Back to Africa

It's official. I received the invitation. I requested time off work. I contacted the travel agent. I even recruited my dad to come with me. I am going back to Africa!

I remember coming back from Burkina Faso, Africa, at the end of last summer, fired up about God's mission around the world and wondering what my role in that mission would be. I considered that trip to be a "stepping stone" in my own personal journey to cross-cultural mission work. Since that time, God has layed more stones - one at a time - and it seems like those stones are getting so close together that I am skipping across the river with delight. 

After much prayer and a few meetings with the missionaries from the team in Burkina Faso, the Lord is leading me once again to Africa. Although this trip will be a short one - only two weeks - the next trip after this will finally be the one where I am in for the long-haul. One more short survey before a one-way ticket. 

The Lord has been opening my eyes to see how everything in my life right now is preparing me for the next season in Burkina Faso, however long it may be. For example...

I have a job in labor and delivery that is preparing me to work alongside African midwives (and hopefully become one myself!). In Burkina, I hope to use my skills as a nurse to deliver babies and eventually help start a maternal/child medical clinic and care center. 

I have a leadership position in Bible Study Fellowship as a children's leader that is helping me learn to teach simple truths from the Bible using stories. It is interesting to me that Burkina is an oral culture (as opposed to our culture of literacy), which means that truths are best taught and expressed through oral methods such as story telling. 

I am taking a class called Perspectives that is radically preparing me for ministry in Africa. I have caught onto God's vision for the world and his heart for the nations, and now I am learning about the history of missions and strategies for reaching the world for Christ. I am also meeting other people who are passionate about missions, thus making connections with amazing people and resources. 

I have a new church home that is so very excited about the gospel and sharing it with others. Through their encouragement, I am challenged every week to be bold in my faith and to share the gospel with the people around me. I have never been surrounded by a people so enthusiastic about evangelism. They inspire me, and because of them evangelism has become a fire in my bones.

I am a part of a small group called "embracing the adventure", which is practically preparing me to embrace the adventure I will face in Africa. 

Even working the night shift is training my body to handle fatigue and to trust in God when I have no strength of my own. My exercise and physical training is equipping my body to handle the stresses of life in Africa. 

All these things (and many, many more smaller things that I don't have time or space to mention) are little stepping stones that are bridging the way for me to board that plane in May and venture into Burkina Faso once more. 

I remember being a sophomore in college with a big dream to be a real, live missionary. I would listen to seniors and recent grads tell their stories about how God had a perfect plan for them and directed all their steps to lead them to their "dream jobs". I saw how everything in their lives just seemed to "line up" while I still had no idea what I was going to do. I hoped from the bottom of my heart that God would do that for me, and now here I am, wanting to shout from the top of my lungs: "It is true! God does direct our steps, and he will make everything line up for you just like he has done for me."

But often, it does not look like a fully complete, study metal bridge arching across the waters. It looks like stepping stones. And you usually have to hop onto one before God lays the next one down. 

So here I go, hopping one more time onto another stone, onto another airplane for another adventure in Burkina Faso.