Jambo!

Ever since I can remember I've dreamed of going to Africa. It's where my heart has always been. I love preaching the gospel through words and just the way I live my life, but there is perhaps no greater way I enjoy showing God's love than serving. I love getting my hands dirty, doing manual labor for those who need it.

In a little over a day, my dream comes true. Friday at 3:30pm I'll be boarding a plane (well, one of many) that will eventually take me to Nairobi, Kenya. There I will spend a little over three weeks working at an orphanage, loving on Africa's unlovable. We work at the orphanage Monday-Friday, 8-4, cooking and cleaning, but you can stay until 6 to spend quality time with the kids. Weekends are the volunteers time off to travel or do as they please, however you are able to come in Saturdays and do Bible studies in the slums.

A lot of people have asked if I'll visit Tanzania and see Mt. Kilimanjaro, or if I'll go on any safaris. It's not that these aren't great opportunities, but they're not why I'm going. My main ministry and focus is the children. If I can stay late and come in Saturdays to see them, I will. At the same time, I do have great opportunities with fellow volunteers and my host family. It is my prayer to call upon the Spirit and seek the Lord in how to wisely spend my short time overseas.

My heart for this particular trip can not be better described than anyone but my old brother James, "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit the orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." 1:27

Can I get an amen!?

Most of the children I'll be working with (babies up through age 17) who have lost their parents as a result of AIDS. They are orphans by African standards, but they do have a loving Father I plan to tell them about daily.

When I was writing my first support letters I focused on only the beginning of this verse, completely over-looking what is now one of my favorite commands, "to keep oneself unstained from the world."

I am going to Africa to serve, but I have quickly realized that God may do more work in me than I do in the hearts and minds of the orphans I'll be spending time with.

I'm using this month in Africa as an incredible season to seek the Lord with as few worldly distractions as possible. Where I'm going there is no electricity and no running water. I could not be more excited! The best week of my life was spent without either.

Everything I have here that I choose to rely on before God I will not have there. So often I hide behind make-up, hair-care products, cute clothes, food, music, my cell phone, facebook, running, and yes, even ministry. I will have none of those things. While I'm excited to stand openly before the Lord, I know it will be difficult (to say the least). And, I would not be surprised if I find other things to still place before Him.

Beyond all of that, I'm also excited in how God will use this trip in preparing me to one day be a wife and mother. I was reading a book a few months back that had one of the best explanations for how to live as a single Christian I've ever read. In this author's view, singleness is not a time to sit and wallow and wait, feeling like a second-class citizen. Being single is the time you prepare for marriage. Why not work to get the sin issues in your life under control now? Why not learn to cook and clean and teach children? Or, as a man, why not spend that time learning how to be a Godly man, to lead others, to be financially independent? Being single is a time to prepare.

Which reminds me of Christ’s birth. It was the preparation of nerve endings for nails. It was the preparation of a brow for a crown of thorns. Jesus needed a broad back so the whip could tear His flesh. He needed feet so that there was a place for spikes. He needed a side so that there was a place for the spear. He needed a brain and a spinal column, so that the fullness of the pain could be fully felt. Preparation is a beautiful, necessary thing.

While it may be years and years in the future, I want to have prepared well for my future husband so when we do finally meet (God-willing), I can spend my time working with Him for the Kingdom, rather than scrambling to try and balance all of my new duties while still dealing with sins I could have confronted years before. Besides, marriage will bring out plenty more to encounter. I can almost see my time at the orphanage as a sort of short, intensive future wife/mother boot camp. So awesome!

That is my excitement for going, but there is also fear. I've never traveled alone overseas. Particularly to a relatively unstable central African nation. Nairobi is one of the most violent cities in the world, and the fact that I am both American and white make me an even larger target. Between that, infectious diseases, and over twenty hours of plane travel, I have moments of weakness and doubt. And for these doubts and worries I ask for your prayers.

Tutaonana. (so long).