As many of you know we arrived home in Dondo January 15, two months ago today. Our time in the states was good, it was very eye opening for me (Tawnya) as it was the first time back in the States that I truly felt I was a visitor. It was a hard reality for me to face. I remember when we first decided to go on the mission field and we were pastoring the youth at Faith Tabernacle/Refuge City Church. I remember sitting in the pews grieving silently for all that I was "giving up". I sat in my nieces 8th grade graduation knowing that one day I would return and she would be an adult, graduating high school. To see all my little nieces and nephews and know they'd be rapidly changing over the years while I was away. To realize that our parents would be aging just as quickly.
So to return to Oregon and see my sweet niece give birth to her first baby boy, one niece already in junior high, friends married to people i've never met before, my thoughts were reality and it hit hard. Everything was different than the previous visit, we really struggled to find a place to live while we were home which was especially hard on Ahava, she had no idea what to call home and everywhere we stayed she cried and asked to go home it was awful. I am thankful for those who stepped into help us, with housing, money (its way more expensive in america) supplies to return home with and so much more, this helped in some way make us feel loved and helped ease a little of the homelessness I was feeling. It wasn't too long after we arrived in America that I was homesick, I wanted my bed and my house and friends, living here has its challenges but it also has some amazing benefits, those whom we call family, the other missionaries who've gone through the same thoughts and emotions as me are my best friends and while I was in America I realized that what we have here together is truly special, I love to sit in the yard and read Smith Wigglesworth, ponder Iris Globals core values, discuss what it is like to live from His presence daily, it is a small community of like minded Jesus lovers, I was excited to return home to jump into life here again. Most of you know that when Eric and I returned this January we were "promoted" to base directors here, our heart together is to seek Jesus and live through the Holy Spirit, to make a place for Him in all we do and go where He tells us to, we were excited to get back to Dondo to jump into this pursuit of His presence and run with Him hard and strong. It's been 2 months now that we have been back and we finally started doing Jesus films again well ministry in General, WHAT? your last paragraph said you were going to return and run hard and strong. I KNOW. We arrived the 15th of January, two months ago, exhausted from 4.5 months traveling Oregon, visiting loved ones, and 36 hours of flight time plus a 3 day layover in South Africa, to our home, the one with my bed and my pillow. The one I was so excited to return home to, back to the normalcy of my african life. It's also been two months since our base was robbed. The night of the 16th, our welcome back gift from Satan to try and derail our pursuit of this Holy Spirit came. Eric and I were woken up by a huge bang and yelling coming from our neighboring missionaries house, exhausted from lack of sleep and jet lag it took a second before I asked " what was that" when we heard footsteps on the roof near the house we were sleeping in, Eric peered out the door to see a man walking on the roof just to the left of ours. I received a phone call from Mandy clearly shaken by the violation that just occured in their house. I called the police chief who said he'd let someone know. As we waited quietly for the man to jump the fence so he wouldn't enter into our house as well, I was in shock. When we arrived at Scott and Mandy's house our two guards sat stunned and traumatized blood coming from ones face and head. As they described how man after man came over the wall into the base totaling 10, with machetes and Bimbas (a tool used to cut grass here). 8 people entered Scott and Mandy's house, snatching up all the electronics and valuables they could grab, yelling about wanting Money before fleeing after they finally got what they came for. It truly was horrific to hear what they had just encountered. Before I moved to Africa I also thought about the possibility of this sort of thing happening, I always knew it was a possibility but was still so comfortable that it wouldn't happen, well it too had become a reality, it didn't directly happen to me but someone I care deeply about, someone I share life with, and made the reality of it happening to me so much more real. One thing that stuck out to me about that night is this, as we sat on the porch we sat our guards in a chair and we prayed over them, then we all worshiped together, my favorite song, " Worthy Of It All". We all sang with all we had because there was truly nothing else that could be said in that moment. As these past two months have passed, I've hardly slept, constantly woken at night by unfamiliar sounds. My senses heightened, knowing that my precious children are sleeping in my house, my friends in the houses around me and also my friends, guarding our base. Laying awake at night allows for a lot of thinking, I think about all that I wrote above, my friends and family in America and how I gave up my life there to come here, I think about my time here and how I don't want it to be wasted because there are so many lost people around me. I think about the thieves who are out each night violating the homes of those I pass in the market. I think about what might happen if the thieves return, and when I think about this I ask myself, is it worth what could happen? Then I begin to praise Him, "You are Worthy of it All, You are worthy of it all, for from You are all things, and to You are all things, You deserve the Glory. Day and Night and Night and Day Let incense arise. He truly is worthy of it all, sometimes I have to remind myself why I am here, why I follow Him, why I lay my life down at His feet. He is the great I AM. Worthy of all Honor and Glory. Forever to be glorified on His throne.
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