Today was my first day of working with Debbie & Lonnie (U.S. missionaries). For the first part of the day, Debbie filled me in on what exactly they do in South Africa and how I will be of assistance to them the next few weeks. Basically, the Warren's are extremely active in working with the under resourced children centers. Not only do they deliver food to the various churches/centers that they help, Debbie works to provide academic curriculum for the children centers. She organizes lessons, activities, learning aids, plans the exact order that they will be taught, and has them translated in the dominate language spoken in each center. The work they do is absolutely incredible and extremely beneficial to the teachers that use the lessons.
After receiving a project to begin working on, we traveled to town to pick up their usual Monday bread donation. One of the local super markets in Pretoria gives Debbie & Lonnie all of the extra bread, deli, desserts, etc. not sold from the bakery from each week. With this, they distribute all that is donated to different centers/churches each Monday. Today, we traveled to KwaMhlanga which is about an hour from Pretoria. The school center we visited today was much more established/structured. Simply meaning, they actually had a building with classrooms and proper materials that you would find in any other school. We got there just as the kids were beginning to pile in the back of a truck to be taken home. I was so excited to get to briefly interact with them before they left!
Tomorrow will be a new day full of new adventures.
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I have to remind myself each day to have patience.
Patience- the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious.
I constantly tell myself "It's God's timing, not mine".
Quite often I find myself being extremely anxious and tense about the future. It is so difficult for me, the planner that I am, to not know for sure what will become of my life. The how, when and where are so vital to me in most circumstances that it is unnerving to not know all the answers. As a result, I become frustrated. Frustrated with God that he won't reveal the details to me so that I can plan ahead and live out my life appropriately. But then, I have to regain focus, stop being selfish and realize that I'm a child of God for a reason. I'm not supposed to know where I'm heading or what I will do when I get there because what fun would that be? Life's about the adventure and taking chances along the way. So what if you get lost in the process, it's the experiences and the relationships that are established along the way that makes us the people that God wants us to be.
So I will be patient. I will not fret when one door closes because I know that God will open another door full of more opportunity at some other, more perfect time. I will not grow weary when things do not fall into place the way that I want them to because what the heck do I know about what's best for my future when I don't even know what the future has in store for me in the first place. So, if I don't get in to the program of my dreams and live out the career I have in mind, then so be it. Regardless of the path that I take and the decisions that are made, it WILL be a beautiful journey with God. Because God... he's got it all under control.
xoxo
Taylor
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