21 Yesses

Where does your ‘yes’ take you? So many times we think about our yes and where we might go with it. I know I have dreamed about the possibilities of how my life could look if I just started saying yes to things. At home, I often find myself saying ‘not yet’ thinking that maybe I will be better prepared if I wait longer. I don’t really do anything extra to prepare any more I just somehow expect time to make me feel more ready. It usually ends in procrastination and I find myself many years older with the same dream still unreached.

I think there is a breaking point in everyone’s life where we get tired of waiting, we get tired of nothing changing, and we get tired of our dreams slipping further and further away. For me I was so tired of living the life I thought I was supposed to instead of just asking myself what I really wanted. What I REALLY wanted was to be the person God created me to be, not this hot mess of what I had become by following my own will. Praise the Lord for redemption!

When I finally sat down and thought about what my ‘yes’ would be, God ever so sweetly reminded me of a desire He placed on my heart about 10 years ago. I wanted to travel the world and see how other people worship God. That small seed grew into a much larger one and now has many more pieces to it, but I finally said ‘yes’ to the Lord and now I am living out my dreams. Saying yes was terrifyingly exciting. 

Everything I was about to do was completely unknown, no matter how many blogs I read about the race or how many videos I watched, nothing could actually fully prepare me for what the World Race really looks like. Which personally, I think is the beauty in it. Knowing I have a loving, trustworthy Father to place the steps before me changed my timid eggshell walk into a full on sprint. I am an ‘all or nothing’ kind of person and realizing that I can trust the path laid before me gave me so much freedom to just run into the abyss, knowing if I trip or go off path, my Father will guide me back home. 

So this year is a year full of yes, a year full of full-on sprints and falling flat on my face, a year of rest and a year of marathons, a year of open wounds and healing, and a year of pure unadulterated freedom.

This is where my ‘yes’ led me in month one:

• I traveled to Cote d’Ivoire, where the main language is French.
• I took a bus for 7 hours to get to our small village of Assafou, where they speak another language called Baoule. 
• I learned that things move very slowly in Africa, except for bathroom breaks on the bus. I had many people yelling at me in French (i think) as I was trying to figure out how to use a hole in the ground, while holding the small door closed. I eventually figured out that they were telling me the bus was leaving but that was quite an introduction to the lack of privacy I was about to endure. 
• Showers consisted of a bucket of water and some soap in an outdoor concrete hut, that was linked to the toilet with a door that was never closed. 
• I learned to get over my fear of spiders real quick when I had one the size of my palm that lived in my shower everyday. I told myself he thought he was protecting us by eating all the other really large bugs in there. It at least helped me get through my showers.
• I learned how to throw my toilet paper into a trash can and how to fish it out with a stick when I forgot. 
• I learned that my body can adjust fairly quickly to the foods I am eating, except when washed in local water, then I end up at the doctors office.
• I learned what medical offices look like in Cote d’Ivoire 
• I learned that sending even a semi-cryptic text will have your family calling all of facebook to figure out if you’ve been kidnapped. 
• I learned that kids in Assafou do not understand the concept of personal space, or white skin/hair. I am now going to add ‘human petting zoo’ to my resumé.
• Smiles are universal, but ‘Say Cheese’ is not.
• I learned how to carry a baby properly on my back. 
• I learned what true community living looks like.
• I learned how to say many parts of my body in Baoule.
• I learned how to slow down and just be.
• I learned that kids repeat everything, even if they don’t speak English, apparently every kid still speaks Parrot. 
• Fireflies are just as magical as I hoped.
• I learned that children are much more capable than we give them credit for.
• I learned how to worship in other languages. #dreamcometrue
• I learned how to communicate with body language.
• I learned that my soul is for sure part African, maybe even half.