A New Thing

A rush of adrenaline flowed through my body and into my hands and feet as I looked at the dirt road ahead of me. Well, maybe calling it a road is a bit of an exaggeration. The terrain in front of my eyes was about half a road and half a cliff. I clenched the steering wheel, said a quick prayer, let up on the clutch, and pressed my lead foot down on the gas…success, we made it over the cliff and the girls in the car cheered for their fearless driver, Me. I tried to believe that they actually thought I was fearless but after I would make it over another bit of dreadful terrain I would look in my rear-view mirror with a face of terror and see the girls staring at my expression with laughs in their eyes. There was no way to hide it, but the encouragement never wavered. They had decided to trust in me and, that was that, I forged ahead and decided that I was going to conquer those roads or else. The cheers kept me going. The encouragement was what I needed and in the back of my mind I knew that I was doing something for someone else, and then it was all worth it. Let me tell you, I will never back away from a 4x4 adventure again, in fact, I may ask if I can be the driver…exhilarating, that is what it was, and I think I am fit to take on just about any terrain after my first few months in Africa! Watch out world, Megan is on the road!

I went to my first Rugby game on Saturday afternoon. I actually thought the game was on Friday so I sat out by the gate of the campus for almost a good hour until Vivienne called me and said, “Megan, you’ve got it all wrong, the game is tomorrow afternoon.” I had seen her earlier in the morning while I was on a run and told her my plans. I thought she gave me a strange look but it all began to make more sense after feeling ditched as the hour passed and then receiving her call. Saturday was fabulous though. I drove in with Viv and sat with a lovely couple named Mark and Shirley Tucker. Shirley is a writer and we met at church. Her husband talks at church quite often and is also a successful franchiser with Great Clips. Pretty amazing the people you can meet if you take a chance! Oh yes, and our team won! Give me a
U – P – L – A – N – D – S…What’s that spell? UPLANDS!!!! Yeeaaahhhhh!!! I loved the feeling of high school again. I am glad to be done with it all but the competition, the rivalry, I do miss those things! I had lunch with Mark and Shirl at their home after the game; it was great. I feel that I have made South Africa a second home and I feel blessed to have been adopted by many great people!

I made Tiramisu today, we’ll be having it for dessert…it looks wonderful!

Oh yes, and the most important information of all, my destination…as you can probably tell I am still in South Africa and have not been speaking much of leaving in two days. That is because I’m not. When I first came to Africa I told God that I would go anywhere, and then I proceeded to convince myself that anywhere other than Malawi was out of the question when the questions arose in my mind. Then when I was seeking God a month or so ago about where I should go I felt that God was telling me to hold on to my vision and wait for Him, so I decided to continue walking towards Malawi, but, I prayed specifically that God would close the doors to Malawi if it wasn’t His will for me to be there. It hasn’t actually been until this past week that I began to doubt my decision for Malawi. Things began to unravel and I was struggling with feelings of worry. Mike and Lindsey have decided that now is not the time for Malawi, still no news from Malawi, waiting, waiting…why did everything seem so off? I didn’t feel confident that I was even going anymore and I needed to know what was going on. My friends were already in their countries and here I sat, only confident that God did bring me here, but everything else was a cloud. The verse that comes to mind is this one, “ See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland” How wonderful is it when we give God something we allow Him to have His way, His will can be done. Right now I don’t know where I am going, I think I will find out tomorrow…but I am excited to see that God is working. I was worried, holding onto Malawi because I was comfortable with the idea, excited to have Indian food readily available, excited to see teams from WOG coming every few months, excited to have friends with me for the first few weeks, excited for the package from my mother waiting for me there…but I gave this all to God. These things aren’t more important than God’s will and I am trusting that He has a bigger and better plan. He’s got to, He’s God.

So, today is tomorrow and I was able to see Karl this morning; it was nice. It is refreshing to see all the pastors here from the States. I feel like we should all be friends since we come from the same place and they know Karl…my childish mind still works like this!

Update on the Tiramisu: it was a little runny. Still delicious though! I think I am getting sick. I woke up to a sore throat, must be the freezing cold weather we’re having. You may not believe it, but it is TOTALLY cold here now! Wowzers!

I will be able to say with confidence by the end of the week where I am going. When I will go, that is another question but I have to believe that there is a purpose behind all of this waiting. It is cool to see how God works. His timing is not like our own. When we pray and ask Him to do something, watch out, cause He will. Sad how it's usually a shock when He starts moving. Pray for me, that I will grow closer to God during this time and that I will use the time to seek His face.