In case you didn’t know yet, I am out of Africa after 3 long
months! No more people staring or
shouting “mzungu” or “How are you?” as we walk down the street. We kind of blended in when we walked
through the airport in Ireland and our clothes and hair are not covered in dust
at the end of the day! Praise God.
As we were meeting with our squad yesterday, our former
squad leader, Robby, said that he wanted to pray healing over our hearts and
minds as we came out of Africa. He
said that somebody had done that for him recently. He had realized he had been allowing all of the hurt and
terrible things he had seen while he was in Africa bog him down. I realized in that moment, as I teared
up a little bit, that I was holding some bitterness and hurt in my heart from
our last 3 months.
I am the finance person for my team of 7 and each month I
would talk finances/budget with our contacts. Almost every time we would settle on prices and then when that
money ran out before it was time for us to leave, the contact would ask for
more. Or our ministry would depend
on the money we could contribute, or 10 children each day would say the only 3
English words they knew which was, “Give me money.” These things after the first few times didn’t make me sad
anymore, but I just began to get angry each time. Eventually this anger turned to bitterness. I began to feel like anything we could
give momentarily or even giving of our time, energy, and love was never enough.
In this moment, when Robby prayed over us for healing of our
hearts, I knew that’s exactly what I needed. I think that it would also be great if you could continue to
pray for me about that issue. I DO
NOT want this to become an issue in my heart.
(My NEW team in Uganda after a healing/prayer service at the top of a mountain. From left to right Ellen, Brian, Taniuska, me, Eric, Beth, and Holly)
Don’t get me wrong; there were people in Africa that I
absolutely fell in love with.
Kenyans, Tanzanians, and Ugandans are some of the most hospitable people
I’ve ever met in my life. Some of
the ministries that we had the opportunity to serve in were such a
blessing. However, this was one
thing that I need you to keep in your prayers.
