I know that so many of you are intrigued as to what Africa is like and what I have been doing here so let me paint you a picture:
Imagine the hottest day you have ever experienced, not one cloud in the sky and constantly under direct sunlight. Imagine walking everywhere on dirt roads in that heat with an occasional unsatisfying breeze. Walk a little bit further on that dirt road, through some ‘yards’ and past a few baby goats. 
Finally, you arrive at the bus station which is a dirt lot with a lot of beat up vans that have way too many seats shoved into them. When you get into the ‘bus’ you either sit 4 or 5 people to a row…if you’re lucky maybe only 3 people but that’s rare. You sit in the bus sans air conditioning or a breeze, waiting until it is as full as it can possibly get so you can drive about 3 miles to another bus station. Keep in mind, that those 3 miles take about an hour due to the road conditions, stopping and gridlock traffic. You get on about 3 of these buses to get to your destination, which by the way is unknown to you for the most part. Now, take a deep breath of the lovely aroma of either burning trash, sewage, or extreme body odor. At this point, you are sweating more than you thought was even possible and a film of sweat and dirt covers your entire body.
Finally you get off of the last bus and begin walking. Following the pastor, you walk down more dirt roads to what looks like a half finished cement house. As you walk in the gate, about 50 orphans come running out of the house so excited to greet you, as if they had been waiting all week for this day. They fight to give you hugs and have you hold them.
In that moment, you look over to your teammate and say, “This makes it all worth it.” 
Finally, you arrive at the bus station which is a dirt lot with a lot of beat up vans that have way too many seats shoved into them. When you get into the ‘bus’ you either sit 4 or 5 people to a row…if you’re lucky maybe only 3 people but that’s rare. You sit in the bus sans air conditioning or a breeze, waiting until it is as full as it can possibly get so you can drive about 3 miles to another bus station. Keep in mind, that those 3 miles take about an hour due to the road conditions, stopping and gridlock traffic. You get on about 3 of these buses to get to your destination, which by the way is unknown to you for the most part. Now, take a deep breath of the lovely aroma of either burning trash, sewage, or extreme body odor. At this point, you are sweating more than you thought was even possible and a film of sweat and dirt covers your entire body.
Finally you get off of the last bus and begin walking. Following the pastor, you walk down more dirt roads to what looks like a half finished cement house. As you walk in the gate, about 50 orphans come running out of the house so excited to greet you, as if they had been waiting all week for this day. They fight to give you hugs and have you hold them.
In that moment, you look over to your teammate and say, “This makes it all worth it.”
PS. They LOVE Obama here!
That pretty much sums up our day on Friday. I will never forget those kids and wish I had all the time in the world to just be with them and play with them.
Africa is amazing. And while it may be quite a ways out of my comfort zone, the culture and the people are beautiful. I feel honored and blessed to be here and to have the opportunity to serve with such amazing men and women of God. They are teaching us so much about the Kingdom just by their lifestyle and by their faith.
