Africa is not at all what I expected. To be really honest with you I wasn’t super excited about coming here. Africa has never been somewhere that I have felt called to go or would find myself thinking maybe I would go one day. Africa also intimidated me a bit. I came into this country not knowing anything and had no idea what I would encounter.
I never expected to fall in love with a community, a culture, and a country in such a short amount of time. This place has a piece of my heart and I am absolutely in love.
Life here is different, don’t get me wrong, and it hasn’t been easy. But it has been so extremely worth it. The Lord is teaching me that we have to trust Him and even when things around us don’t make sense that He is still ultimately in control.
When I walk through the thousands of people living in their trucks at the port sometimes I get overwhelmed. The smell overtakes my lungs, the trash clutters the area, the rats scurry underfoot, the heat beats down and I am not sure if I can push through anymore, the language barrier I haven’t experienced before clouds my mind and I am at a loss of what is going on, people walking around with no shoes, watching men who have been here for weeks/months bathe with a tea pot full of water, sewage running through the area, and what looks like brokenness and despair surround me. All I can see is a chaotic mess.
My heart breaks but then I am reminded that in our messiest moments, God finds us. He meets us in these places of brokenness, right where we are at. I find myself taking in my surroundings in a new way and seeing what is around me as a gift from the Lord and a place where He wants to meet not only me but others as well, even amidst the brokenness.
As I walk throughout the ports and see these men change right before my eyes and many of them hearing the true Gospel for the first time, everything changes. Nothing else is there, my surroundings fade away and I am brought back to the simple truth of who Christ is and that we are sent to share the love that He so freely offers, right in the middle of our mess.
