Something I learned the first time I went on a mission trip, nearly 9 years ago is that every time you go somewhere and serve someone, part of you is being served too. Those things you're feeling and learning in the physical moment stick with you. As you tell people stories of these experiences different parts will reach different people and every time your story will be somewhat different, so please understand as I try to describe the amazing work of the people and of God, that this story is mine and also that of the 12 other people I traveled with and that of the many people I encountered, and is therefore a relatively impossible task.
From the moment we arrived it was like we were in another world, not for the reasons you're probably thinking, but because of the livelihood of the people we met. Everyone we met was so gracious and enthusiastic. Every person who introduced themselve, whether to a small group or a full room, stood and announced "I am [so and so] and I am saved by my Lord, Jesus Christ" and they meant it. People who were actively living like God is their Lord, giving their lives to serve in church and school ministries. They were inspiring and so moving.
Some of the things were able to do was visiting different ministries of the Maua Methodist Hospital. We saw an agricultural training farm where people were being trained in the best ways to raise livestock and grow produce with the resources they have. We visited a boys farm for young men in the village to go and stay and learn how to make a living for their family and for God, despite that many of these boys had previously turned to drugs. The boy's farm gives them shelter with a means to rehabilitate them and return them to their families with purpose and pride. Probably our most moving visit was to the churches and school houses where we saw more children than you could count who had hiked hours just to be there, so eager to learn and root themselves in this place. Their worship service was completely different than any I'd ever attended. It was alive and flowing with passion as they translated back and forth just for us. I was in awe.
The work we did included raising funds (in advance from all over the West District of the United Methodist Church) to donate a water well to a local school so children could have access to clean drinking water. We built a house for orphans of AIDS victims, put on a medical camp in the village, walked and prayed in the pediatric units and continued the long building of a security wall at Maua Methodist Hospital. I am so utterly blessed to have been part of these projects God is doing in Maua. I saw His people come together and an unimaginable amount of labor get done in a ridiculously small amount of time. The work was not even half the trip. It was the love and the devotion and the mercy of something many people don't get to experience. It is something I would not have gotten to experience if not for some very generous people, an uplifting team, supportive family and friends, or the God of the Universe always calling me.
I first told my mom I was going to go to Africa when I was 11 years old. I don't think she really believed me until I called her at 19 and told her I payed the deposit on a trip. I have never been more excited and nervous and terrified and hopeful in my life. In the months just before we left the states I was overcome with inexplicable fear and worry. I didn't know if I could do it, travel that far, miss the first week and a half of the semester, be unsure of my contact to home. I used excuses like diseases in the area and monetary restrictions, but God had a plan. He was in every person who encouraged me. He was in every financial gift that helped me. I could try my damnedest to run away, but God had a plan for me. and He does for you. Maybe His plan for you is Africa. Maybe it is something right where you are with the people you are nearest to. I believe in an almighty I AM. I believe in the Creator of the sun and the moon and the stars. I believe that every day He is reaching out to us to love one another, those close and those far away. I travelled to Kenya with an amazing group of people and we all had the full intent to go and love all that we could. The words I would need to describe the love we received don't exist.
"ALL CHRISTIANS ARE CALLED TO BE MISSIONARIES WITHIN THEIR SPHERES OF INFLUENCE" - Kezia Lewis
God will guide your footsteps if you are willing to move your feet.