An Update on My Upcoming Adventure to Africa

In 6 weeks (on Easter Sunday) I will be leaving Minnesota’s winter wonderland for the tropical sun of Africa. A blizzard is raging outside at the moment and I couldn’t be more excited to leave all the cold behind for warm sun and sandals.

Over the last few weeks, I have been working hard to get everything ready for my departure. I have done my taxes, found someone to take my car, hired a long-term substitute to take my place at school, acquired international travel insurance, purchased my airline ticket & Visas and confirmed my itinerary. Needless to say, it has been a very busy couple of months, but so exciting. The only thing left to do is rent my house. I have had some interest in it and if all goes well it will be rented by next week. Please pray that the person I offer it to decides to live here.

As it turns out the details of leaving are much easier than the emotional and spiritual transformation that needs to take place as one leaves their home to love the least of these. Over the last year I have been asking God to help me learn how to love him and how to love others. There have been times where I feel my heart might burst with the love I feel inside and times where my heart feels empty, angry and consumed with selfishness. And I think how can I go out into the world and love the most vulnerable with such a divided heart? I am scared that I will not love well. But, I also know that God’s perfect love inside me casts out all fear of inadequacy, so I am stepping into places where my love for God and my love for others will be my only security. My deepest desire in leaving is to love well, so if you pray for me, pray that I learn to love deeply from the heart.

The second reason for this African adventure is to listen to the stories of the most vulnerable. God has told me that he has something to say about himself through these dear people and that those people are his beloved as well as our responsibility. I have felt this longing to be God’s storyteller. I don’t know where it came from or why I feel that way, but I feel the closest to Jesus when I respectfully tell the stories of the least, the lost and the left out. So, I hope you follow my blog and read the stories of the people I encounter. It is my hope to honor them by showing the beauty of God inside them. It is also my hope to encourage you to become more deeply involved with the widows and orphans of the world. Please pray that God uses these stories to wake the church up to the plight of the poor and the sick.

Where am I going?

April 8-15—I will be visiting Christ Presbyterian Church’s sponsored students at Daystar University.

April 15-May 5—I will be in Ogembo, Kenya. (A small rural mountain village) My friend James lives there and has started a school for orphans there. James has now sent a container of donated books, school supplies & Bibles to his school in Ogembo. I will live with James’ family and help organize and donate these materials and books. The school has previously been without books and the church without Bibles, so this will be an incredible blessing to the community.

May 5-August 15—I will be in Kampala, Uganda living with Simon Kabi at Corner Stone. Corner Stone is a ministry that cares for street orphans. They have several guardian homes in Kampala & Gulu that house girls and boys who had previously been on the street. At these homes they are loved, educated and discipled. I will be developing relationships with these children. It should be exciting to see how God uses me to love them.

Mid-June—I will visit my brother and sister-in-law’s sponsored kids.

July 18-19—I will be in Rakai to visit my own sponsored kids.

I will also be visiting Opportunity International and International Justice Mission while I am there. Dates for those visits are still in process. I will also be spending time with Veronica & Johnson, dear friends of mine and of CPC.

It will certainly be a beautiful, painful, inspiring and challenging adventure. Thank you for supporting and encouraging me. It means more to me than you could possibly know. If you want to contact me while I am gone you can use my regular email address. I hope to hear from you!