What to Blog...

I had thought that after a week I would take each day of my trip and blog about it specifically one day at a time.  Now that the time is here I am still unsure of what to focus on as I try to describe the adventure God sent me on.  As I sit down each night I think I'll just see what happens and where God leads me.  Gradually friends from my group are uploading more and more pictures to our Shutterfly site, which has already got me talking and thinking different things.

My thoughts today, however, dwell on those friends and what an amazing gift they were and will be in my life.  On the plane ride out there I had the clear thought, as I was reading The Circle Maker, that God needed to break me of my routine.  That He needed to pull and "all stop" on my day to day.  It is a little funny to think that He had to send me to East Africa so that He could open me up again, but that seems like what he did.  Time, days, schedules, routines, comfort zone...all gone.  What is left is a very raw and ready mind.  It made each person I met a pastor in my eyes, a gift, and deliverer of His word.

Normal breakfast, with a juice called "cocktail"  Sooooo tasty!

Today I am been thinking about Bobby, our co-leader.  While I only had 2 real conversations with him, they are both powerful, unique and worth the price of admission.  Breakfast, was simple each morning.  A buffet, instant coffee, meat and potatoes, cereal and fruit...then there were the fancy loaves of bread in the shape of animals....don't know what they were about, if they were fresh each morning or if anyone ate them.  One of the cool things about breakfast was that you ended up sitting with someone different each morning, depending upon when you staggered down.  John and I were up by 5:45-6ish and down to breakfast around 6:30-7ish.  That gave us plenty of time to read, pray, listen to the Muslim singing (actually at 5:40, but it makes the story sound better this way) and enjoy a relaxing breakfast.

After a day or two of the fruit and puff cereal I was feeling nauseous on the bus so I figured my stomach had no idea what time it was and wanted hearty food...thus I tried the beef and potatoes at 7am...nope, still unhappy belly and head

Anyway, one morning I sat with Bobby, Jeff and John and we got to talk about God's calling and our own pride.  Bobby said something that will stick with me for a long time time.  God wants to break us down and put us in situations that we feel we cannot handle because it leaves us only one alternative - turning to Him.  The moment we look at a situation or job that God has given us and say, "I got this, no problem" we are in trouble because we think we don't need Him.  We think we are strong enough on our own.  Philippians 4:13, one of my favorite verses and favorite songs...in the NKJ it says, 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  Amazing Matthew West song called Strong Enough that gives me chills...the whole album, in fact, is true stories of tough situations people go through only to find the power and strengthen in Christ - bought it for my Mom I loved it so much.

Bobby on the left and Yvonne on right.  Neither one of them stopped smiling, ever and are amazing representatives for Christ, America and Compassion.

So with all of the struggle we each feel right now and all of the "where are you God?"...as Brandon said in group on Wednesday, "I looks like we are where God wants us to be." 

The only thing my iPhone was good for was watching Star Wars in the airport and taking small video clips.  My hand written journal wasn't going so well so I started just taking 10-30 second clips of myself and how I felt after an event.  Some are powerful and choke me up now and some are like this...not so deep.

 Also started to look at the people in my life here and what amazing creations God has made in them.  In Africa, each new person I was asking "OK God, so what are you showing me here."  Why do I have to go to Africa to see the beauty in the creations he places around me everyday?