Sorry for the length in advance, but this is the first update in a while, and I have a lot to say.
As I type this entry I have been in the states for almost a week now. It’s strange to be back on American soil, after living for three months on another continent. One would think naturally there would be some attachment, but I never truly realized just how much there would be.
Last year I traveled to Zimbabwe with an NGO by the name of Overland Missions. I was inspired by the trip, and as a result attended their three month Advanced Missions Training course in Zambia this past summer. It was an amazing time and an amazing journey that I took, and I couldn’t possibly do it justice in a blog.
AMT class as well as Dan and Janell.
I remember arriving on day one, and meeting the other thirteen individuals that I would spend my time learning with, and not quite knowing what to think. Meeting tons of new people can be intimidating enough, but to have to stay with them for such a long time, and even immediately room with a few of them, can be even more daunting. However things went smoothly, and I got along great with my other AMT classmates. And we pushed through all the challenges that the next three months brought, be it the rigorous school schedule, or hiking out into the bush to survive a night on our own, or traveling throughout chiefdoms doing ministry. I honestly couldn’t have expected all the amazing things that would happen, or the people that I would make such lasting connections with.
Each month during our ministry training we headed into the bush, like I said, to minister to the people. These were by far some of my favorite times in Africa. Using DAF military trucks, we would drive out to areas that could not be reached otherwise, and set up tents in the wilderness. After making camp, we would hike out each day there, visiting with villagers at their huts, and ministering to them in whatever way we could. We worked in their gardens, we walked along the dusty roads with them, we sat with them in their churches, and we prayed with them at their homes. We ate with them at community meals, we danced and sang with them around their fires. It truly was an awesome time.
That being said, it has been an interesting transition back into the states. Last time I returned to America, I didn’t in fact want to. I wanted to stay in Africa, and go through the training course then. But due to finances this wasn’t possible, and I had to come back. I equally wanted to stay in Africa this time, due to the fact that I felt like, well, that I fit. It’s a hard thing to describe, and in my experience I’ve found its hard to relate it to people who have never traveled outside of the country to do work like this before. Theres a sort of freeing feeling that comes with this sort of work, and after seeing the needs of people in Zambia, as well as other countries in Africa, you really can’t go back to the same-old same-old. You don’t really feel comfortable in the old “American dream” sort of life. The teacher of my cross culture class described it in a perfect way; that you no longer feel totally at home in either place. When your in Africa there are certain aspects you miss from the states, and vice versa. It’s like your half-in, half-out. Hopefully that makes some sort of sense.
And to be perfectly honest, there are so many things that I miss at the moment, its not even funny. I miss living in a tent, which is probably strange to some. I miss hanging out in the main center of Overland Missions base at night, talking with people who I’ve grown close to, and sipping down the third or fourth coffee while working on a project. I miss the huge dinners where 50 some people gathered to eat on a regular basis, and you got to catch up with everyone on what they had done throughout that day. I guess it would be safe to say that I miss OM in general, and the time spent there with everyone moving towards one cause.
Dancing and Singing around a fire with the villagers.
But the fact is, I’m now in America. I remember having a conversation with a few of the staff members one night, and one of the staff members made the comment “its not about Africa” when talking about future ministry. Now let me clarify, she was not insinuating in any way that ministry in Africa didn’t need to be done, or wasn’t important. The point she was making was that ministry isn’t about the place your at, its about who you are. We should be ministering to people regardless of what continent we are on, or who they are, or their skin color.
I have already started making plans to return with OM next year, and to help lead expeditions into the bush. I’m totally stoked to be planning to do this, as living in the bush in a tent and getting to meet with the people on a personal level is one of my favorite things. But what I’m learning I suppose, is that until then, I need to be satisfied with where I’m at now. Yes I’m in America and yes I would rather be back in Africa, but while I am here in the states I’m going to make the most out of it, and get everything I can out of it.
A headman of one of the villages we visited.
If I were to list some of the hardest things to learn in life (especially my own, on a personal level), they would be patience, trust and being satisfied with life right now. Patience is hard, because we want everything now. This sort of mentality is especially breaded in Western culture. Trust is another hard thing, because it takes so much investment and can be destroyed so quickly. Being satisfied correlates directly with patience I think, because impatience can lead to a lack of satisfaction. And when we aren’t satisfied with what we currently have, we tend to look to other things to hopefully fix that hole. And the problem is, nine times out of ten those other things don’t work. They fall through, they fail, and they just don’t do the trick. This is something I’m learning a lot about, and have been learning a lot about over the past few months.
So whats on the horizon, and what am I going to do? As I said I want to work with OM on a more full time basis. I’ll be traveling to Coco beach, FL, next week to do paperwork and come on staff officially, and am planning on returning next year for expedition work. Do I know how its going to all work, or where all the money is going to come from, or where I’m even going to live once back in FL? Absolutely not. Does that freak me out a bit? Totally. But I’m not worried.
I’m attempting a new solution in life. I’m going to be patient, I’m going to be satisfied, and I’m going to trust God.
Chronicles of my progress towards Africa 