Surprise!
I am writing this blog now, not while perched on a hill in Malaysia, or by the side of the fire in Kenya, but in my bed in my old room. My global journey was last year but yewwww it did not hit a wall there. I can, however, see the sun rising over the Jeffreys Bay sea. I came home for the weekend to visit my parents.
Now why am I writing this blog?
I want to share about “life after global”, but I don’t particularly like using this phrase since surely there was also life before Global Challenge and there will be life after Global Challenge. But it is fair to say that life during Global Challenge just looks a lot different, t’is all.
Also, God is eternal. That is a strong point.
Let me sprinkle you with the lighthearted truth first and then I’ll slap you with the deep truth later. Kapow!
Firstly, nothing can beat that first asthmatic in-breath of fine South African air when you step off the plane in Port Elizabeth. Secondly, what is life without a skaaptjoppie from my girl Hanje’s farm? Then thirdly and all the rest of the numbers:
Suddenly the year was over, the goodbyes were too quick, and all words were insufficient in explaining it all. I struggled to fall asleep without the whispers, coughing, breathing, sneezing, and snoring of my teammates. Suddenly I longed to be woken up at 4am in Jordan, to the sound of the familiar “ahhh heeee yee haawaaaaa” echoing prayer call. If you ever found yourself in the Middle East, you probably read and heard the cited part clearly.
I longed for my quiet times and loud times with the Lord as I walked through culture-rich alleys and valleys. I even longed to cry like I cried last year. I love crying. All is revealed when a person sheds tears. And I really miss the people I met. I miss the pastor who took care of us like a father, the families and friends that invited us in for countless meals and stories around the table (or on the floor). I miss connecting WITH the language barrier.
And my heart, mind and soul can not stop thanking God for the gift of the journey. But to my surprise, the gift keeps on giving and I have now had the revelation that 11 months was not the gift. LIFE is the gift!! Tadaaa! And I only unwrapped that gift last year for the first time. But the COOLEST thing about this gift is that I can just keep on and on unwrapping it. Jesus is the gift, the endless gift! God also gave us the gift of people and togetherness. That is why I am currently at university, studying something to do with being with people all the time...And it has everything to do with helping people unlock what is inside, and spending time with people, and listening to people. People people people.
I think I might have already transitioned into deephearted.
Then I must repent. When I got back home, I was internally extremely judgemental towards my people here. “Why are you in this nice house when most people I met last year don’t even have a house? So WHAT if woolworths is sold out of stupid baby carrots! Nobody cares about the stain on your shirt or how you are annoyed by the lady in checkers who cut the line! Blablabla the price of petrol. I have seen things!” Yes dear friends, this was my true internal monologue. I was so full of pride. I thought that sleeping on the floor and sometimes going a little hungry had granted be the crown of Miss I-am-the-down-to-earthest-ever.
That is at least mostly over now. And the Lord is revealing to me the gifts of ALL people and each one’s own difficulties.
“gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
GALATIANS 5:23 AMP
Coming back, I had to say some things and do some things that took courage and bravery like never before. But I am at peace and glad that I did. I am learning what it means to rejoice in suffering and how to press in in times of trial. Feel free to keep me accountable.
Voortwaarts!
Love
Isabella
P.S. I have been reading the Word in Afrikaans lately. According to the Afrikaans NIV, the angel did not just bring Elijah some bread, he brought him roosterkoek. Interesting...would have been nice with some jam and kaas.
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