when i was 10 years old i made the decision to get water baptized. it wasn’t something that anyone told me i needed to do or asked if i wanted to, i just knew that i wanted to let the world know that i was giving my life over to christ. so early on a sunday morning i waited for my turn to be baptized infornt of my church. i don’t remember a whole lot from that morning. there wasn’t anything super ‘spiritual’ or crazy that happened as i was dunked in the water wearing a white robe. but there was something that happened that changed my life forever…
the man that was baptized before me was a refugee from africa. he had fleed from his home land to the united states, because he was going to be killed for his faith in jesus christ. he had come to the states looking for freedom. this man had a wife and children still in africa, he had no idea if they were dead or alive. he had decided to get baptized because he was going to find out if he had received his greencard the following week or two. he would either be allowed to stay in the united states and bring his family over, or would be forced to return home to be murdered. either way he was going to praise jesus name.
it was this man who changed my life forever. i do not know what happened to him. but from that moment i fell in love with africa. i wanted to go. i wanted to spread the name of jesus in africa. to be the hands and feet of jesus in africa.
i now have the opportunity to go to africa. to live in this place that stole my heart so long ago. i am not afraid of: the people, war, aids/hiv, being mugged or threatened, of dirt and disease, or anything else that comes along with living as a minority in a third would country… my biggest fear is that i will not have the funds to go and live in a place that has stolen my heart. it sounds so silly, but it rips my heart in two. i’ve seen god provide so many times and yet this fear still grips it’s tallens deep inside.
lord ~ i am willing… send me… provide for your daughter to go… let me be the hands and feet that change a generation.. that bring a hope and a light amid the darkness.
