Time well traveled

 

My team and I love to joke with one another. When you are living with a group of at least 12 people day in and day out, you have to joke. It helps keep us sane…I think. We have this joke, it started from Brittany and I, and it caught on to the whole team. I like to pick on Brittany sometimes, you see, she is the oldest in her family, and I am the youngest, and so I never got to pick on anyone, but she did. So, since I am just a few months older than her, I get to pick on her because she is my little sister. Haha. One time, while I was bugging her, she said “Alison, I learned what persecution was from you!” We laughed, and somehow, now when you are getting picked on, you tell them to stop persecuting you. I was thinking about this the other day, because we all KNOW that we aren’t getting persecuted, but I was just thinking, what IS real persecution. In the bible, it talks about how Jesus was persecuted all the time. In Philippians 3, Paul says something like this, “I want to KNOW Christ and the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death…” I love these verses, because Paul really wanted to be like Jesus! It’s something that we talk about all the time. “We are the hands and feet of Jesus”, “I want to be like Jesus”, “What would Jesus Do”. I think Paul explains it sooooo well. To know Christ, to really KNOW him, what does that look like? To share in his sufferings, his persecution, and even to die for the sake of Christ. He even says that he considers EVERYTHING a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of KNOWING Christ. Wow, everything is a loss… It really makes me think about my life, do I consider everything a loss compared to knowing Christ?

So this past week, my team got to travel to Maasai Mara for a Safari, Nairobi, and Mambasa to swim in the Indian Ocean. It was such a blessing, and it was precious time where my team and I could minister to one another, and just love one another. It’s something so central to having a unified team. Anyway, we traveled from Mambasa to Tororo, Uganda, which ended up being a 30 hour bus ride. Ouch. At 3am in the middle of Kenya, our bus broke down, and our rescue bus didn’t come for 5 and ½ hours. It was raining, the bus was leaking, and our drivers were no where to be found. Later that day, on a different bus, I found myself very tired, uncomfortable, wet, dirty, and hungry. I curled up in my seat, laid my head on my travel pillow, and started to pray. I said “God, please give me your comfort, let me rest in your peace, and hold me in your arms” when I finished praying, our bus hit a HUGE bump, which threw me a foot into the air, only to drop me back on my seat and slam my head into the glass window. Oh, I just wanted to cry. Later during our bus ride, still soggy, hungry, dirty, and now with a head ache, I began to pray once again. You see, at this point in our bus ride, the driver decided he didn’t want to drop us off at our destination anymore, so we didn’t have a ride….which creates problems. So I began to pray, and ask God for his provision, and I prayed that he would guide us, and I told him that I trusted him, and that I know that he knows what is best for us. While I was praying, a wooden drum, about 2ft long fell from the overhead compartment and hit my chin on its way to the ground. Now I REALLY wanted to cry. I sat there for a couple of minutes having pity on myself, feeling very pathetic, and thought “Really? Are you serious? God, why does this keep happening every time I pray!” But I found a little bit of courage left in my heart. I said to God, “You are still Good”, and I began to think about that passage. “I want to KNOW Christ and his suffering”. I thought about it, and well, even though Jesus didn’t ride any buses, he rode a lot of donkeys, and he was wet and cold sometimes, and I’m sure he was hungry, had head aches, got hit by stuff, and like me, maybe Jesus had trouble holding his bladder for an extended period of time. We think of Jesus’ sufferings, and we think about the Cross, we think about the price he paid for us, but we sometimes forget that he suffered even more than that. He lived. In Philippians 1:21, it says “For to me, to LIVE is Christ and to DIE is gain.” Paul says, I really want to die, so I can be with Christ, but its better for me to be here, and to live for Christ. Sometimes living here on earth is the hardest part, but when I realized all of this on the bus, I thanked God, so much, because this tiny amount of suffering that I had, was a very small reminder about all the of suffering that Christ went through for me. And I want to KNOW Christ, and I want to be like him in his sufferings, and so somehow, to attain Christ’s resurrection from the dead, Amen? Its funny the way God teaches us…. Isn’t it?

P.S. Mom, don’t worry, we made it to Uganda, we found more transportation, I’m eating food, I’m clean, dry, my head no longer hurts, and I slept in a bed last night. Love you!