“You Americans come with your laptop computers, malaria medicine, and little bottles of hand sanitizer and you think you can change the outcome, huh?” Danny Archer, Blood Diamond. If you haven’t seen it, you should. Re-watching this was quite the introduction to my time in Africa… a dramatization of the war within Sierra Leone for diamonds; a dramatization of some of the conflict that still exists in this continent; a dramatization of the story of one American who had hopes that her voice could rock the world. The fore mentioned items are some things I just finished putting on my packing list, along with hopes that not I, but Christ in me might change this world I’m about to enter. However there is still so much unknown that I am about to walk into. So many Americans go with hopes of making an impact; I’m no different. Yet somehow, I feel this call stronger than ever and am thrilled for what lies ahead. I hope that I will not be “That American” but rather be humbled myself so that Christ might work through me.
As my journey looms ever closer, both my excitement and my nerves grow. I am about to spend my summer in Africa: with the opportunity to love the least of these, to pour out of myself like never before, to live exactly as the Word says to; what more could I want? Soon after, these thoughts follow: I am about to spend my summer in Africa: essentially on my own, possibly without running water, perhaps with little communication to anyone else, certainly apart from what I know and am comfortable with. What have I gotten myself into?!
In my mind, I want to see a fairytale: the Africa that I’ve heard about; orphans being loved and Jesus being made famous. This is the Africa I want to be a part of. Yet I know it will probably not be. My parents like to quote a pastor friend of theirs who claims, “There is so much wrong in Africa. And yet, there is so much right.” I know I am about to encounter a lot of right mixed in with a lot of wrong. My innocent, protected, naïve self will have to step up to the plate and evaluate for myself what is right and in line with scripture and what is not. I am just one person and don’t have the power to change a continent, but yet I am one person and do have God with me. He will equip me as He calls me, of this I am confident. So I prepare to embark on what I know will be the summer of a lifetime, with excitement and nerves, with anxious anticipation, with a heart ready to be changed by the God I so dearly love! 7 days and counting…
