I still can't quite nail down exactly what to write so I will give you the summary... its better than nothing!
It was a long trip over there but this was one of our first views when we arrived!
And lunch on Day 2 was one of our first encounters with the local food.
We are pretty sure this is where Chris got sick. He felt a little unsettled later in the day and by the next morning he was done for. Which then resulted in him spending a good amount of our trip like this...
He hated me for taking this picture but I assured him it was solely for the sake of photo documentation! Now I am really in the trouble for sharing my great photo journalism skills with you lovelies! =\ oops! I'll do another post in a little bit of all the pictures I took of Chris when he was up and about to make up for it!!!
It turns out he got an amoeba. He was sick for our whole trip and was not fully healthy until almost a month after our return. The feelings of exhaustion similar to mono and stomach issues like you wouldn't believe. This was a frustrating and humbling experience for him to say the least.
Our team spent our time doing the following...
*** Taking surveys to help determine what the greatest needs are amongst the locals in regards to health issues. This is to help one of the local organizations make more informed decisions about the programs they choose to implement.
*** Shopping... of course for the sake of building relationships with the locals! =)
*** Trying not to get devoured by mosquitos (or get malaria!)
*** We also had a couple of opportunities to go into some more remote villages. This was a great time for cultural exchange conversations. We had the chance to sit down with the leaders of the village and many others and ask questions back and forth about life as they know it in Africa and then in return they would ask us questions about life in America. It was so interesting to see that although our lives look so different we are more the same than we realize. The problems look different on the surface but when you look deeper to the core struggles and challenges the roots are almost identical. These conversations were probably more direct than conversations our team is used to having in the US. Hopefully their thoughtfulness and intentionality with their answers is a skill they have brought back to the states with them. And we of course loved playing and singing with the kiddos!!
*** Almost every afternoon we taught English to about a dozen students for 2 hours. We had 2 classes. In one class we taught basic conversational English like greetings, days of the week, numbers, and things of that nature. The other class taught more advanced concepts to those students who already had the basic vocabulary. This became our favorite part of the day! We were able to have so much fun with our students!!
*** We were able to hear the testimony from a brother who had just been released from prison and the hospital. He had been wrongfully beaten and arrested just days earlier from sharing the love of the Father freely with others. It was definitely an image and a message we won't forget as we saw the bandages both on him and his wife as he told us his Father was worth it!
*** We also we are able to see some people get dunked! Which was a blessing we weren't anticipating. This was the fruits of many years of faithfulness of others and we just happened to be there at the right time. No pictures of this just to keep everyone involved safe (see last post!)
*** Our team was also able to join in with some American friends we had made to play volleyball a couple of times a week. That resulted in some fun had by all and a back injury for Becky.
*** NOTE: Dear future ISP team leaders. Take a team photo with the banner as soon as you step of the plane because you never know how long your whole team will be together and this could be your only team picture!!! haha!
*** When the back injury got worse instead of better that resulted in a trip in a medical plane to Nairobi and 5 nights in a hospital for both Becky and me. Not quite how I thought I would be spending my time but I am sure the Lord was not surprised by all of this. It was quite the adventure. Becky and I made it back to the states only one day later than the rest of the team
We have been asked by many about our time in Africa. The only way we have been able to describe it is "painfully awesome". From Chris getting sick, to struggling to nail down our task and get into a groove, to managing a group of students who stretched us in ways never imagined (good and bad), to spending the end of the time nearly alone in a hospital... nothing seemed to go how we would have planned. And at times we were frustrated at not knowing why God brought us to Africa, why were things not clicking or why did we leave a one year old at home.
AM I WORTH IT? Thats the question we heard from God.
Even if we weren't sure we made a difference with the people in Africa or with our team... was it worth it? We had to get to the point of simple obedience to the call of Christ being enough to make our time there worth it. Worth everything. Worth getting ridiculously ill. Worth missing out on the sightseeing adventures. Worth giving up 3+ hours a week for 5 months for training. Worth the money it cost to go. Worth missing out on nearly a month of your child's life.
There is something sweet about surrendered obedience to the Lord.
And HE is enough. HE is worth it.
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