Stories of Africa, Part 1

It's really hard to know where to begin to tell this story... For the last few days I've been wondering if I should just tell separate stories, no particular order, but here's the thing about a trip like this... If you let God, He will use it to change your heart...

He will show you attitudes that you might not like so much, He will root them out and plant the seeds of new attitudes that are pleasing to Him... He will uncover hidden agendas... He will break your heart for the things that break His...

So in many ways, a trip like this is a process... It's definitely not about the person taking the trip, in this case me... But what a tremendous loss it would be to go on a trip like this and not allow God to do a work in your heart...

So I guess the place for me to begin is at the beginning...

When I went to Africa the first time, I spent a good deal of time working in the community... It's not that I don't consider the work in the Children's Homes important, it's VERY important, but it's the people, especially the children, outside the gates of the home, that really grabbed my heart.

Many of them have no one to be an advocate for them... To feed them... To protect them... To teach them... To love them... Many of the children live alone, often raising siblings, doing their best to survive. Our children think about songs on their IPODS, getting to the latest movies, making sports teams, or having snacks to take with their peanut butter and jelly sandwich... The children in Swaziland think about whether or not they will even have one meal that day... The older siblings prostitute themselves to feed their younger siblings...

Again, it is just not a pretty, feel good picture... But it is reality and I think someday God will hold us accountable for ignoring reality... For sticking our heads in the sand and not wanting to know about the orphans that He holds close to His heart...

So when I went, these were the children that I really wanted to love on... I wanted to plant a garden in their community that someone might share their food with them... Or, if they happened to be blessed with a grandmother still living, to plant her a garden so she could feed them (You will often find grandmothers, whose children have died, raising 5,8,11 of her grandchildren... if she is a widow herself, she has no source of income.)

But that was not what God had in store for me on this trip. When we arrived in Swaziland, I learned that there would be no work done in the community, all of the help was needed at the Children's Homes... I was SO disappointed...

The first day out, my mom and I were given the assignment of painting t-shirts, with the girls a the Children's Home and then the shirts would be sold back in America. In Africa, you learn to make do with what you have and so I painted t-shirts, with no pattern, impossible paint and no brushes... When it was time to put the paint on their hands to do the handprints, I used an old corn sack to brush it on...

At the end of the first day, I was so frustrated... All through the night I wrestled with why God had brought me to Africa... Did painting t-shirts even matter? Had I come 8,000+ miles to do something that could easily be done in the states? What was the purpose in all of this? My heart was aching for the children outside the gate...

But at some point during the night, God reminded me once again of Ian's words... "Obedience... just obedience." Maybe God had something going on behind the scenes that I couldn't see... Maybe this really wasn't about painting t-shirts at all...

In the movie the Karate Kid, Mr. Miyagi (the Karate master) has Daniel (his student) do a series of very mundane, repetitive chores... Paint a fence... Sand floors... Wax Cars (Wax on...Wax off)...

Daniel is deeply frustrated, this is just not what he envisioned from learning from the karate master and yet at one point Mr. Miyagi says to him, "Let's make sacred pact... I promise teach karate... That my part... You promise learn... I say, you do, no questions... That you're part..."

And that's how it is in the Christian life... God, through the Holy Spirit is the Master who promises to teach us...to sanctify us...to make us more like Jesus... That's His part... Our part is to do what He says... No questions... "Obedience... Just obedience..."

As I lay there that night, I decided that I would just obey... I would do whatever He sent me to do, it was not mine to decide what was important and what wasn't...

That night I asked God to show me, through out the next day who needed to be loved... That was the cool thing about painting the t-shirts... I got to interact with the children... I could be interrupted and teach them how to use my camera... I could stop what I was doing and work with the ladies and children who were threshing, husking and chaffing the corn... It was wonderful... A tremendous blessing!

Threshing...


Husking...


Chaffing...

At the end of the mindless chores in Karate Kid, Mr. Miyagi begins to show Daniel how ALL of what he had been doing... Painting, waxing, sanding... Were actually the moves of the defensive blocks in Karate... Daniel thought he was learning nothing about karate, when in fact he was learning some of the most important moves he could know...

And obedience to God is one of the most important moves we can know... It guards our heart... It keeps us on God's path... It protects us from the world and keeps us close to Him.

Painting the t-shirts was my "wax on...wax off..." and yet, I learned more about obedience in that simple act than I've learned in most of my years as a Christian...