The time for casting away the distraction of the Internet has ended for me, and the time for keeping in touch with the world again has returned. As of the 1st of April my 90 day hiatus from the World Wide Web (and I have discovered that it is world wide just like it claims) has come to an end. I am grateful for the time it allowed me to have for focusing on the Lord, getting settled in my new home, and starting to connect with the people God has surrounded me with here in Botswana. It was a blessed time that was beneficial in more ways than one.
Not surprisingly, 3 months of being away from the world in a sense was not a cure-all that caused all of the problems and trials of life to go away, but that was not what I expected anyway. A recurring theme in my Biblical lessons learned recently has been about trials. Paul talked about them a good deal in his letters to the New Testament churches, and I have learned, or at least been reminded again, of the value that hardships can have our spiritual lives and the very fact that they are to expected as we follow The Lord and walk in His way. Trials and difficulties come up on a daily basis here at work, but as my supervisor likes to say, they are just opportunities to grow in grace. And there lies the key to it all. We must learn and grow in the midst of hard times instead of allowing them to make us hard, cynical, or bitter. The notion that hard=bad is neither accurate nor Biblical and yet it has been something that I have had to change in my way of thinking. It seems like an easy life makes a soft Christian, and a soft Christian makes only a tiny impact for Christ if any at all. That is not what I want. And so The Lord continues to work in my life day after day in both the hard times and the good times.
The main changes that have taken place for me in the year 2014 are that I moved permanently up to the town of Maun, successfully went through a month of initial operating experience in the Cessna 206, and am now busy flying in and around the Okavango Delta region of northern Botswana. On the Sundays when I am free I attend services at the local Baptist church (which is quite an experience in itself) and I have been plugged into a small group Bible study that occurs most every weekend as well. In addition to the other Flying Mission personnel that I work with each day I have had opportunities to develop relationships with safari camp staff and a few local people that I come in contact with regularly. The flying is great, but it is the people that matter the most.
Every day is a new adventure full of new opportunities, and not just because I am in Africa. God gives us all life that we may have it more abundantly. My life is abundant, and I am very thankful.
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