is suffering optional?
Let me share something about my Africa experience.
It's lovely.
it's quite comfortable and beautiful.
I do what I love every day of the week.
That does not mean it is easy. If it was easy, I'd be concerned. This place has felt more like home than anywhere we have been, yet I have never been more ready to go home. On the outside this all seems so "normal". But, everyday satan tries to let us fall into traps of comfortability. He tries to hide the pain of our Muslim teachers who don't know Jesus. He tries to mask the demons that are taking over our children. He tries to cover up the poverty and injustice of where we work.
but, we are no longer blind to these things.
we are learning to endure patiently. to be joyous when we are homesick, when we are bitten by our students, when we are told they hate us, when they hug us then slap us, when they tell us they want to kill us, when our teachers think being a christian is only for sunday morning, when we are misunderstood for why we are here, and when people don't believe our stories of all Jesus has done for us, through us, and in us over the past 7 months.
we chose to follow Jesus. we chose to suffer for Him.
I pray you watch this video. it taught me a lot this morning.
