Akuem and Relaxation

Recently I have been super swamped and have been unable to write, which has been super frustrating. I have had all of these thoughts flowing around like the Nile durring rainy season, a current that has left these ideas in a jumbled up mess. So spending the last two days in Akuem (one of the field bases) has been a super blessing. I have had some time to take these thoughts and process them a bit further. Africa is starting to feel like home. It hit me hard after my first R&R that this place that I had been keeping in my mind as only a temporary place of stay, is and will be HOME for the next 8 months, and surprisingly it wasn't that hard of a thought to swallow. It felt right, and that is how I know that this call to Africa was God's plan not mine because it is only him who can grant the kind of peace I experienced in facing that thought. It is also a beautiful thought that while the cliche is "home is where the heart is" it is good to think that mine is where God called me to be, and that where he is my heart longs to be. I am in Akuem because I am playing praise and worship for the orientation they are hosting here. It is funny because they didn't know until I got here that I had never been to orientation so I am getting to attend the sessions as well. It has been really cool to be in orientation with the staff of South Sudan, and while you may think its weird that I am now making it to SP orientation after working with them for almost 3 years, some of the people here have been working with SP for 7 or 8 years and this is their first orientation. But all things aside this orientation has been and continues to be a blessing. I have been thoroughly enjoying being able to lead praise and worship, and the people here in Akuem have enjoyed it as well, it has also been a reminder to me that Praise and Worship is meant to be participatory, you can only have successful praise and worship if the whole group is involved and not just that but their hearts have to be involved, just the same way that God has to be involved. It is a quite simple realization but a good one all the same.

Just a few updates, we have pushed to get a weight set in Juba so I have been getting some lifting in, the physical training has been a good time to relax and spend some time with God as it always has been for me.
I created a housing proposal so that we might be able to move after it is presented and approved at headquarters, we have outgrown our current housing and need new accommodations so keep this in your prayers.

All in all though I am still hanging in there and working hard every day, but each day I am realizing that God didn't bring me to Africa because he wants my work, he honors my sacrifice and I am sure he is proud but above all he wants ME, and my whole HEART and I am constantly reminding myself of this, because it is easy to make it about the work and not maintain the focus that with out GOD the work is pointless.

1To man belong the plans of the heart,

but from the Lord comes the reply of the tongue.

2All a man’s ways seem innocent to him,

but motives are weighed by the Lord.

3Commit to the Lord whatever you do,

and your plans will succeed.

4The Lord works out everything for his own ends—

even the wicked for a day of disaster.

Proverbs 16:1-4