Africa Wrap-Up

Today is exactly one month that I have been home from Africa, so I guess I better wrap up the rest of the trip. We left Buchanan on Wednesday morning and headed back to Monrovia, the capital city and our last stop. At this point in the trip, I was really missing my family and it felt good to be arriving at our last city. This was another travel day, so I spent much of my time just getting to know the Liberian students better and enjoying their company. Here's a picture of the view out the front doors of the ABC house in Monrovia. At the end of the day, Palmer and Colby gathered us all together (the band, the basketball team, the leadership team, and all the Liberians that had been traveling with us) and led us in a time of worship, prayer, and reflection. I can't really describe how good it felt to praise the Lord together and agree together in prayer with these wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ except to say that it felt like a little piece of heaven. Colby asked us all to share what surprised us and what we'll most remember. This was a critical moment in the trip for me because of what I learned next. But before I tell you what I learned, let me wrap up the rest of the trip. Thursday I helped out at the pastor's conference, and Friday, our last full day there, we found out that our last concert scheduled for that night was cancelled. The local pastor that was in charge of booking the event and promoting it, was wrapped up in caring for his wife and daughter, who had stage four malaria. So, it didn't get booked or promoted. The band was disappointed. I was extremely disappointed. I am a hard worker, a doer, a go-getter, an accomplisher, and I was frustrated that I didn't get a chance to do more. But God had other plans, and part of that plan was to teach me a big lesson. So, back to what I learned.

Although I have been on many missions trips before, I have to admit that prior to going on this trip, I was very critical of the cost of missions trips and how we could use that money to send so many more needed supplies to the people. Let me explain: the cost of this trip was $3,400 for each person that went, and my mind was thinking of how many more mosquito nets or shoes we could have sent with that money instead. But as the Liberians talked that night about what they would remember most about our trip there, they didn't focus on the supplies we had donated to their people (although they were extremely grateful), what they did talk about was how much it meant to them that we, people, came to get to know them and show them love. Our presence and hands extended in friendship did more to give them hope than anything we brought or anything we did. And that is why I went - to bring them HOPE! Shoes are good, but they wear out. Mosquito nets are good, but they don't last forever. Medicine may heal the body temporarily, but HOPE is eternal. And although neither the Liberians nor myself will ever know a life without problems or the realization of all of our earthly hopes, we both possess something that no one can take from us, something that can never be destroyed - HOPE in a God that so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. That is why I went to Africa, and that is why I want to return.