In Faith

Flying 8,300 miles from home is hard for the heart. Flying from America to a country that is full of poverty? Breaks your heart into 1,000 little pieces. Everything that seemed to matter in the states seems irrelevant there.

 I have seen Ethiopian and Ugandan villages fight for dirty, disease-ridden water, young kids struggle with incurable diseases, mothers hide their babies from fear of  local witch doctors using their child as a sacrifices to theirs gods.  The world is lost.

I had the opportunity to stay in Ethiopia for another month.  As I entertained the idea, the Lord made it very clear to me that I would be acting out of fear because if I stayed in Ethiopia, I wouldn't have to think about that I have yet to find a job.  I wouldn't have to face the rejection of the job search.  I wouldn't have to worry about finances and paying back my student loans.  I could serve and love the fatherless.  My comfort zone became Ethiopia.  When I saw the broken, hungry and poor, I knew what to do, I knew my place in the villages.   I fully trusted the Lord to provide for the villages and saw His hand in all we did.

It took more faith for me to board the plane and head back to the States than it would have been to stay in Africa.  I am returning to situations that are unknown and unfamiliar. I have no plan for my next step.  Selfishly I wanted to stay, the Lord made it clear that Ethiopia is not my promised land.  This trip has prepared me for something greater (and truly only the Lord knows).  I hope to be back one day but with saying that, the Lord can competely change my heart.

My heart is for the unreached.  The power and urgency of the Gospel is deeply woven into my heart.  At times over the past month I became desperate about getting the power of His Word across.  I need to learn how to transfer that passion to a place that lives in excess.