Week 1 Reflections

My first week in Africa has been spent at a conference. Which has been a unique opportunity for me to get to know the folks here, as well as get some wisdom and encouragement from those who have conquered the first baby steps in a new land. There are people from all over—Brits, Aussies, Americans, Africans, and a few Canadians. They have each had a chance to share about what they are doing and how God is moving where they are at. They are involved in all kinds of cool stuff. There is an African couple doing a sports ministry in South Sudan to bring together all of the different tribes in that particular area, an Austrailian gal who is starting a vocational school and holding healing weeks for former child soldiers, a couple that is teaching communities about natural medicine and sustainable farming, teachers, a small team living in tents and building houses the way the people there do...all kinds of great stuff.

I have been able to meet my team and get to know them a bit. I will get to know them better next week on their team retreat (and safari) which I, so luckily, am able to tag along on. This week I have also visited a coffee plantation…which was actually not all that exciting since it is the off season. But they do supply to Starbucks, so that’s something. Also, even though I am not much of a meat eater, I tried some goat for the first time. Not my new favorite food, to say the least.

Also this week there have been Bible study sessions. This morning there was a great session led by an African pastor about spiritual warfare. We looked at a lot of scripture—examining that our battle is not against flesh and blood (i.e. man), and that the devil is a liar. He lies, steals, destroys. He uses our minds to plant lies. When discouraging thoughts come, it is not just ho hum life—it is Satan whispering lies to us. I will say that my knowledge of spiritual warfare is pretty small. I knew that was something that I would be dealing with a lot more here. I had never really considered our thoughts to be tools that the devil can use. But in the overwhelming whirlwind of leaving everyone I love and everything I know to do something that frankly, I feel a little ill equipped for, I have certainly had thoughts of discouragement and doubt. But no matter what I am feeling Gods truths remain—that He is good, He is sovereign, and He requires sacrifice. I gave Him my life a long time ago and there’s no turning back. Not for this girl.

If you so desire you can be praying for visa issues so that I can get settled asap. Also for grace to learn culture, some good friends, and to find my place here.

Ohhh So Thankful!

First things first. I am fully recovered from the kidney donation. Feeling back to normal, and praising God for a (relatively) easy and probably-about-as-painless-as-it-could-be recovery.

ANDDDDDDD raising my hands and dancing my feet in praise because I am almost fully funded and approved to leave on Christmas for Africa! I prayed for a miracle and I got one. How amazing is that?! I read somewhere once that God loves to come through for us--I believe it! I had a deadline and it was literally down to the day before to reach the 90% monthly support for a December departure and it came through down to the dollar. Amazing. What is REALLY cool is that I had been keeping in touch with another kidney donor that donated the same day I did at Johns Hopkins. He emailed me that day saying he wanted to help with my trip and asking how much more I needed...and he stepped up to make up what I was lacking. Incredible! Oh man, I just love when you can see Gods hand at work and moving. How comforting it is to see that He really is orchestrating things His way and for His glory.

I am delighted, excited, thankful...and (lets be honest) kind of stressed. Lets DO THIS Lord!
Will be sharing more about specifics soon! Thanks for the love and support!

One Kidney, Two Kidney

I was a little hesitant to share this with the masses and here on my blog. I did this blog with the intention of it being Africacentric...but I suppose it is kind of for my faith journey as well. And this is a part of it. So.

I am donating a kidney on Tuesday.

It is for a lady I don't know. Found out about it through a prayer request email. Kidney donation is something I had read and thought about it the past. So when this opportunity presented itself I figured I would at least start the process and see what happens. It has taken me to this point, I have talked at length to the doctors, and though there are some risks, I feel comfortable enough with them, as do they, that this will not affect my life over in Africa.

Still, I am well aware that for my life this is not what one would classify as a wise decision.

Here is my reasoning. Or at least the thought process that brought me here. I am a pretty big believer that if we make ourselves available to God He will use us. Throughout all the testing it was my prayer that if this was not something God wanted to happen that the door would close. I made myself available for this, and I am lucky that I am healthy enough that this is a gift I can give. Christ gave without reservation. He is my guide and my source. And really, if there is a need and one has the means to meet that need, why wouldn't you do it?

Because I am so young even the doctors can't solidly predict how this will affect the rest of my life. As long I abstain from certain things and take a couple extra precautions, I should have no problems. No one knows this for sure. Some friends have brought up what if I have a child that needs a kidney someday or another family member. There are a thousand reasons not to. But I never want to live my life not giving now because of what may happen down the road. And I certainly do not want to live my life putting myself first.

Some people are not crazy about this. Most actually. I understand that. I would feel the same way if I had a friend giving away an organ and moving to Africa 3 months later. But it has always been my prayer to live a life of faith. For my life to not make sense apart from Christ. To be used of God and His love to flow out of me.

Doesn't it all boil down to loving God with my whole heart and my neighbor as myself? I would give Christ a kidney. This lady is my neighbor. Why wouldn't I do this for her; for Christ? It makes sense to me.

"If we've only got one try
If we've only got one life
If time was never on our side
Then before I die
I want to burn out bright"
Burn Out Bright-Switchfoot.

Gotta Start Somewhere

After a time of waiting I am finally, finally on the road to Africa. It has been in my heart for years, and really all I have wanted to do since freshman year of college. Maybe even before. I don't really remember. When people here and there have asked my why...why I want to go, why Africa etc., sometimes I have not articulated my answer well. Yes, because I love God. Yes, because God commands us to love our neighbor. Yes, because my heart has been broken for the least of these. It is a little more than that too. I was reading ''Cry the Beloved Country'' this year (great book) and in an essay written by Jarvis, a white man who turned social activist against apartheid, wrote:

''I shall do this, not because I am noble or unselfish, but because life slips away, and because I need for the rest of my journey a start that will not play false to me, a compass that will not lie...I am lost when I balance this against that, I am lost when I ask if this is safe, I am lost when I ask if men will approve. Therefore I shall try to do what is right, and to speak what is true. I do not do this because I am courageous and honest, but because it is the only way to end the conflict of my deepest soul...Yet it would not be honest to pretend that it is solely an inverted selfishness that moves me. I am moved by something that is not my own, that moves me to do what is right, at whatever cost it may be.''

I am not under any sort of false idea that I am going out to change the world. But I can change some things. I can do good to some. I can show the love of Christ to some of those who may need it most. I have seen some of the pain in the world. I have seen orphans who are hurting, scared, alone. I cannot in good conscience live an unaffected life after that. I must help where I can, bring hope where I can, show little ones that they are not forgotten. Not by the world, not by God.

This is where the journey begins. Not sure where it will take me. Scared? Yes.

But I'm in good hands.