Yesterday my group, which consisted of Kristen, Katie, and Hailey B., visited about eight houses for our door-to-door ministry in Nkubu. The first two houses we visited, I felt that I was having a hard time really communicating, through the translator, what it is that I wanted to say.
This difficulty led me to feel discouraged.
If there is one thing that this experience in Kenya, so far, has taught me, it is to pray when I am feeling discouraged.
It is to pray when I know that I am having a difficult time maintaining patience with people, a situation, or, especially, myself.
Having been in Kenya for four weeks now, I would have *thought* that I would have been a dramatically different person from who I was when I first set foot here. I feel pretty similar to the Grayson I was on our first night in Kijabe.
I have an inkling, that, just maybe, slowly, I am being shown, more so than I had previously known, what patience is, and can be, in a myriad of circumstances and situations. Being shown what patience is to my team, to my circumstances, and to myself, as an individual who can so often let his expectations of what something should be, take precedent over the present. Whether it's expectations of how my team should be, or how a destination or visit to a place should be, or, who it is that I should have become by now; I've been learning a lot about patience during these last four weeks.
God's been teaching me to pray about all sorts of things, from praying over the places we stay, to praying for safe travels, to praying for good stewardship, to praising him with prayer, which, truly has been something I have not done a whole lot in the past.
I've also been being taught to pray when I am feeling impatient, happy, discouraged, elated, angry, excited, anxious, disappointed, or when I'm filled with abounding joy.
To pray, anytime, all the time.
Prayer has grown into something in my life I never thought it would be, and it's awesome. Words cannot express how excited I am to see how much more God will teach me and grow me further during the next few months here.
