Africa started off a bit different from the other countries. I decided that I wanted to give all I had to ministry. Not that I wasn’t giving to ministry before, but I wasn’t giving everything I had. I didn’t want to end the race and be disappointed in what I could have done, so I made a decision.
Little background about me and Africa. I was not looking forward to Africa. All the routes include Africa and I could have cared less about this place. I figured that God would do something big since I wasn’t expecting much. Oh, He did! Something about this land captivates your heart. I was told that would happen. I believed that it would, but not like it has. It makes the homesickness not so bad.
Every morning I almost spring out of bed at 6:30 ready for the day. I get some quiet time in, and go on a run or do a circuit workout. Then on the way back me and Dani, the team leader from the other team we are with, do a prayer walk back to the center we are staying in. I also have stayed organized. Anyone who knows me, knows that’s huge. God is definitely doing a new thing! 🙂
We start every day with a devotion and then start house visits, gardening, picking up trash, or teaching at the care centers around this amazing place.
The care centers are filled with the most beautiful little children.. some don’t ever have pants on. Their clothes are always so dirty that it pains me every time I wash mine. I seriously watched a kid pee his pants then fall asleep like nothing happened. Makes me wonder how often it happens. Its a bit of a way of life here. In the midst of pants that smell like pee, and only eating once a day for some, kids still smile.
The smiles are so beautiful, I can’t even begin to describe. Makes me wonder how I ever went through life without seeing the smile of African people.
They somehow still have this childlike faith that makes you check your own faith & your level of hope.
Not all of them are filled with childlike faith and hope, not all are happy and smiling. Some just watch the Americans play with the little kids and interact with the bigger ones. Their hope is gone, and maybe it’s because they are in their teen years, still wondering, when someone will save them, still sleeping on thin mats that they call a bed. Maybe it’s because they are the oldest and they know that at 12:30 they will be eating the same thing they have eaten since they were little. Maybe it’s because it’s the only meal they will get today. Maybe it’s because their mother is gone and there father is an alcoholic, so they watch the other three young kids there mother couldn’t handle.
Whatever it is it makes me want to adopt them all, take them to America, and give them the most fluffy beds they will ever see. It makes me want to buy a million bath tubs and give them bubble baths with little yellow rubber duckies, then dress them in clean clothes and give them a warm meal that will change there lives, and it most certainly will if it’s from southwest Louisiana! 😉
Needless to say, I am in love with Africa! Every month the race seems to get better and more difficult than the month before. Breaks your heart in a different way and opens your eyes to the things unseen. You get to live in a different way and eat different food, but all the people you see are searching for the same thing. Someone to save them, to make their problems not seem so big, to be loved and cared for. I’m glad to be Christ’s hands and feet in these places.
I’m in awe of the God I follow. I’m proud to be called a Christian, and I’m excited to live a radical crazy life! 🙂
Much love
