Debriefing Week

It’s amazing that this is the last week. I will be on a plane in only a few days but it has been an amazing journey. During the first few days of the week we had a speaker come in to talk to us about returning home. For the first two days we where taught about how to go about telling our story to those to ask and how to explain in 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 15 minutes what we did and how we have been affected. For Monday and Tuesday we had the pleasant surprise of having Marie stay with us again (she was the student that didn't come on outreach to work at a orphanage.) It was great to catch up with her and to swap stories. It seemed quickly apparent that it was for the better that she didn't come on outreach for she was able to do some amazing things in the corporate world and it allowed our team to open up more and grow together (especially Joy which was her best friend). This last week was fairly hard on me because I had gotten to the point where all of us where ready to go home and ready to get away from each other. Although I enjoyed my time, I was ready to be with my friends and family once again and in 7 days that would be a reality. On Tuesday we had more classes on telling our story and during the day we very bored. There isn't to much to do in Maseru so we just played a lot of the card game Uno and would go to movies at the theater (only 2 dollars too!) and try to watch the important World Cup games in this empty room in the mall that they made into an impromptu bar. On Wednesday, our last day of lectures, our speaker talked about what we where going to do next in our lives and how to plan for it. He told us that we need to put less pressure on ourselves about our calling and to look at what our desires are, education, and that the Lord will lead us toward the area he wants us to be in. It took a lot of pressure off me to not have to have an obvious, in your face, calling and that God can put opportunities in front of you and will give you the skills to be successful in that and to glorify God in that. I have always felt that the Lord would be obvious with me and in some ways was hoping he would just literally telling, do this, but now I see that he has given me some unique gifts and opportunities and he will lead me towards something but it may not be as obvious as I would like. As I went to pray after that God seemed to put on my heart to go ahead with doing a ministry with college students in the outdoors. This would include taking these guys on camping trips, rock climbing, and disciple them. It was great to feel that the Lord wants me to do something that seems so fun and exciting. Although I am going to take a lot more time of praying and asking for confirmation it seemed right. That afternoon was definitely the high of the week but what happen after that would definitely be the low. Soon after we as a group tried to talk to our base leader about getting clarity and transparency of how the finances where being used and it created some tension for the rest of the week. The back-story is that at times during the DTS we had asked for clarity on the finances and he wouldn't give us a budget. Other times he put a student in charge of the finances for the outreach phase and she was asking him about the finances and he got very defensive and walked away. Since he wasn't around very much and acted fussy about the money it created a barrier between the students and the base leader. He also mentioned that if we saved money for outreach we could use some of it to go out to eat during the last week and so we asked him about that. When we sat down with him he was very offended that we even asked about the finances and stormed out and created a tension filled last week. It took a second meeting with other staff members and a mediator to finally help resolve the broken relationship. I had a chance if I wanted to ask once again about the money and see if we could get the extra back, as many other bases had done if there was money left over, but after praying and talking to a few people I felt God wanted me to let it go. I have been blessed a lot and I realized the money wasn't mine anyways it was God's money. Although the last week was very tense with our leader we tried to make the best out of it by relaxing and enjoying our last week together as students. Wednesday afternoon we went to go buy these blankets that the people from Lesotho make...very beautiful and warm! On Thursday we all went to some chick flick that although wasn't very good it was filmed in Seattle and it made me very excited to go home! On Friday we where able to relax a little after our talk with Nathan about the finances was over (as I mentioned earlier), and we where able to enjoy watching a few fifa games that night. I would say at around Friday and Saturday I really just wanted to get out of there...the maturity level of these fellow students where getting to me. They would blow those vuvuzellas (the horns you hear during the World Cup games) in the house and right next to me. After multiple times asking them to stop, I couldn't handle it anymore and just wanted to leave. On a more positive note I was able to enjoy the last few days by watching a movie every night. One night we watched toy Story 3, another a pirated version of x-men origins (yeah we got it from the movie rental store...only in Africa) and another night I watched Stranger than fiction. On Saturday we had our graduation and although it was small it was great to finally be done with the DTS and at this point there where only 2 days left before we headed home. It was also nice to be out from under some of the DTS rules which I felt where a little ridiculous (no one of the opposite sex could give someone a backrub, among others.) On Saturday and Sunday night we had our first beer since the start of the DTS and it was against the rules. Although I didn't have that much since I only feel its good to do it in moderation it was still nice to feel somewhat normal again. In Lesotho you have to put deposits down to be able to take any glass beer bottles out of the bar and so when we finished them we went back to return them and ended up having a few wonderful conversations with the local crowd. It was fun to have one last interaction with the locals before I headed home. People in Lesotho are so friendly and it will be weird to not say hello to everyone I meet on the street. Finally Monday came and although I had been packed basically all week it was finally time to actually go. I said goodbye to everyone and headed to the airport. I happened to be on the same plane all the way to D.C. with Josh, one of the fellow students, and it allowed the flights home to be a little easier. I first flew from Maseru to Jo-burg on a 1-hour flight, and then had a 5-hour layover. I then boarded a plane to D.C. with a 1-hour stop for gas in Senegal at 1am.awesome... The next day I took a plane from D.C. to Seattle and after 24 hours of flight time (not counting layovers and time change) I was finally home. As I flew over Seattle I pointed out my parents house and was ready for the next adventure in my life. In the next post I will talk about what is next and how God has blessed me on this DTS.