Africa Part 2: Where my Heart is.

{Via} {Via}

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When I arrived in Africa, our group had a briefing on safety while in Kenya and Tanzania.

I remember feeling as though I wanted to turn around and go right back home to my comfortable house, AC and lack of snakes. Right there and then I was completely out of my comfort zone.

God was already at work though.

He had provided a way for me to come on this trip and blown my mind and how He had orchestrated those events. Read HERE.

So despite feeling incredibly nervous, I knew the Lord had wanted me there for some reason and felt super excited about what He was going to do while we were there.

I wrote a lot in my journal while on this trip, the first night I wrote about Psalm 121 and turning to the Lord when storms hit in life. A lot about knowing God can do impossible things after seeing Him provide a way for me to be in Africa.

I learned a lot over the next few days about relying on God and not myself in a variety of different situations.

As much as I had gone to Africa to serve God's people, I felt like it was actually me who was changed the most on this trip. 

He brought me to be a part of a bunch of work which was already going on in a village nested on the shores of Lake Victoria. 

We freshened up after arriving at our 'home' and headed off into the bush where we met the community we would be serving and spending our time with. 

My love for children has grown immensely since that trip.

I always had a joy whenever I spent time teaching Sunday school at my church or babysat for family friends. But my love and passion for children grew after I went away for college.

Looking back at the photos from this trip, I was not the one in the group who immediately felt comfortable around these kids. Honestly, I think I was afraid they wouldn't like me.

Then after we had been working on a project at a widow's home all day, we arrived back at the church in the village where all the kids were waiting for us.

I didn't need to approach them, because as soon as I smiled and tried to talk to one of them, I found myself surrounded by smiles. Children wanting to be held, hugged and even though I couldn't speak their language, they didn't mind one big.

A smile crosses every language barrier.

Before I knew what was happening, several girls had me sitting on the ground and were braiding my hair.

I can't even describe how much joy was passed between myself and these girls.

I remembering feeling at the end of our trip that I could live in that village forever, that I wanted to know those girls and those kids. To play with them and love on them. 

I never knew most of their names, but I remember them. 

After these sweet girls had braided my hair, we sat around together laughing and playing on the church steps. One of the younger girls in the group came up to me and sat in my lap.

I was so happy that she felt comfortable enough to just sit there.

Then she fell asleep.

Oh my goodness, I think my heart could not have been fuller.

I remember going to Tanzania to build a water tank for a widow in the village and to share Christ with the people there.

But now looking back, my heart is totally in the little time we spent with the children there.

I remember feeling confused that I didn't know why the Lord had called me to Africa.

I stood overlooking the beautiful scenery one day and prayed asking the Lord why I was there.

I felt less useful as a leader on that trip than I had while in India a few weeks before.

One of the leaders who runs a center in the village talked to me about this and told me that perhaps the Lord had taken me there for a specific purpose, but I wouldn't know what it was until I was older.

Now I feel he was perhaps right on.

The past month or so I have felt such a heart for Africa.

Is it even possible to feel that way about a place I have been to once?

To be praying about adopting a child from there?

To feel myself literally breaking because I want so badly to go to a country and love the children there who are hungry and dying?

I have yet to understand where this is all going...

But I'm excited.

I can't wait to see what the Lord's plans are.

'For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

{Matthew 25:42-45}

There were so many other things I could have shared with you guys about this trip.

But I focused on where my heart is currently.

With the kids I met in Tanzania.

Much Love,

L

P.S. Look out for a new African bag in my Etsy store...coming soon.