An Amazing Month

“I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”- Philippians 4:11-13 

I am finally back in the States and I can’t believe that my time in Africa is over. To be honest, coming back has been really hard. I wasn’t ready to leave and before I knew it I was on a plane coming home. This last month was amazing. It was a challenging month, but a very rewarding one at the same time. God stretched me in so many ways and taught me more and more what it means to be a Godly woman.

As I sit here and try to think how to condense a month of ministry into two blogs, I think it is important to start with the greatest ministry I had…my team. I grew to love these young people as if they were my own children. We became a family on this trip. My nickname for the trip was “Momma Caroline” and that was actually how I felt. I saw a little glimpse of what parents go through and man was it eye opening. I can’t imagine the love a parent must feel after this experience. I truly do love them and now that they are all scattered around North America it is hard. I miss them. For a month I got used to being woke up by one or multiple girls having to go to the bathroom at 5am in the morning. I would wake up to see their lovely faces not happy to be getting up so early. I got used to the laughter over the most random things and the need to comfort them when they were sick. I miss getting to pour into them on a daily basis and share all that God continues to teach me. They are absolutely amazing high school students and way beyond their years in many ways. I can’t wait to see all the ways God is going to use each one of them in the future. He has big things in store for them!

God gave me a real contentment this past month. I was out in the middle of nowhere with no electricity, running water or phone/Internet access to the outside world. At first it was hard. I felt really alone and had no outlet to anything I knew. It is neat how I saw God take my discomfort and change it into complete contentment. I loved our homestead. I even loved not having all of the “stuff” that I’m used to having. It was simple and that was good.  I got used to only taking a shower once every four days (yes, I know) and washing my face with my water bottle. It is funny how the Lord can give you new perspective. It was great when we were finally able to get into a normal routine. Here is what a regular day would look like for our team:

5:30am-Wake up (Yes, I got up this early and was even the one to wake everyone up)

6:00-6:45am-Breakfast and quiet time

6:45am-Leave for the hospital

7:00-7:30am-Morning devotional at the hospital

8:00am-10:45am-Teach classes at the local primary school

11:30-1:00pm-Lunch and more quiet time

1:30-4:30pm-Homestead and Care Point visits

5:00pm until dinner-Chores and preparation for the next day

8:00pm-Discipleship and teaching time

10:00pm-Bedtime

We also were able to visit the local high school every Friday morning and do a fifty minute devotional where we did dramas, sang and had someone speak. It was a good opportunity to build those relationships with the community. We also were able to take a couple days and go into the bush to build a very large fence for a local orphanage. They will use the area inside the fence to crop food for the kids at the orphanage and those in the community. It was really neat to see the progression throughout the month. When we first arrived there didn’t seem to be a lot of people around and not much ministry to do. The people were friendly, but still closed off from us. By the end of the month we felt as though we were finally able to build relationships with people in the community, and kids were always waiting to play with us at our homestead. We decided on our last Saturday there to throw a big party for the community. We went all around the community and passed out flyers and made sure that all of our classes at the primary and high school knew they needed to come. We had no idea what to expect. The Saturday before we only had about 15 kids at our homestead so we weren’t sure what to expect this time around. Well, our last Saturday came and we had over 300 people on our homestead. Some watched the local netball game that was being played on the grounds. Others packed into our homemade movie theater to watch “Narnia” on the projector and some were just content to sit with us and let us love on them. After the first few hours we pulled out the food and were able to feed everyone at least once. The whole time I just kept being reminded of how God fed the 5,000 and how many times he took a small amount of food and fed thousands. We needed our food multiplied that day because we didn’t have enough, but God made it work and used it to bless a community. We even had enough balloons to give to almost all of the kids and to see the joy on their faces at the end of the day was enough to make the day a success and blessing to all that were involved. We really bonded as a team that day and saw the joy that there is in serving others.