Using What God Has Given Us
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
SimplyJosh.com has now moved to DownloadYouthMinistry.com - follow this link to visit the new site with new posts everyday!
Just posted this great article from Neal Benson about his recent trip to Africa. Here's a clip, head there if you want to read the rest. Good stuff, great reminder today:
JGAfter traveling for over 30 hours we finally landed.
We had been planning this trip for the last three months and we are finally here. My wife looked over at me and with a huge smile said: “I can’t believe we are in Africa, I have always wanted to come here”. I looked over at her at just smiled back, I never thought to myself I never thought God would take me here. We were in Burkina Faso, the third poorest country in the world. One in three kids die before the ago of 10 and the life expectancy is 42 years old. The average worker makes $2 a day, if they have a job and 87% of the population is unemployed. These are just some of the stats that I learned in the car ride from the airport.We arrived at the guest house, what would be our base of operation for the next two weeks. I didn’t sleep the first night, I guess it didn’t matter we got in at 3am. I was just so shocked that God had brought me here. I kept wondering, why me God? What do you want with this pale white kid that was raised the mountains? Why did you bring me to Africa? The answers to these questions would come, it just took some time and listening to God.
The first day we went and did a tour of the churches we would be roofing and the pastors we would be partnering with. The team of twelve ranged from a High School senior to a 65 year old VP of some big company, we were a different team. As we drove around I just kept looking at all the people. I was amazed, I don’t think I had ever seen so many people out in the streets just hanging out with each other. I didn’t really know what to make of it and had to remind myself of the unemployment.
After working on some roofs and totally blowing the minds of the missionaries in Burkina, I guess we worked to fast we took some time to paint a church that has a center for Compassion International at it. We started sanding and next thing I knew there was 20 kids in the room with us, they just wanted to help. I started working with some of them and had them help me. I looked over and my wife was just sitting with them, she was taking time to spend with them. She got it, I had missed it. I was focused on the job and not the people. It is usually the other way around.
posted by Unknown @ 1:26 PM |
SimplyJosh.com has now moved to MoreThanDodgeball.com - follow this link to visit the new site with new posts everyday!
