe 4 hours of sleep total. But thankfully, we made it!

This is the first time in my life that I don't have access to food 24/7. It's actually been kinda brutal. I have been very tired all week. Probably a mix of eating a lot less than normal, eating no sugar, and being out in the hot sun all day. At least I'm getting tan!

I've been able to run every morning which is a huge blessing! Thankfully, I haven't seen any dangerous animals although we have had some minor problems with crocodiles and hippos near our village. I get to see the sun rise every morning during my run, and no matter how hard I try, I can't get the opening song of Lion King out of my head.

There aren't any mirrors in the village. So today was pretty exciting getting to see my face again after 8 days.

This week we just mainly walked to different villages to start building relationships with people. This next week we are hoping to do the same thing, and hopefully be able to get some small Bible studies started up.

God's grace has been so apparent to me. This week could have very easily been miserable. Even though it was pretty tough, I am just blown away at how God gave me so many awesome blessings. For example, we ate a lot of rice this week. Although it's very plain, I swear that the Lord gave me different taste buds this week because it tasted almost like ice cream to me! And every night was so great as well. As a team we sat around a fire under the brightest stars I have ever seen and just talked and sang some worship songs. So awesome.

Headin' to the Big Z!

Tomorrow morning I will be leaving for Zambia by bus with six other team members! Our team includes a couple from South Africa, a couple from Wales, a guy from Zimbabwe, a guy from South Africa, and me. We will drive right through the Namib desert and into Windhoek, Namibia. We will get there at 6AM on Monday where we will have a 9 hour layover, then we will get on another bus and head for Livingstone, Zambia. We should finally reach our village by Tuesday night. I honestly wasn't very excited until yesterday when we prayed as a class for all the different outreach teams. After the prayer I felt a big weight of worry lifted off my heart, so thank you Lord! The three main areas that I'm still a little anxious about are sleep, food, and running. I'm not sure how well I will be able to sleep in a tent that is within spitting distance of hippos and crocodiles. And like I stated last week, it will be interesting to see how my body functions without my daily sugar fix of ice cream and chocolate. I guess these are just two minor sacrifices that I will have to put up with for two months.

Running has been a major issue that I've put a lot of prayer into while out here. Admittedly, running has consumed much of my life for the past 10 years and has thus become a pretty major idol in my life. It has always been obvious to me that running is an idol, but it wasn't until after last year's Twin Cities Marathon debacle that I realized how big of an idol it had become. So when I felt God leading me out to South Africa I figured that I wouldn't be running for awhile, which got me pretty down. Once I got here I started praying a lot about what God's will is with my running, and I sought out a few older guys for their advice. And thankfully, I haven't felt that God wants me to give it up, but rather just be very intentional about putting Him before my running. I still need to figure out what that looks like exactly, but I do feel like I have found a much better balance while I've been out here. The awesome thing is, ever since I have felt like God has allowed me to continue running, I have never felt so joyful while out on a run like I have these last couple of weeks! It's given me a whole new appreciation for it. But now that I'm about to head off to Zambia I am beginning to feel all of my normal running worries resurface, such as "What if I can't run as much as I'd like to/what if I can't run at all/what if I get out of shape?" So my prayer for these next couple months will be that I worry more about advancing God's Kingdom than getting my daily run in.

One last thing- I don't know why, but there are very few things in life that I like better than free samples at the grocery store. And since I've been out here I haven't seen ANY free samples even though I've checked religiously every time I go into a store. I think it's just a habit that I've developed. But that all changed when I walked into the local grocery store last week and saw free samples of bread! To say I was excited would be an understatement. My friend Matt, who was with me at the time, seemed very confused as to why I would get so excited about free bread. To be honest, it wasn't even that good, but I made sure to take advantage of it and ended up grabbing four pieces. It totally made my day.

Hopefully I can keep blogging while in Zambia. We will be heading into town one day a week so that we can get internet access. So if I have time, I will definitely keep cranking them out to keep all of you in the loop. Thanks again for the continued prayers!

Sacrifice and Sugar

This past week was really challenging. We had a guy named Jim Yost come talk to us. Jim has been on the mission field for the past 35 years in some of the most remote tribes and in some of the most dangerous places in the world. He had some amazing stories about God's goodness and faithfulness through all the difficult times he has faced over the years. Apart from being inspired by his stories, I also felt a little bit guilty. I couldn't believe how this guy had virtually given up everything for the Gospel, while I on the other hand, find it extremely difficult to sacrifice running for a day if it means reaching out to someone. After processing my thoughts with a few other guys I realized that the point of his stories wasn't to make us feel guilty, but rather to challenge us to be willing to lay down anything for the sake of the Gospel. This is definitely not easy, but Jim mentioned that for this to happen you have to continually remind yourself that God is good and he isn't trying to make your life miserable. I still have a long way to go in this area, but I have been very encouraged to know that God loves us and wants the very best for us.

I went to my first Rugby game with Jay, Matt, and some other African guys this past weekend. It was super fun because all the fans were REALLY into the game. We just picked a team to cheer for and and went nuts the whole game. I kinda hit the wall and got pretty tired in the second half from cheering so much during the first half. But our team ended up getting the W, so it was all good!

I have been liking the African food out here, but it really seems to lack one major ingredient: sugar. I always find myself going to grab the jar of sugar for every meal. So finally this past week I decided that since I will be heading to Zambia in 2 weeks, where I probably won't be eating much sugar, I should start dwindling down on my sugar intake so that I won't have sugar withdrawals while I'm out there. So I told myself that I would try to give up chocolate and ice cream for a week. Well the first 20 hours went great, but once 8pm hit, I couldn't take it anymore, so I went and got a big chocolate bar. I'm actually legitimately worried that I won't be able to function without some sort of candy-type thing everyday while I'm out there.

I hung out with two good friends, Jarvis and Emily Jelen, this past weekend. I knew them from back in the States, but I hadn't seen them in 2 years since they have been living in South Africa. They ended up making a visit to Cape Town so we hung out all weekend and ended up having a great time. It was super refreshing to get away from Africa House (where I'm living) for the weekend and not have to worry about chores and sleeping difficulties.

My parents just sent me some Swedish fish in the mail (my favorite candy)! My goal is to try and save them for Zambia. But to be honest, I will be shocked if they make it to see next week.

And lastly, the Twins kick off their 2012 season in about 5.5 hours! I'm pretty pumped. As I keep looking through our schedule, I just don't see us losing a game this year (with the possible exception of the trip to Anaheim at the end of this month now that they have Pujols). But I'm gonna go ahead and predict 162-0. Go Twins!