I am in Europe now. Romania to be exact. I was excited to leave Africa honestly but I was also surprised at my shock of being in such a luxurious country or continent. The minute I drove away from the airport I was in shock. Seeing all the car lots and a huge mall was overwhelming. But I will say it does remind me of home a little bit so I am glad that I am getting this transition before I come back to North America.
4 months in Africa sounded amazing at the beginning but now after living there for 4 months I can say I was excited for a change. I was excited to come to Europe.
However, I take with me so many memories from Africa. Some good, some not so good.
But in the not so good experiences, I was stretched and learned to embrace these experiences.
Rwanda. By far the wildest church experience I had but the best family to live with. My host was a pastor who had 3 amazing sons, a magnificent niece, as well as, the most amazing wife. We lived in a small 3 bedroom house that was built by world racers and definitely learned to enjoy the smallness. This month we preached every day and went to school to teach English. Everyone was stretched this month. Some didn’t enjoy public speaking, some didn’t like small spaces, and so on. But I will say it was an amazing month because of the host family. We were also provided the most amazing cook and care taker. Her name was Grace. (We honestly didn’t know that is how you pronounce her name until the day we left. They kept pronouncing her name in French so we went with it.) But she cooked the most amazing meals and cared for us so well. One afternoon she dropped everything she was doing to wash every person on my teams feet. But she didn’t just splash water on our feet, she scrubbed, scratched, and scraped all of our feet. Such a humbling experience for all of us. This month we also had the opportunity to open the doors of a church that had been closed for over a year. As a team, we raised funds for our host to be able to put a new roof on the church which would allow them to open the church. The best blessing is knowing that the community that we lived in while in Rwanda would now have a church to attend.
Uganda. Probably my favorite ministry. Mostly because it was a well rounded ministry. The women and the children were also my favorite age range. The women ages ranged from 15-20 and the children ranged from 6 months to 2 years old. The way the girls were being taught how to care for their children, grow crops, cook, have a business, make sweaters, weave hair, and so much more. It was amazing. However, this month came with its own struggles. This month we lived in huts with no electricity with a straw roof. My “favorite” part was that at night all the spiders came out of the brick wall in my hut. And since there was no electricity I had to wear my headlamp to get ready for bed and I would always shine my light on the walls and of course see all the spiders. At first I had to train myself to not look at the walls and just get in my bed and tuck my mosquito net in. But then by the end of the month I just embraced it and sometimes looked at the wall for fun. For my own entertainment. It stretched me because I had never really done something like that before. You know, living in a hut and all. But at the end of the month I was grateful for the experience.
Kenya. I honestly had high hopes for Kenya since I had already been but honestly this month was the biggest struggle. Miscommunication was a big problem this month with our host. This caused a lot of problems for everyone honestly. And this month had the most problems too…. First, the minute we arrived in Kenya, I found out that I had a ringworm. (Or so I think) Then within the first week one of my teammates gets really sick, to the point where she was hospitalized for 10 days straight. Which meant she was not with us for ministry. And as soon as she got sick, we traveled north to another ministry site for 10 days. Luckily we were partnered with another well rounded ministry called Kindfund. It was actually a great place and had some amazing staff caring for the children at the compound. It was just hard during those 10 days to find joy, especially when you team is 2 people short and I was struggling. But the biggest joy was the the staff I got attached to. We then traveled back to Athi River where we would finish our time in Kenya. But before we started the children’s camp we were going to do, half of the people got sick. So we had about 18 world racers with us and half of them were out for the entire children’s camp. Luckily we had staff that helped with the camp. It would have been tricky to do a camp for 80+ children with such a small amount of people.
Ethiopia. This month started out with a bang bang. The first bang was debrief with the squad that was a time of refreshing for me. But my second bang was getting sick. Luckily I wasn’t alone because at least a quarter of my squad mates were diagnosed with the same things. My test results were typhoid, typhus, bacterial infection, and the starts of a UTI. Ohh and my ringworm was still present. Luckily most of us got a different strand of the tyohoid. Because some of the others that got typhoid in Kenyan were in bed for almost an entire week. And that is not the strand of typhoid I got. So that was a good way to start my time in Ethiopia. But things did get better. I was paired with Hopethiopia which was another well rounded ministry. And I was also able to minister with my parents alongside me for a week. They got to see the good, the bad, and some of the ugly of living in a different country. They got to experience ministry around the world. This month was full of community and ministry though. I absolutely loved playing cards with the other teams and the varied ministry opportunities at Hopethiopia.
So Africa. A beyond beautiful continent with some amazing people and magnificent ministries, has been influential.
Not only did I learn about the continent, the people, and my people, but I also learned so much about myself. The Lord asked me to do so much that I just didn’t want to do but because the Lord asked I had only one choice. To be obedient.
Africa stretched me. Grew me. And embraced me. All at the same time.
