I had many expectations coming on this trip. Some were good like meeting my team and experiencing new cultures. Some were not so good like how being away from my family would feel like and not sleeping in my own bed. Believe me when I say that any expectations I had flew out the door when my plane landed in Johannesburg. The same day I landed in Africa I got a phone call that my Grandfather had passed away.
My first couple weeks in Mozambique were hard in many ways, not just because of my grandfathers death. The hardest part of the whole situation was how far from God I felt. Before coming on my trip I thought that immediately when I landed in Africa I would feel God’s presence in a new and more prominent way. When that did not happen I began to feel very discouraged.
Through the next coming weeks I began to cry out for God. I saw so many amazing things going on around me. People were being healed and coming to Christ but I still felt so far away from him. It was not until the third week in Mozambique that God showed himself to me in a new way. He showed me that although I was going through a hard time, I was only focusing on myself. God showed me that people around me were hurting much more than I ever had in my whole life. The people in Mozambique were so joyful and they had so much more faith than I did. When I finally woke up to God’s presence in my life everything began to change. I am much happier now and my perspective on things has began to change. Mozambique was truly an amazing month not just because of all the beautiful people I have come in contact with but because of how God took me, broken and discouraged, and gave me something to believe in.
