I stood on the red mud ground with a small dark hand in mine, staring back and wanting desperately to stay. We walked as far as we could without losing sight of the mud hut. But this was as far as Teta could walk me this time.
“When you come back, you bring me bible?”
I thought she didn’t understand.
“No Teta, I go home now. America. Do you understand?”
“Yes… When you come back you bring me bible.”
“No Teta, I am going to America. I am not coming back tomorrow.”
“Okay… and you bring me bible.”
I wanted so badly to say yes. I wanted to promise I’d come back to the siblings I met at the well, the mother that gave me a live chicken to befriend me, the kids I sat around the mud hut learning Kinyarwandan with, the family I fast became a part of. But I didn’t know if I could keep that promise.
“No, Teta. I am going home.”
We said our goodbyes. And the last thing she told me is stuck like a wedge in my heart.
“God will send you back.”
8 months later, I can still hear Teta’s voice. And she is right. He is sending me back.
I’ve got to go back. Not just to my family, but to my village. I think about preaching at my church; praying sun up to sundown. I think about the tribal drum and the worship that summons heaven to wake up in us all. I think about naming some more newborn babies, seeing more deaf ears hear, and more people come alive in Jesus. I think about all the souls God wants to reach and all the eternities He wants to change. I think about showing up at Teta’s house, handing her a bible and telling her that she was right; God sent me back.
As if Kizirakome was really my home, I am that excited to return to this village.
I will be in Rwanda from October 1st to mid November. I will be staying with the same Pastor I spent 2 months with this past winter on the world race, ministering with my African family by my side. I will be visiting a church in a nearby Ugandan village, and spending some time at an orphanage in Kenya that I was brought to by a Kenyan woman I so happened to meet here in the States.
And I am asking for your help to get get there.
I think some people are getting a bit impatient with the calling on my life, wondering when I will stop asking for money and start making it, wondering when I will want to be normal again. But when you’re made new you will never look the same. And as a born again follower of Christ, to live normally and comfortably is to neglect the mandate of God on my life. If to live normally I must live comfortably, and to live comfortably I must compromise living radically, which is required to share gospel where I do, I just can’t.
For me to stay and get a 9 to 5 is for me to miss out on the calling I was made for.
And as for money, the Lord has told me loud and clear how unconcerned he is about the matter.
He values the good news far more than what it costs to bring it, that means money, comfort, and safety included.
And then, since he is a God of truth, all while doing missions, He’s provided thousands of dollars, free flights, free meals, and a brand new cell phone even, to show me he can provide in great abundance. And this is no exception; I know my God will get me there.
As a part of the body, who needs help from the rest of the body, I cannot do this alone.
I am humbled for sure; asking for money again and again. It’s humbling because if I didn’t need I wouldn’t ask. But there is a great need and high cost and I do need, so I will ask.
I am asking you to send my way any amount that God asks of you.
And in turn, I’ll get to Africa and win us some brothers and sisters in Christ. Thank you all!!! My Paypal information is below. Subscribe to my blog to keep up to date. Pictures and stories of Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya to come!
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Trip costs:
Flights: $1,100 (NYC > RWANDA round trip, & Rwanda > Kenya round trip)
Food & lodging: $200
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Paypal information:
Shania Morse
To contact me:
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