Last night

we un-stacked our memories. We recited them in un-alphabetical order, those moments that make our hearts sparkle.

Life is tough

Adventure is the product of a curious mind, and itchy feet.
It is forgoing plans, and simply going.
It is enjoying each moment you have RIGHT NOW, and not looking back.
It is facing into the wind, facing the sun, facing your life-and then diving in full of spirit and no regrets.
And if we try, our entire lives can be an adventure.
Whether through little things or big things, adventure comes with blood and lungs and hearts; it's tied into the package of living, and hopefully we may sprout wings and indulge ourselves in it.

good grief, what is this? poetry?

Hair and wine, happy in le sublime.
Waste and water, mix in uniform shapes
to be greedied into the mouths of the ignorant gluttons.
Gross and detestable hunger, pumping forth brutality
and the gnashing of teeth.
Flies dining and children dying. Or the reverse, more likely.
One happens, thus the other happens.
Things fall in succession, and last of all are the flies. Idiots
with no brains,
who live to carry on the race,
and who die in an irritating buzz; catapult to the earth.
Life given to another generation.
A mother’s spirit passed onto an unknowing child, a happy heart torn by darkness;
a baby’s wail forgotten in blind pain.
A museum of lives, wrenched from the fingers of the owners.
A cemetery of sorrow, the hospital, the jail, the jungle, the novel. With all that is broken,
yet the light is warm,
and the cold is overshadowed by cliffs
of overarching hope.
And the point is this, that pain and happiness are one,
but flipped, like a coin,
by the circumstantial evidence.
And whether the light is orange or blue, exertions and emotions are fingered and felt,
like the wind and the storm.
From body bags comes life.
Thus, thus, the end all.

blurbing..more actually summarizing

Africa. The word itself encapsulates mystery. It brings to mind untouched tribes, suffocatingly lush jungles, lions sleeping under trees, elephants spewing river water over their backs in the heat of the sun, along with the everyday danger and adventure. It’s where the wild things actually are. Historically, it reminds us of what a colonized and conquered nation resembles, and the effects are still quite visible. The land is scarred by centuries of warfare, and even now there are areas which are beyond the reach of reason and sanity, caught in fresh combat; where the stench of suffering is rife.

So why am I going to this place? What is calling me to the African savannahs?

Is it too cheesy to say that on March 19th (yes, I actually remember the day-the moment even) I felt God touch my heart for Africa in such an undeniable way that the natural reaction, the only thing one could possibly have done, was to immediately fall into action? I knew that God was calling me to serve in Africa, as soon as possible. Initially, I wanted to take time off of college life and take a teaching position in Cairo, Egypt.

The opportunity came through the open option to take time off of school and “get lost in the wilderness for a while”. In the Bible, Moses wanders into the wilderness, and it is there that he runs into God. The idea has appealed to me for a while, and was rekindled by divine intervention back in March. Unfortunately, Egypt didn’t work out. However, God connected the wires for me to go to another awesome place in Africa; to Blantyre, Malawi, to be an elementary school teacher…for 10 months. Sa-weet!

I don’t know how it happened, but everything fell together-timing, dates, available space, enough money, open arms-and I was offered the opportunity to go with the La Mesa team to gear up for Tanzania (which is right above Malawi, by the way) for the two weeks before my teaching career begins, in early August.

Hands free, without much effort at all, everything was settled. All I had to do was nod my head to God and He got the wheels turning in every single facet. It’s been the most amazing experience merely to watch God work. It has been my pleasure to be working also in Tanzania and I cannot fathom how God will use us, mold us, and reveal to us the ways that we can serve Him during this time. Cheers!