Mission: HOPE

WHAT I LEARNED IN AFRICA

• I learned that children are happy with love, shelter, and food.  That’s about it.
• Regardless of what all the books tell you about traveling to third world countries and how not to give away things (which can promote begging), don’t be afraid to stop and listen to a child.  They might only need just a pen to go to school.
• Love can cover all.  Looking a Kenyan in the eye and loving them face to face can cover a multitude.
• When you travel to another country, you represent America.  Represent well.  You will be the America they will perceive.
• When you travel to another country with a Christian mission group, you represent Christ.  Represent well.
• Apologies can go a long way.  Apologize well.
• Most people respond hugely to a genuine heart.  Love well.
• We Americans are rich, rich, rich.  One sweet college girl we met said that our “ghetto” (which she saw in American movies) looked like the houses they consider “nice” in Kenya.  Their Kibera ghetto is the largest slum in Africa, replete with raw sewage.
• A manual sewing machine can change the life of an entire family.
• There are many, many unsung heroes.  The quiet ones who faithfully serve.  A man named “Pastor Gideon” in Kenya is one of them.  My missionary friend, Roberta, is another.
• A missionary is just an average person who steps out of their comfortable life in America, who does extraordinary things and exhibits great courage, though they wouldn’t say they are courageous.  Missionaries work tirelessly, with little recognition or recompense.  They fight loneliness.  Sometimes, a missionary just needs to be one of the gang J
• I have too much “stuff”.
• There is just something about Kenyan tea.  I believe I will now need milk in my tea now.
• “Asante” is the Swahili word for “thank you”.  Everyone responds to a sincere thank you J
• I wish I had found my calling when I was 20 years old.   However, some of the neatest people I met on this trip, branched out to do their calling during retirement.
• A small gift like needles and thread are a rare commodity.
• In Kenya, if you have aches and pains, you suffer.  If you have a headache, you suffer.  Because you don’t generally have access to something so simple as aspirin or ibuprofen.
•  We live complicated lives.  In the Kenyan countryside, you need a good cow and maybe some chickens.
• I just as easily could have been born in a third world country, as I was - born in this country.  Someday, I will be called to account for what I did with all my wealth.
• I never, ever wanted to go to Africa.  I never, ever wanted to be a missionary.  I never, ever had a desire to sleep under a mosquito net.  I never, ever wanted to be in a country where I could fear for my life.  I now add Africa to the places in the world which I love and hope to go back to again someday.