Please Don't Send Me to Africa

When I was twelve, I was in a musical called “Please Don’t Send Me to Africa.” I had a solo in the “title song”…the lyrics were:

“Please don’t send me to Africa; I don’t think I’ve got what it takes. I’m just a man, I’m not a Tarzan, don’t like lions, gorillas, or snakes. I’ll serve you here in suburbia in my comfortable, middle-class life. But please don’t send me out into the bush where the natives are restless at night.”

I don’t remember much about my worldview back then. I can’t even tell you if I really grasped the message of that musical (which was, essentially, that missions trips are good and all Christians are called to a global awareness and to care about what happens to the world – close to home and far away.) I can tell you that, more than once, I’ve heard myself tell someone that I don’t feel “called” to missions (at least not full-time). And I I can tell you that when I was 12 years old, singing that spoofy song, I fully expected to never set foot on African soil. Most reading this blog know how that turned out...

When my pastor started talking about partnering with a village in Uganda, I knew almost immediately that I would go at some point. It didn’t take long for it to be determined that I would actually be going on the very first trip in a series of trips that our church will be taking for the next 5-7 years. I’m soooo thankful that I had the opportunity to be a part of that group. Before I went to Uganda, my mother told me, “People just don’t go to Africa and come back unchanged.” I’m here to tell you that her words were nothing less than prophetic for me. I feel like it may be a little cliché to say that my trip to Uganda “changed my life,” but I assure you…in this particular case, it’s no exaggeration. Through this trip, God accelerated something in me…something that has been at work for a long time. Looking back over the course of my life, I can point to several instances when God was giving me a glimpse of his heart for the poor and courting me into adulthood with a deepening passion for loving people who might otherwise be forgotten.

Since returning from Uganda, I have just had a very strong sense that it’s time to move full-steam ahead into God’s calling to me to stand for justice. This kind of call can look like a lot of things for different people. For me, so far it has looked like a lot of research, thinking, dreaming, praying, and a commitment to obedience as God opens doors for me to put my faith into action. The first “opened door”? I’m headed to India!

In two weeks, I’ll be heading to Delhi, India with a team of people coming together under the umbrella of Children’s Hopechest (the organization my church, The River, is working with in our partnership with Oditel, Kapelebyong in Uganda). This is a vision trip – CHC’s first entry into India – during which we will be working primarily with a school in Delhi. Our goal will be to get a good idea of the way that they run the school, assess the needs they have, get to know and love on the kids, and explore avenues for partnership in ministry. Additionally, we’ll be spending some time with a couple of anti-trafficking organizations to explore possibilities for partnership there.

Through this blog, I hope to be able to share with you some of the ways that God is stirring my heart and preparing me for this trip. I hope to share stories of the trip. And I hope to invite you to walk alongside me as I seek to walk in obedience to God’s call on my life.