South Africa
So it’s happened…I want to travel!!
I need to see the world!
I need to go back to South Africa. I need to spend time in Europe. I want to see Australia.
I want to learn customs from the natives. I want to see national landmarks.
I want to learn languages.
I want to travel.
What do you love? Well I love lots of things. I love my family. I love Dwight. But you know one of my favorite things in the world? Shopping! I love shopping…probably on even a deeper level than I love pizza! (and I could eat pizza everyday!)
I find myself wandering the mall, searching the websites, reading Vogue, Marie Claire, and numerous others, always searching for the next trend and style. What’s new for spring? What colors are hot for summer? And recently Pintrest has added to my obsession. Yet another place for me to sit and desire what other people have. Thousands of pictures that show me the stuff I can’t have.
{Materialistic}
That’s a good word for me.
I may not care about my car, I may not care about my electronics, I don’t always have to have the best phone or computer, but throw a fashion magazine at me and I’m a goner. A fur hat for $432 suddenly becomes something I canNOT live without! And of course I have to have a pair of Coach Rainboots! I mean you can’t expect me to make it through a rainy spring/summer without them!?
The time spent in Chad really opened my eyes to this.
I value my stuff, a lot. It is part of my identity, how I define myself is by my material possessions.
(I think that’s why dress codes have always bothered me–but that’s another discussion for another time)
How I look and how I present myself, my style, all are ways I define myself. So when I am not able to wear what I want, own the brands I love, look how I desire, I am discontent. Stuff matters to much to me.
When I visited Chad, the amount of stuff I own was really put into perspective. I own a lot of stuff, probably to much stuff. I need to purge my life of stuff.
{Materialistic} a way of life that leads to discontentment.
As I hope the title conveys, this blog post is a little more serious in nature.
It’s just something I can’t get out of my mind.
{The Faces}
On this trip I was exposed to something that I never would have seen, if I had stayed home in my bubble of comfort.
:The Reality of Human Trafficking:
A harsh reality that I can’t stop thinking about. A harsh reality that impacts people all over the world.
I now know that this is something that I cannot just sit by and let happen. I cannot see these innocent children’s faces and not do something.
To be honest I don’t know what’s next, but I am seeking what the next step is.
{Prayer}
Pray for the victims. Pray for those working to raise awareness. Pray for the next step.
http://www.thea21campaign.org/home.php
A21 Campaign~ check it out. The statistics are rather shocking. Our eyes need to be opened.
So my dear readers, you may have noticed that I have been uncharacteristically quiet the past two weeks. Well I was in Africa…
But I am {Back}
And ready to share with you the many lessons I learned on this journey
I’ll start with a few challenges from 2 Corinthians 4 (the passage Team Chad worked on memorizing)
4:1 Therefore seeing we have this ministry as we have received mercy, we faint not
My prayer for the week was to remember that this ministry was for God. It was not to be done in my own strength, it couldn’t be done on my own strength. The phrase “we faint not” really rang true during this trip. Now Chad is HOT! like 109 degrees of hot–with temperatures up in 110’s to 120’s. Yes it was hot, and I do not handle heat well. But I claimed this verse during this week. We have receive such great mercy from the Lord. This mercy allows to do things that we never thought possible. This mercy is what gets us out of bed in the morning and allows us to have any impact at all. The Lord’s mercy keeps us from fainting.
I experienced this mercy, I literally did not faint.
I spent a great portion of this trip in the OR. I love the OR and I rarely feel nauseous or faint. But with the heat, that then intensified the smells, I was on the verge of a fainting spell. Not something I wanted to happen in an all male OR with very little common language. So I carefully slipped out and sat along the wall willing myself not to faint, chugging my lukewarm water.
{and I didn’t faint}
It’s moments like these that are humbling to me. I was so weak, yet God revealed His mercy to me.
God’s mercy was given to me so many times on this trip.
~Thank you Lord for this mercy~
To most this day is known as Pie Day, or possibly Brad’s birthday (if you’re a family member). But to me–this is the day of a grand adventure! For today myself and four nursing students, along with two faculty members, embark on a medical missions trip to Chad, Africa.
Chad-a landlocked, dry country. A land filled with animals that scare me to death! A culture with one of the highest death rates during child birth. A culture that I honestly do not know much about.
{And So The Adventure Begins}
I cannot express the anxiety and the excitement that seem to go hand in hand when I think about this trip. Adrenaline possibly, but I believe that most of it the excitement to see what God is going to do! This trip, from the beginning, was being led by God. Originally the trip was to an orphanage in another country, but God had other plans. After He closed the door, the door for Chad was opened in less than 48 hours. God is in control!
My dear readers now I have all these questions! What will happen? Who will I meet? What will I learn?
~Be looking for updates and upcoming posts about the adventures~
skmusings 