CAMPING in Comfort

I “camped” in Psalm 91 throughout my entire trip to Africa.

 

A psalm of comfort treasured by those who are prone to fear, I read it, memorized it, and spoke it aloud in the days before our trip began. But I had no idea how God would use each promise in that passage and apply it directly to my experiences there.

 

It was, in fact, the literal camping that I was most worried about. For years I had been telling myself that sometime I wanted to go tent camping again, and apparently God heard me and was going to grant my request. But what I pictured in the comfort of my living room in Ohio didn’t necessarily transfer easily into the African wilderness. The travel information about the sleeping arrangements in the literature I read beforehand was a little vague on the subject. While I knew we would stay each night in a base camp, I had no idea what this would look like, and so had difficulty picturing myself there. Would we be in a compound of some kind, or in tents out in the open, and if the latter, what would be supplied for our nighttime rest – sleeping bags? Cots? It is the fear of the unknown that most works on our minds and makes us uneasy. I was a little nervous, to say the least.

 

I needn’t have been, of course. God had me covered… literally, in a canvas tent which I shared with my son, identical to all the others in the open-air campground in which groups of people from all over the world rested after each incredible day of sightseeing and adventure. Tent-camping was never easier, as the safari crew set up, dismantled and moved our tents for us each day as we moved from one place to another. The cots made sleeping comfortable, bedding was supplied and applied. Likewise there was an incredible meal waiting for us in the mess tent once we had deposited our day packs at our assigned sleeping locations. The only worry left was of course that there were no fences to keep the wild animals away… we were trespassers, our tents crowded together in their land in which they roamed freely, with no restrictions. Our guide warned us to pull our boots into our tents with us at night, as the hyenas would steal them otherwise, and said with a smile that if we heard a loud “huff” on the other side of the tent canvas, that would likely be a lion. Was he joking? I wasn’t about to take a chance and vowed not to unzip my tent opening from bedtime till morning light (advice I was given at the travel clinic I visited before I left), regardless of how my bladder might beg for relief in the middle of the night!

 

I loved hearing the sounds of the camps at nightfall, as each of the various groups found their way to their tents after dinner and discussed the day briefly with each other before settling in to sleep. The noise was loud but a dull roar, so many voices and languages together that it was impossible to distinguish one from another. Like an African lullaby, it lulled me to sleep as everybody gradually bedded down for the night.

 

I was never cold; others in our group weren’t so lucky. One young woman woke up shivering in the night and realized she hadn’t pulled the window covering down on her tent before reclining the night before, deciding to go out and loosen the straps in an effort to keep the night air from coming in. Bravely she stepped out to accomplish the task, and told us later of looking straight into a pair of eyes glowing back at her! She jumped back inside in a hurry, but the group consensus in the morning was that it was likely just a water buffalo, as some had been seen grazing around the camp the night before. They actually act as guardians that tend to keep the lions at bay we were told, thus a friend rather than a foe.

 

Amazingly I slept well each night, and loved rising early to see the morning light hit the canvas huts as it rose, as we did the same and prepared to enjoy another incredible day.

 

“You will not fear the terror of night… no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent.”

(Psalm 91:5, 10 NIV)

 

The Beautiful Baobab

After finally landing in Arusha, Tanzania, we met up with our Eastco safari team and drove out to our first destination, Tarangire National Park. Immediately we saw wildlife of all kinds – elephants, giraffes, wart hogs, and zebras. I caught my first glimpse of the huge termite mounds that are scattered all over the landscape, as were the beautifully shaped acacia trees. But in the midst of all that wonder, what took my breath away initially was the sight of the baobab trees.

 

Magnificent specimens with massive trunks, they towered over the grassland as if ruling the African landscape. Known as the “Tree of Life”, these majestic trees have huge hollow, barrel-shaped trunks that act as water reservoirs in the dry seasons of the year. The trees are used for the nutritional and medicinal properties of the fruit and leaves, fiber is made from the bark, which is also a food source for animals of all kinds, and even shelter can be found inside the hollow trunk. A local story suggests that the size and beauty of the tree caused it to become so proud that it was picked up, turned upside down, and its branches thrust into the earth, its roots left up in the air.  And truly a more accurate description of this spreading often-bare-branched beauty can’t be found.

 

I was simply fascinated by the sight of them, and laughed at the thought that when people would later ask me what was the most wonderful thing I saw in Africa, expecting me to name one of the incredible animals roaming the landscape, my answer might just be this tree! I can’t help but be inspired by the baobab to be a similar spiritual reservoir for the people I am planted among, collecting the drops of Living Water that come down from Heaven above in my devotional times, so that in any dry season of life I can feed off of and be sheltered spiritually by what was collected earlier, offering others the same, and thus be sustained and thrive in even the harshest of climates I may face.

 

“He will be standing firm like a flourishing tree planted by God’s design, deeply rooted by the brooks of bliss, bearing fruit in every season of life. He is never dry, never fainting, ever blessed, ever prosperous.”

(Psalm 1:3 TPT)

 

An African ADVENTURE

 

Unlike best-selling author Kuki Gallmann who wrote a book by the same name, I never dreamed of Africa. I never thought of Africa. And I certainly never thought I’d ever find myself there.

 

But my future daughter-in-law sure did, on all three counts. And she caused my youngest son to fall in love with the idea even as he fell in love with her. So soon came the day that they shared with the family their desire for a non-traditional wedding. Rather than spend their money on beautiful gowns, the best venue, the big-time party to celebrate their union, they had decided to travel to Africa and say their vows to each other over the Serengeti. Family members were invited to come if they so desired, to witness the event and to sign on for a group safari.

 

To put it mildly, our minds were blown. Who does such a thing?! Who dares to even consider such a radical possibility? Nobody in our collective life experience, that’s who! But the couple had not only considered the idea, but decided to make it happen, and we were all free to make our own choices concerning the event.

 

From the very start however, I somehow knew that I would be going. Few mothers would pass on the chance to see their son get married; I knew I wouldn’t, no matter where the event took place. My husband having passed away over a year earlier at this point, I was free to decide on my own course of action. I had the money to go, and could easily put enough vacation weeks together to get the time off from work. The only thing holding me back was the enormity of the unknowns surrounding the trip; because I didn’t know any of the details, I somehow couldn’t picture myself there. But I pushed doubt aside and eagerly signed on for what would be the biggest adventure of my life to date.

 

And so as the months passed, the planning ensued. All of the travel and safari details were handled by the kids; all I had to do was send my money at the appropriate times, get my passport and shots, and assemble the gear needed for a week-long adventure on the African grasslands. Up until the day we left I answered the questions posed to me (“Are you doing anything exciting this year?” …“Are you going anywhere on vacation?”…and, “I’m sorry, but I have to ask – why did you need a typhoid vaccination?”) with a sense of wonder as I said, “I’m going on an African safari!”…scarcely believing the words myself.

 

And so came the day we set off! Let me tell you, you don’t get to Africa in a single day, nor on a single flight, nor in a hurry. You fly for endless hours from point to point, and then wait the same length of time in another airport to board another plane and do the same again. Eventually the final flight ends,  you lift the airplane window cover and look out at a landscape totally different from any you’d seen before. Flat, endless grassland spread out before you, dotted everywhere with low-lying acacia trees. You gasp and mutter to yourself, “Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in [Ohio] anymore!!!

No, you’ve landed in Arusha, Tanzania… and your incredible African adventure is finally about to begin!

 

“But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’”

(1 Corinthians 2:9 NKJV)

ZEALOUS for New ZEALAND

The letter “Z” is always a tough one in the A to Z Blogging Challenge line-up. I thought I had found an easy solution to it in my knitting theme of the same by simply looking for a brand or kind of yarn that began with that letter and see what I could come up with from there. I figured the post would at least be mercifully short, a plus for readers and writers alike this late in the challenge. Instead, what I discovered surprised me so much that when I finally got around to writing the last post a full year later, I was still as amazed by the discovery as I was the day it first popped up on my web browser.

“Zealana” was the only entry to pop up for the last letter of the alphabet when I did my google search. Intrigued, I looked it up and found to my amazement that it is a brand of yarn made in New Zealand that is blended from possum hair.

Possom hair?! I was sure I couldn't have read it right, or had somehow misunderstood. How could a beautiful knitting yarn be made from the ugly nighttime scavenger that we see running across our lawns at nightfall, or more usually lying dead along the roadside? The thought boggled my mind.

Common Brushtail Possum

I read on and discovered that the Common Brushtail Possum in New Zealand looks somewhat different from the Virginia Possum that we see across the United States. It is a non-native species that was introduced into New Zealand in 1837 and quickly multiplied due to a lack of natural predators and a congenial climate. Soon the population became so great that it began to have a negative impact on the native vegetation and animal species. At some point it was discovered that possum fibre had exceptional qualities that made it a desirable component in knitting yarn – it is lightweight, warm, soft, and durable. The Zealana brand offers three different series, each of which offers something unique to a particular knitting project, aside from the animal from which it comes. The selection of a possum fibre yarn therefore not only benefits the knitting project, but the ecosystem of a beautiful land, as well. Who knew?!

I couldn't help but smile at the surprising turn of events in the writing of this post, and marvel at how similar things happen in our spiritual lives all the time. So often we head in one direction with a particular purpose in mind, and find something completely unexpected in our travels. At some point we realize that it was not our agenda that moved us in that direction, but rather God, who had something He particularly wanted us to discover, and knew that the path we were taking was the one that would lead us to it eventually. Usually the issue at hand is something more important than the use of possum hair in knitting yarn, but the end result is often just as unexpected and new. And perhaps I needed the reminder that the inner beauty of an item is often not showcased in its outward appearance; we need to look deeper than what is seen with the human eye. I'm thankful somebody at Zealana did that and developed a yarn that is not just pretty to look at, but soft to the touch and durable enough to offer lasting joy.

“while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen...”

(II Corinthians 4:18 NKJV)