Covid for Christmas

Hi! Merry Christmas and happy new year! 

For the past 3 weeks my squad and I have been in South Africa enjoying the sun and surf. We’ve had a fun and sometimes hectic transition into a new continent, new teams, and for some of us new roles on our teams – but God has been good and we’ve seen His presence and peace daily. This “month” on the race has been a short one and as we’re preparing to move on to Lesotho I wanted to update you all on what ministry has looked like and what I’ve been reflecting on :).

This month our squad has been staying at Global Leadership Academy in Jefferys Bay, South Africa. GLA is a school that was created by a few World Race alumni from the very first World Race. They run a similar missions program in Africa and run a primary and secondary school. They’ve also become a bit of a base for missionaries in the area. Jefferys bay is a large surf spot and its incredible to see how GLA has impacted the community so powerfully and all the ministries they are connected with. This month our squad has done a few different kinds of ministry. We’ve helped with projects around the school, have had the opportunity to simply ask the Lord what He desires for that days work and then go into the community to fulfill that, and have partnered with a few local ministries. 

My team got the opportunity to partner with a ministry called Timeon that hand-makes different kinds of equipment for children with Cerebral Palsy, runs programs to support their families, and has therapists working hands on with kids whose families wouldn’t be able to afford it otherwise. Due to the holidays many employees were off, so my team got to fill in gaps in their workshop and vegetable garden. We sanded, glued, stapled, weeded, harvested crops, transported water, and took care of the donkeys on the farm. It was so fun to support such an incredibly thoughtful ministry. Also, wow I love farm life.

As you probably read in my blog title, I got Covid after just a week of ministry. Somehow I was the only one who got sick so for a week-and-a-half of our three weeks here I was quarantined with one other squad-mate who was kind enough to make sure I didn’t have to be alone. I was bummed. My squad had just come out of a quarantine in Ecuador, it was two days before Christmas, I didn’t get to go Christmas Eve surfing, and I was missing working at a ministry that I really admired. There was some heaviness and a few tears as I had to hand over a lot of my excitement for Christmas on the field and for ministry time in South Africa – but even with that I knew I really needed some time to just rest with God. I was physically sick, but I also had hit an emotional and spiritual exhaustion that needed me to sit still in the presence of the Lord so I could carry on in the future months. 

Something I’ve come to over and over again in this month is the NEED to recenter ourselves on God. On the race each week we have a sabbath day built into our schedule. In the creation story it tells us that on the sixth day God made man, and on the seventh He rested. After a week of creating and working God rests, but in the very first day of Adam and Eves lives they are called to rest. They stayed in the garden with God and instead of immediately beginning the work God had mandated to them, they just spent time in His presence. There was no distraction, no rush to get things done, there was nothing to accomplish. They just got to BE with Him. In the Old Testament God repeatedly called the Israelites to the same thing. He instructs them that each week they must put aside all work, but the Israelites often became distracted by the rules of Sabbath and ignored the heart of it. Sabbath wasn’t created to force us to just sit around and be lazy, it was created for us to put aside all the wonderful callings and work God has given us and just be with Him. It was given to us so that our spirit can be refreshed and our focus can be aligned again on the One who offers all peace and strength. 

I practiced Sabbath before the race and I’ve loved finding different ways to spend time with God and find rest in His presence. During my quarantine I was able to see that although I had been doing Sabbath I also hadn’t quite grasped the heart. I saw it as a time to rest from the week, as a time to enjoy the gifts and joys God had given me, as a time to be with Him – but I hadn’t recognized that the most important part was taking time to make sure God was at the center of who I am and of everything I do. It’s about worship and putting God in the position of ultimate authority over myself and my heart. In quarantine I got to spend a lot of time identifying ways I had put myself in the center and to lay that all down. I got to talk with Him about the little steps I can take each day to solidify His position in the center and the sustainable life rhythms that will keep Him there. It was sweet. It was so needed. I’m heading into this next month with such a sweet peace and confidence. 

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. I hope you get some time to sit still with Abba and place all your focus on Him – start small and keep pressing in.