I've been on a lot of missions trips and that one sticks out the most. Each trip has held it's treasures and challenges but non quite touch my heart like Africa did.
I took that trip alone. With my parents in total agreement and at peace, myself scared but excited and determined to do it. Of course I came to the end of myself so many times during that month I really learned a thing or two about independance.
Africa taught me how to live a life slowly and purposefully. And in that slower living, to hear the loud and powerful voice of God and the moving of His spirit. I learned what it's like to be knit together with a perfect stranger like family during a month, and still feel that threads that bind you years later. I learned the overwhelming joy of giving a little boy with aids a special day where he was the one picked and spoiled and loved. I'll never forget knowing in my heart that something was wrong a week before I learned that little boy, Tino. Had passed away. I learned the incredible capacity that we as humans have to love and to find joy in the midst of the most horrific circumstances. I learned that holding a little kid with only rags on covered in the filth that is just part of their home in the dump, isn't gross. But rather, I wanted to kiss each one and hug them for hours.
I learned how deeply a person can be moved by just witnessing another person's love for a stranger. I could go on and on. I just felt the need to revisit the way that trip made me feel. Let me show you with a few pictures. I wish I could tell the whole story. . .
Me and my friend Emily ------------->
My little Tino - ------------->
