Week Two

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 Jesus + Nothing = Everything

This equation is something I had been chewing on a few weeks before my trip and it has resurfaced this week. While I’m having a great time and getting along well with the family I’m living with, I have realized this week how repressive Niger can be. I’m not surprised though — I asked the Lord to quickly show me what life is really like here. Unlike my past trips where I was with a team of 10 women and we followed an itinerary minute by minute, this time I am essentially alone and am figuring out my own routine. Lots of days my routine looks like waking up to grab coffee and a baguette for breakfast, walking 2 miles with Mrs. C, coming home and reading or working on letters with the kids, French lessons three days a week, and napping with a fan directly in front of me or sweating in the kitchen in the in-between.

While that may not sound like the nothing in the above equation, I’ve officially been without Chick-fil-A for two weeks, AC only works when it wants to and internet is more difficult to come by than I had planned. We don’t even have a microwave nor anywhere where we can go buy one. I am well aware that others have even less. No one in our neighborhood outside of the American family I’m living with even knows what Chick-fil-A is. One girl that lives across the dirt street washes her clothes in our yard once a week because they do not have running water. Even H with the enlarged heart, that I asked for prayer for last week, cannot get heart surgery in Niger and many organizations around the world have denied her case. 

Needless to say, I am gleaning daily from my lesson in humility given to me last week. While the devil is sly and attempts to demand that my attention be elsewhere, I feel like there are one million less distractions here in Niger than I have back home. I have found myself surrendering daily and asking the Lord to purify my selfish heart because I want to be where He wants me. Not where it is comfortable, not where I can get in the car and in five minutes have a satisfied stomach. The Lord is teaching me that if I have Jesus I don’t need anything else. 

All of this can sound really good but if I’m not focusing my mind I can fall prey to distractions in an instant. Surrender, for me, is a minute by minute decision and is the only way to let the Lord have complete control in my life. 

I am so thankful for the Lord’s kindness and mercy in quickly showing me there is no silver lining in Niger apart from Him. It’s definitely not a place someone would move to on their own accord. I am praying daily for God to take me out of the equation and the Lord to make my path here straight and clearly defined. HE IS STILL GOOD.

🌍Kerra 

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