My whole life, I’ve dreamed of Africa. Of saving child soldiers, of being a hero, of sacrificing my life for the greater good of humanity, of walking across burning desert sand in the heat of the day to the only water source for miles. I can’t explain to yall how long I’ve dreamt of the day when my feet would hit African soil, my face would feel the heat from the burning sun, and little pitch black children would be running down the side of the street wherever I walked. I know, I’m such a romantic. It’s kind of embarrassing sometimes.
Right as the wheels of the plane touched the ground in Kenya, the line in the song I was listening to was ‘til the prayers you pray become reality, and the earth looks just like heaven.’ It was one of those simple little life moments when you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Lord hears your heart, and your prayers.
I haven’t even been here for that long, and my heart is already overflowing with love for this place. My dream is coming true. I felt so claustrophobic in Nicaragua and the Philippines, and its like I can finally breathe for the first time – I’ve realized He may have used those places for the sole purpose of completely breaking me into who I am now, so I’d be prepared for such a time as this, in Malawi. There’s so much joy and love in my heart, so much excitement and desire to pour everything I have and more into this land and these children of God. I want to focus so much on God that no one can see anything else but His face when they look at me.
I’ve been thinking…. I’m very much like a paper airplane. I’m simple, common, nothing special, an everyday household item, I’m white ( jokelang!!!), I’ve been crumpled up, dirtied, written and scribbled all over by a million different people, I’ve collected wear and tear as times gone on- but if I allow the right person to fold me the right way…. I can fly. The Lord can still use me, just like He used Moses and Esther and Peter and Amos – ordinary folk – to do incredible, inhuman things – He can allow me to fly.
I truly have no idea what’s in store for me and the rest of my squad, but I know its going to be good, I know that God is good and that He also has a ridiculous sense of humor, I know that the Lord intended each person on my squad specifically to be here and no one else could be here in any of our steads, I know that I have a backpack full of clothes, a Bible that’s so used its in 7 pieces, and a suitcase full of blessings- and while its not that much, it’s all I really need.
See you in May, ‘Murica.
Its been real.
ISreal. 😉
