Not A Location

"How long are you going to be in Ireland?" the immigration agent asked me. "Twenty-four hours," I exclaimed, "and I'm going to make the most of it!" 

I finished my tropical medicine course on Saturday and flew to Dublin Sunday, where I had a twenty-four hour layover before my Monday morning flight to the United States. With the help of an amazing missionary family, the day-long whirlwind was just what I was hoping for. They picked me up from the airport, took me to church, gave me a picnic lunch in a beautiful park, let me join their house church in the evening, and then took me on a hike on Howth peninsula through a rhododendron forest to a high point where we watched the sun set over the Irish Sea. It was just as magical as it sounds, except even more. As I watched the sky change colors and the city lights begin to sparkle in the dusk, I couldn't help but think about how I would have never ended up here if I didn't have some locals to take me off the beaten path. As an average tourist, I would have never known about this place. 

It made me think about the beauty of Jesus and how he romances us, and how I would never be where I am today if I hadn't trusted him to take me off the beaten path. 

Upon returning to their house, we popped popcorn and watched Call The Midwife, which ironically enough included a patient who had a tropical disease (to which I yelled out, "Hey, tropical disease!") called strongyloides (to which I yelled out, "We just studied that!) and had to consult a specialist at the school of tropical diseases in Liverpool (to which I yelled out, "I was just there!"). 

Stongyloides, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, trypanosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis, and giardiasis are just a few of the "isis-es" I've been studying over the past few weeks, and I see just how much the Lord has used this course to connect the dots for me between what I've seen in Burkina and what I've studied in Liverpool. I'm so ready to go back and put into practice everything I've learned; I have a thousand ideas in my head about how to apply what I've received. 

The course rekindled the fire in me that made me want to be a nurse in the first place. Having recently fallen into the I'm-just-a-nurse syndrome, I felt like I didn't have much to offer. However, taking this course with sixty other amazing nurses who have been all over the world, hearing lecturers inspire us, and being reminded of how important nurses are as community health agents, change agents, advocates, educators, and compassionate caregivers, I realize just how thankful and honored I am to be a nurse. 

More than that, I have been refreshed by fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in the UK and Ireland who are living out God's mission in a different context than me, but under the same direction and inspiration of the Holy Spirit with a passion to see Jesus made famous among the nations...starting with the people God has called them to. 

As a new friend said, "Missions is about a mindset and an attitude of the heart, not a location." 

I'm on my Delta flight, sitting on the runway, reflecting on all these thoughts, feelings, and experiences from Africa, the U.K., and Ireland. My next stop is America for a two week trip to see my wonderful family, and then a much-anticipated return to Burkina Faso. It's a small world, they say. But it's really not. We just have a very big, global God. A God who takes us off the beaten path and romances us all the way.