Living Proof
I woke up to my first South African sunrise exactly nine years ago from today. I was ready for anything on January 15, 2010 – and sure it would be the most fantastical 6 months that my 25 years of life had ever known.
I couldn’t have guessed I’d still be here 9 years later living out an entirely different adventure with a handsome Tennessee husband, a dashing South African 6th grader, and a sweet baby ninja-boy growing inside me. The most fantastical thing I did in South Africa today was learn how to make my own yogurt… which turned out amazingly!
My first years here were filled with the larger-than-life stories I expected – and much more than I could have imagined. I learned how to cook, feed, bandage, shop for, communicate with and dance like a South African.
I became a teacher in a church where I was the only white member.
I became a mother to a boy who had no hope, no nutrition, and no future. And we spent years restoring his physical body and the peace of Christ inside him.
I bought a huge red Condor, filled it up, and fed 30 people every Sunday afternoon.
I spent hours in government hospitals cleaning, caring, feeding, and praying.
I walked through life, death, heartache, danger, home-building, family-shaping, and restoration with people I came to love. I was shaped by the need for God and belonging that I found in myself as I worked alongside orphans and families. I loved every moment of it, and once again, had “found what I was made for”.
You see, I had also “found what I was made for” in 2008 when I became a Marriage and Family Therapist. I was able to strengthen families, bring hope to children through counseling and crisis interventions. And we got to play to do it!
YOGURT!
Now here I am in Cape Town, making yogurt, checking homework, and wondering what it looks like now. What does it look like to do “what I was made for”? Instead of looking back over life’s epic adventures so far, I’m leaning into the God who takes us strength-to-strength and glory-to-glory. The Almighty must love a good pot of homemade yogurt, but I think there’s more to it than that.
This morning I met with another mom after we dropped our boys at school. We talked about puberty, pregnancy and all the body things ladies talk about while they sip decaf. I shared my journey of health and healing with her, and she marveled at the health of the pregnancy I shouldn’t be able to carry. Then it got real- She shared that she had been depressed for years and was living in a disabling environment. She desperately wanted freedom and health in her life, but it felt so out of grasp. Right then and there, we talked through some practical steps for change, how God’s Word backs it up, and made a date to get the boys together and go on a walk.
As we were going our separate ways, she looked me up and down and said, “I’m starting to think I can do this. I think I can be different. YOU ARE LIVING PROOF!” That line hit me hard, and I let it sink in. My favorite part was when she exclaimed in the parking lot, “I might do a plank tonight! I’ll text you!”
A few hours before meeting my friend, I had pulled my stability ball, a cup of decaf, a Bible and a journal up to our big kitchen table. (Sitting on a stability ball is my new pregnant favorite thing.) I asked God what kind of voice I had in this season of life where the adventures are not so Kisses from Katie-like and the stories are not as extreme as they were during my first years in Africa. How would I bring Him glory today and in the days to come? What does it look like to live out what I was made for now?
And then I heard it: “You are living proof!”
That’s it: Healthy, steady, and every day. I was made to be a vessel for God to speak through. So were you.
Live out the proof of the hope, healing and glory of God. Let your face shine with His radiance, and then look at people with it. A woman battling depression, living through a divorce, and struggling in her own home might not have found any tangible hope for herself from an orphan-saving adventure story. But she’s gonna do a plank tonight, y’all. And she’s starting to believe that the Truth in God’s Word is for her because it was for me.
It was easy for me to live out wild faith when I was really different from everyone around me. Basic needs were the starting place then. The people around you are probably like the people around me now. They aren’t all that different from us. And they need living proof of God’s love just as desperately as the children I used to care for needed nutrients and Neosporin.
God’s given me in our happy Cape Town house and the one He’s made us all for: The Church. Serving those in need will always be a part of who we are. But today, as I begin my 10th year in Africa, I’m looking toward the legacy we leave every day with the everybodies around us. It’s a great day to live out love!