Three months ago I walked up to a group of 12 people at the Atlanta, Georgia airport, which is when it hit me… I was about to leave my family, friends, church, job, school, state, city, home, and comfort zone. And I was entering a community with 13 people whose names I barely knew, expected to rely on and trust them with my daily safety, needs, comforts, weaknesses and strengths. I was entering a continent I had never seen, meeting people I knew nothing about, in a culture that I knew very little about. I was going to be involved with a church I knew nothing about, not their background, beliefs, foundation. I only prayed they believed what I did and were biblically sound. I was going to have to eat foods I didn’t know. Leap over communication barriers, cultural differences, and awkwardness. Everything I have known for the twenty years of my life was in an instance changed.
Now, I praise God, because none of these changes were nearly as bad as they sound, but I won’t lie… walking up to my team on Friday, January 13th… yeah, they felt that bad, that scary, that insane. I was scared, excited, freaking out, but confident that my God had a purpose and a plan. And a purpose and a plan He did have. I am now 3 months into this crazy adventure and guess what, I have endured every one of the changes I just mentioned, and I’ve survived. I now have 12 more best friends, 12 more sisters and brothers whom have gone through thick and thin with me in just 3 months. I have confidence in a foreign country, not because I know a lot about it, but because, well, this is Africa, and you just learn to relax. I have made new relationships, which we’ve jumped over cultural differences, communication barriers, and awkwardness to form friendships. The isn’t my church, they do things differently, but believe the same things and I feel at home while there. But amazingly, none of these are the most important of Gods plan for me while here… only one falls into the most important category…
The last 3 months, I have been through a ridiculous amount of changes and shifts in my comfort zone, but only one change has meant the most to me. Since being here, I haven’t had a comfortable place to hide and I have learned it isn’t because Jesus wanted me uncomfortable, but because He wanted me to learn that my confidence is His. The biggest change is that He has become my home. Jesus has become the hope in which I stand on. I won’t always have someone I know with me, but I will always have my friend Jesus. I won’t always know a culture, or be able to communicate, but I will always know Jesus and be able to speak to Him. Jesus, He is my confidence. He is the One I now stand on. My hope, my love, my joy, my confidence, my foundation, it depends on Him. No circumstance, no trial, no continent, no body can sway me because my foundation is the Rock, my Savior. In a 3 month time span I have learned that nothing else matters, but having Jesus with me. He is the solid Rock I stand on… everything else will fail me at some point in time, but my Jesus, sweet Jesus, He is everything I need.
On Christ the Solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand
