Even when there is so much to be thankful for, being away from home during the holiday season is hard. I am realizing how much outside stuff effects the way I think about Christmas. It doesn’t “feel” like Christmas here because it’s not cold, there is no snow, houses don’t have lights on them, I can’t get a real Christmas tree, I won’t be baking cookies because it’s 90 degrees out and the ovens here aren’t insulated, I’m not with my family, and watching Frosty without hot cocoa just doesn’t feel right. As I think of all these things that define “Christmas” to me, I realized that all of these things are not the reason for the season (to put it in a cliché). This Christmas, I am learning to abide in Jesus. When everything is stripped away, only Jesus remains. When I am missing home and all of the Christmas festivities, I will lean into Jesus because he is my home.
Now for a little story of the “not-so-glamorous” life abroad. It’s mango season here in Zambia which means that mangos are more plentiful than the dust. There are buckets upon buckets of mangos being sold at the market, and I cannot describe to you my excitement. I love mangos. They are probably my favorite fruit. When I heard about the abundance of them here, I was overjoyed!
A few weeks ago, I decided to buy a few mangos from one of the women in our Empowerment Program. I took them home and wasted no time in cutting into them and eating them directly from the skin. They. Were. So. Good. Until they weren’t…
The next day, I started having really dry, cracky, skin around my mouth and on my lips. For the next three days, my symptoms got increasingly worse. The rash started spreading up my nose and around my eyes, causing swelling all over my face. My lips felt like the world’s worst sunburn.
As it turns out, the skin of mangos contains the same poison that is found in poison oak and poison ivy. Living in the Pacific Northwest, I have had poison oak many times and I am VERY allergic to it. So, it comes as no surprise that I would have a similar reaction to mango skin. Needless to say, I basically had poison oak all over my face and mouth. Thankfully, after a full week, I am fully healed and plan to stay away from mangos for a while.
This blog shows some of the real, raw thoughts, emotions, and realities of life abroad. Sometimes life is exciting, adventurous, you can see and feel Jesus moving, and you have so much joy. Other weeks look a lot like missing home and having a swollen, itchy face. But, abiding in Jesus means abiding in him in the good, the bad, and even in the ugliness of allergic reactions.