“If life held more challenges, it also unfolded new pleasures.”

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This time of year, a number of people are taking the biggest leap of faith in their lives: Young and old, many are preparing to go overseas to the mission field, maybe for a few months, maybe for a few years.

And, oh! Thinking of those people brings back so many memories for me!

When I recall the newness, the scariness, the disorientation of letting go of everything familiar and getting started on the mission field, I think of Joshua and the Israelites when they set out for the Jordan: “You have never been this way before” (Joshua 3:4).

With that in mind, you’ll marvel at this excerpt from Through the Outhouse Floor by Barbara Thomas. As you read about her arrival in Africa and the beginning of her three-month orientation, you’ll see that God brought them challenges, but He also handed them new pleasures:

When I first thought of Phase One of our orientation and Limbamba Bible College, I naively had in mind a quadrant of red brick buildings with paved sidewalks winding their way through smooth green lawns under shady trees. The college, as it turned out, consisted of several cement-block buildings roofed with tin.… Classrooms were unadorned except for utilitarian wooden desks and benches. They had no windows except for a latticework made by gaps in the cement bricks. The cafeteria was little more than a cement rain shelter filled with picnic tables. Had I been more a veteran and less inclined to measure the world by American standards, I would have given thanks for the cement floor, running water, flush toilets and electricity.…

The cook introduced us to the kitchen … “These basins contain the water filters. Use only these jugs when you want drinking water. Whenever the market team purchases fruits and vegetables, they are soaked in these buckets with potassium permanganate. If the water is purple, it’s still good. When the water turns brown, use more permanganate. All dishes must be rinsed and all silverware dunked in boiling water.”

… Slowly we adjusted to this different life. The ants, the mosquitoes, fly bites, our resident rat, screens with holes, and leaking roofs faded into the backdrop scene of our lives.

Yes, moving to the mission field can be uncomfortable, especially at first.

A few words come to my mind:

Vulnerability.

Unpredictability.

Maybe even panic.

Being out of control and at the mercy of something (or Someone) larger and stronger than you.

But, Barbara continues:

If life held more challenges, it also unfolded new pleasures. We tasted football-sized papaya with lime juice, mangoes, fresh pineapple and sweet bananas. We sacked on corn roasted over a charcoal fire and sucked peeled sugar cane.

The inland weather was surprisingly comfortable. Temperatures rose to the mid-80s, with breezes. The clouds built up in the afternoon and the humidity pressed down, until four o’clock when like clockwork, every spigot in the sky opened and the rain pounded on the tin roofs. An hour later the rain suddenly stopped and the sun reappeared.

One of our greatest pleasures was gazing up at the equatorial African night sky. No outdoor lighting interfered. No tall building obstructed the view. The stars of the Southern hemisphere shined in all their brilliance and multitude. We recognized the Big Dipper and Orion as old friends from the north, and then turning south, beheld the Southern Cross.” (Barbara Thomas, Through the Outhouse Floor; emphasis mine)

If you are getting ready to move to the mission field—if you are taking a wild, screaming, blind leap of faith—keep in mind words God spoke to Moses, precious words that make all the difference. He said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest” (Exodus 33:14).

And remember: Your life will hold more challenges, but watch for all the ways God unfolds glorious new pleasures!

Through the Outhouse Floor is available as a Kindle ebook and in paperback.

Below is a page from my scrapbook showing a scene from my orientation to Africa: