Sometimes, living in a third world country can be tough. Other times, it's just really hard. Being here in Lesotho has stretched me, challenged me, and grown me more than I ever thought possible. I am not the same person that I was when I arrived here back in January.
I have learned to love people who have been through extreme hurt and suffering. My heart breaks for their brokenness. I have learned to surrender the important stuff to God. He is the ultimate healer- of my residents, my friends, and myself. I have been hugely blessed to have been raised in a family that loves the Lord, with parents and a sister who tell me that they love me all the time and who pray for me daily. They have made me resilient, strong, and able to love. Many of the people that I love most here have not had that privilege. Throughout the past 7 months, I have learned how to love the broken, show grace to the wounded, and lean on the hope that I have in Christ more than I ever have before. The learning curve is huge, but God is faithful and His grace abounds in this place.
I have learned what it means to sacrifice. To lay down everything that I love to follow my calling to a place where luxuries are small, suffering is great, and familiar faces are few. There has been so much grace; I miss my friends and family more than I can put into words, but my team here is amazing, and they love, encourage and support me. Although there are sometimes national diet coke shortages, I do not go thirsty. And I get to see healing through the suffering; such awe-inspiring, beautiful healing. God never promises us that His plan will be easy, just that it will be GOOD.
My journey is fulfilling. My path is straight. My hope is strong. My God is great. My life is good. It is hard sometimes, but it is good :o)
"Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for men, for He satisfies the thirsty and and fills the hungry with GOOD THINGS."
~Psalm 107: 8-9
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Lesotho? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Lesotho in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez