Africa Update

Deciding to spend 6 months in Africa isn't a decision that one kind of comes to casually. I'm very aware of this. It took many days of walking around school with a blank stare on my face (because my mind was hard at work; it's weird I know, it's just what I do), and laying awake in bed many a night wondering what I should do. Well. I made the decision, and here I am. I arrived on January 21st, and now it's the 26th (got a little under 5 months before I'm "stateside" again). This Monday I'm traveling into the nearby country of Mozambique (looking at several trips there over these next few months). Today I traveled to the mission base for the organization I'm working with. I spent the day demolishing a bathroom. I know some might think after traveling 9,000 miles to a foreign place, "now I'm just doing manual labor?". However, I enjoyed it greatly... I don't know what it is exactly, but after months of working only for myself (though as believers we never really work only for ourselves), there is something magnificently joyous about using my own two hands to be a service to fellow believers. My greatest fear is still present however- it's my fear of not being useful. Sure, I'm here to learn (and the seminary classes are very instrumental in that department... so is watching people fix trucks), but I'm afraid of NOT being useful- just being a burden to those I've worked so hard these last couple of months to serve with. Matthew 19:29 says: "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life." I realize what I've "left behind" to come here, but with the given verse above, I realize (even if it's slightly taken out of context), God WILL use me if I submit to Him- even if the use comes later from learning from THESE experiences.