Learning Eucharisteo

Psalm 66:5, 16: “Come and see what God has done, how awesome his works on man’s behalf! Come and listen, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me.”

What a full few weeks it has been! Today marks day 19 since we left, and I can’t believe it’s only been that long. It seems that time always moves slower when you’re in a new environment, and that certainly has proved true here. We’ve spent the last few weeks getting settled and organized and working our way to a daily routine. It was difficult at first, with everything new and unfamiliar, with more rugged circumstances than we have at home. It was hard to not long for familiarity and comfort for the first few days.

            I also was sick for a few days last week, which was challenging because of being in an unfamiliar environment, and because I was unable to do anything and felt helpless. But as someone reminded me later, God always knows what we need, and He used the few days I was out of commission to really begin a work in my heart as I read and spent time talking to Him.

            I have been reading One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp, and it has really impacted me. In the book, the author shares her life, her traumas and struggles, and describes the journey God took her on to begin to see Him and commune with Him more deeply. A friend challenged her to write down one thousand things that God has given as gifts, and as she began to record them, she began to really see the world around her. She calls it Eucharisteo, “to give thanks” – “the root word is charis, meaning grace…but it also holds its derivative, the Greek word chara, meaning ‘joy.’” Thanksgiving, grace, and joy, all wrapped up in one word. This is the challenge God has placed on me.

            As I laid in bed sick, reading about being thankful and having joy, I realized that I don’t want to think about things being more familiar or comfortable—that is not why I came here. I want to see God and I want to experience His grace and I want His joy – I want to be fully alive and fully here.

            I am not naturally bent toward gratefulness. I am selfish and I see the empty half of the glass more often than the full. But I am being drawn everyday to write down my thanks to God. From the breeze blowing through my window, to baby giggles, to redemption through Jesus Christ – I am challenged to see everything as his grace, and to thank him for it, and discover an incredible joy. And there is so much around me in this place to thank Him for! When you begin looking for things to be thankful for, it opens your eyes to see God everywhere, and to see all the grace He pours out on us in every moment – even the very hard is His grace whether we see it or not, because He is a good God in whom we can trust.

            I am just beginning this process. Most days I forget to be looking, or I forget to write anything down. And that’s okay. We’re all in process. But the little bit of joy I have experienced in attempting this experiment is what our souls are created for and it is addicting. I want to see more. More of God and more of joy. More of his grace in every moment.

Toto, We're Not in Kansas Anymore!

1/14/14 

       As I sit on my lower bunk, blue mosquito net swaying slightly beside me, listening to the drum beats of an African dance party outside my window, I am struck by how incredibly thankful I am to be here.
       This crazy journey started Friday, January 10th at 10am when the Hopkins (Ty and Joi, their three kids, True, Wren and Psalter), Diana and I left Blacksburg and headed up to the Dulles airport. After wandering around the National Air and Space Museum for a bit to stretch our legs, meeting up with Nancy (our other travel buddy), and checking 17 pieces of luggage (not including carry-ons and backpacks) we made it to our first flight! This flight was to Paris and it was on the biggest plane I have ever seen—a double-decker airbus! So cool. Paris gave us a few troubles and wrong directions, but we made it to our gate with minutes to spare! After another long flight, we made it to Nairobi. (For more details on the trip, check out Ty and Joi’s blog!)
         We spent the first few days at a Mission Guest House just outside of town. It was so beautiful! It was also really helpful to have some time to rest and get adjusted to the time difference. On Monday morning we left the mission house and headed to the airport to take an MAF flight to a town just inside the Kenyan border (Migori). It was so much fun to get to take an MAF flight again (even though it made me a bit queasy)—it brought back a lot of fun memories from growing up with a missionary pilot dad :) particularly because the pilot’s daughter was able to join us for the flight—just for the chance to fly with her dad, which I was able to do a few times growing up.
          A ride from City of Hope was waiting for us in Migori to take us across the border into Tanzania (about 15 min) and then another 45 minutes to City of Hope. Africa is SO beautiful! I loved seeing all the trees, and the locals going about their days, many of the women balancing large bags and baskets so perfectly on their heads, all the dust being kicked up from the dirt roads. There is a side of me that comes alive in third world cultures that is easily and often lost in the US. It has been incredibly special to reconnect with that part of myself. It makes me so happy to watch Wren and True fit so comfortably into this culture which they have spent part of their very young lives; I smile knowing they are growing up as Missionary Kids and how special this time will always be to them.
           As we pulled up to City of Hope I could see all the children in their uniforms standing together, dancing and clapping as they sang a special welcome song for us. After their song they all rushed toward us with huge smiles on their faces, eager to ask us our names, hold our hands and give us hugs. These children are so sweet and welcoming. They offer their love eagerly, without even knowing who you are. They radiate delight and joy, and it makes me eager to learn how to love and experience joy like that; that comes from deep within.
         Everything about life is completely different than it was a week ago, and I am soaking it all in. This morning I enjoyed waking up before the sun without an alarm – watching the sun bring everything alive, listening to the birds chirp and the children sing praise songs—it was the perfect way to start my first full day in the place I will call home for the next three months. It was fun (and exhausting) to experience a bit of African life—washing dishes and cleaning out drawers using large wash bowls outside in the hot African sun (I forgot sunscreen on the back of my neck—whoops!).
           I am eager to see what God has planned for my time here—both the joys and the struggles, the fun things and the hard things. A friend told me they were praying Ephesians 3:20 for my trip, and I have adopted that passage as my own prayer for this time as well: “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:16-21 (NIV).