Rejoice!

So one morning I woke up, and I knew it was going to be a rough day. First off, I woke up way later than I intended to, and my partner Jamie (in Africa, not life) and I had to run out to our supervisor’s house (which is about 10 kilometers from town) before language school in the morning to pick up some sheet metal for the out-house they were building for us. And as I have said before, it always takes a lot longer to accomplish things here in Africa than they do in the states. Heading back on the bumpy roads, we had to stop twice to re-strap the extremely long sheet metal to the top of our land cruiser. Once we got into town, we soon saw that they were blocking all the roads going into the two traffic circles. I skillfully dodged the first one, but was not able to go through the second one. The traffic man stopped me and told me “You must turn around and go to the police station!” (now imagine this being said with a thick African accent which means r’s turn into d’s and p’s turn into f’s). Apparently, they decided that all the license plates need to have “SS” (Southern Sudan) instead of NS (New Sudan) on them. Knowing that going to the police station would take hours and lots of money, I spent 15 minutes trying to sweet talk my way into letting us pass through without going to the police station. Praise God, he finally let us go, laughing when we promise to drive our vehicle home and to walk to school (which we normally do anyways). As we were walking, I could feel the frustrations building up inside me, at that moment, it was very hard for me to love the Dinka people. And so the whole 45 minute walk to language school, I was praying for God to change my heart, and to help me love the Dinkas like how He loves me. When we were walking back home after language school, we stopped to greet a couple ladies at the well when all of a sudden, a herd of Dinka ladies come jogging/dancing/singing up to us surrounding us with their smiles and their joy. They were all wearing their best clothes, and looked like they were on their way to somewhere quite important. After chatting with them for a bit, they all assembled and started singing a song, and dancing! They were jumping up and down, doing chest thrusts and flapping their arms like they were wings, and I was LOVING IT! And I remember thinking “I am so glad I am right here, right now”, and then realized that God had answered my prayers. Please pray that I not allow satan to overwhelm me with these little frustrations but rather rejoice in in the God of our Salvation. And also pray that I not be alone in my rejoicing, that God is preparing the hearts of the future Dinka brothers and sisters to rejoice with us.

"Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth." -Psalm 67:3-4