Assistance!

Assistance!

Posted in General Posts by Megan Lee Esposito on 1/29/2012

My world has been rocked. I never thought Uganda, Africa would break me like it has. To be honest, I felt pretty prepared to spend four months in a foreign country living with complete strangers and teaching the gospel. That sounded like a once in a life time opportunity when I was in the comfort of my home, sleeping in my bed, eating familiar food, and not worrying about how secure my mosquito net was. I was so pumped to break out of my comfort zone and try new things. Oh, how quickly I learned.
What I wanted most out of this experience was to grow in my relationship with the Lord and to be broken. I can’t begin to count how many times I prayed for God to break while in Africa. Note to self- be careful what you pray for. The second I stepped off the plane I knew I was in trouble.
Africa is and will be the hardest thing I’ve ever had to explain. My first 5 or 6 days here I was convinced God sent me here as a punishment. I’m living completely out of my comfort zone. I barely shower, I’m drenched in bug spray, all my clothes are now the same shade of brown, I eat the same fried food everyday, I share a room with 3 other girls and about 6 dozen unidentified insects, it is a constant temperature of ‘hot and sticky,’ the roaches are the size of horses and toilets are pretty much nonexistent (try getting use to that..) All of these negatives and where in the world are the positives? After a pretty dramatic breakdown, I realized if I wanted change, I needed to get uncomfortable. So I prayed.. a lot and God spoke to me. This is what I BEGGED for. I wanted to be broken so I could be made new by the hands of my Father. I guess I didn’t realize how hard that process would really be. Now I embrace the things I once looked at as negative and God just keeps speaking. So I smell a little funny.. we all do and yeah, I may bunk up with some unknown creepy crawlers but that’s what my mosquito net is for. Oh, and most importantly, my clothes that are now that lovely shade of dirt brown will camouflage me from the lions my friends back home warned me about 😉
My heart is slowly falling in love with this crazy place. Now all I see are the 10 others on my team that I call family and the smiling faces of the children that rush to grab onto me. It may take some getting use to and a lot of adjusting but God sent me here for a reason. He loves me enough to teach me. Isn’t that what a good parent does? They put their children in school because they want them to develop and grow. It looks like Africa is my school for the next four months. Only a week and a half into this and I’ve already learned so much.
 
“Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10