Having been in Africa for almost two weeks now, I have had a lot on my mind these days. I feel like my worldview has expanded--become much more of a worldview, both literally and in the abstract sense--and I am very grateful for it.
Recently I have been reminded of the brokenness of this world, the struggles we go through as human beings, and the sense of hopelessness that we could easily feel if we try to take it all on by ourselves.
I have been reminded of the need for money, but more importantly, the need for God--Jehovah Jireh, the One who provides and "owns the cattle on a thousand hills." (Psalm 50:10)
I have been made more aware of the significance of social media in this generation; and although we can try to "get away from it all", in many ways, we cannot. It is something that will not go away and we will have to learn how to best deal with it and use it in a way that is beneficial.
I have been made more aware of the negative effect your emotions can have on you--and that you should not be ruled by them for they can be extremely misleading. For example, you may feel alone, but are you really alone?
There's plenty more that has been going through my mind over these last couple of weeks; it would be impossible for me to put it it all into words. The good thing is that I do not have to. God knows it all and is in control of all things. He will reveal to me what needs to be revealed, let me wrestle through what I need to wrestle with, and lead me to the people and experiences that He wants to use to shape me into the man He wants me to be.
Whatever you may be going through, be encouraged. Remember that there is a big world out there, and that in light of God and eternity, there are a lot of things that may not matter after all. Of course, there is a balance to this as there is with anything. God does care about the little things. But beyond that, He wants the best for you. Trust that that is true, because it is.
He has overcome.
Through Him, we have overcome.
We. Can. Overcome.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Thursday, January 24, 2013
This is Africa.
It's been a little over a week since myself and 52 others left APU. We had a 5-hour flight from Los Angeles to Washington DC, which wasn't too bad; that was just the beginning. We then flew from DC to Johannesburg, South Africa with a stopover in Senegal (a country in West Africa). The total travel time was about 26 hours and we were all pretty exhausted by the end of it. On the flight from DC to Johannesburg I was given a seat at the front of the plane with no APU students nearby; I changed seats in Senegal (to sit with my fellow APUers) as I decided to sleep the whole way there from DC. I took a nap on the latter half of the flight too. Although the flight was somewhere around 17 hours it was not as bad as I'd thought it would be. We had plenty of movies to keep us entertained.
We spent the first night at a local hotel. We had dinner at a roadhouse across the street where the food was pretty good. The next day (Friday) we spent a good majority of the day touring Soweto, a local township where many of the blacks were forced to live during the apartheid era. It was interesting to see how both the rich and the poor live in such close proximity to each other. I must say though that South Africa as a whole is beautiful. One of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.
That evening we had our final flight (only one hour this time) from Johannesburg to Durban. Upon our arrival at the Johannesburg airport there was a large crowd of people blowing horns and dressed in attire in the colors of the South African flag. It turned out that the soccer teams were flying in for the Orange Cup, which is being hosted in South Africa this year. I felt like I was in a movie; the scene was unreal.
The flight to Durban had quite a bit of turbulence but was not too bad. Durban was warm and very humid when we got there. We had to drive somewhere between 60 and 90 minutes to get to African Enterprises, a conference center that would become our home for the next 11 weeks. I cannot express how great it felt to finally get there. We'd spent several days traveling and we were finally home!
The campus is beautiful. There's a waterfall only a couple hundred meters from most of our chalets. There is plenty of wildlife to go around; the campus is also near a game reserve which is home to zebras (pronounced zeh-bruhs in South Africa), rhinoceroses, monkeys, and a myriad of other creatures.
Over the weekend we had the remainder of our Orientation (the first half was held back in the States), which went well. We received a lot of information and it was quite overwhelming. We made a trip to the mall as well, which was huge! The mall is viewed as more of a luxury here, whereas in America it's more of just another place to go shopping. Converting money from dollars to Rands isn't too bad; one American dollar equals almost nine Rands.
On Sunday I hiked to the second of supposedly four waterfalls, which was quite the adventure. I as well as many others got cut up, bitten, muddy, soaked, and nearly everything else you could think of that happens outdoors. We had a blast though and it's a day I certainly won't be forgetting any time soon.
Classes started on Monday and today is now Thursday, so the first of six weeks of intensive classes is almost over. Life as a college student in South Africa is a tricky one; it's tempting to go out all the time and not do your school work as there is so much to do! Hiking, swimming, mall runs, dance classes, going to the movies, working out, and much more quickly fill up your free time. I went to a "hip-hop" (it was really much more than that) dance class on Monday night and had so much fun! South Africans can certainly dance!
The people here are extremely friendly, for the most part. They have a joy and a freedom that is seldom seen in America. It's tough to understand (thus difficult for me to explain) without having interacted with them. A man I spoke with this morning thought it was crazy that Americans are so protective over their children and buy guns like there's no tomorrow. I explained to him why this was so and he seemed to understand. Here in South Africa children roam around all the time; granted many of them probably do so because they are orphans and lost their parents to AIDS. I found it interesting the way the man I spoke with viewed gun control, the Church, and possessions. It was an eye-opening conversation.
And then there are all the little things that make this country what it is. Chicken is an extremely popular food; there are chicken-serving restaurants like KFC and Chickin Lickin everywhere. They drive on the left side of the road (still can't get over it). Toilets flush counterclockwise. Racism is not an issue here (a dark-skinned woman is a "black woman"; a light-skinned man is a "white man"). I found this a relief as America's obsession with being politically correct gets extremely tiresome.
That, in a short summary, is South Africa. I already feel pretty close with everyone here; how can you not when you're living so close to one another?
As we like to say all the time, when things go right, when things go wrong, and just because we can...
This is Africa.
We spent the first night at a local hotel. We had dinner at a roadhouse across the street where the food was pretty good. The next day (Friday) we spent a good majority of the day touring Soweto, a local township where many of the blacks were forced to live during the apartheid era. It was interesting to see how both the rich and the poor live in such close proximity to each other. I must say though that South Africa as a whole is beautiful. One of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.
That evening we had our final flight (only one hour this time) from Johannesburg to Durban. Upon our arrival at the Johannesburg airport there was a large crowd of people blowing horns and dressed in attire in the colors of the South African flag. It turned out that the soccer teams were flying in for the Orange Cup, which is being hosted in South Africa this year. I felt like I was in a movie; the scene was unreal.
The flight to Durban had quite a bit of turbulence but was not too bad. Durban was warm and very humid when we got there. We had to drive somewhere between 60 and 90 minutes to get to African Enterprises, a conference center that would become our home for the next 11 weeks. I cannot express how great it felt to finally get there. We'd spent several days traveling and we were finally home!
The campus is beautiful. There's a waterfall only a couple hundred meters from most of our chalets. There is plenty of wildlife to go around; the campus is also near a game reserve which is home to zebras (pronounced zeh-bruhs in South Africa), rhinoceroses, monkeys, and a myriad of other creatures.
Over the weekend we had the remainder of our Orientation (the first half was held back in the States), which went well. We received a lot of information and it was quite overwhelming. We made a trip to the mall as well, which was huge! The mall is viewed as more of a luxury here, whereas in America it's more of just another place to go shopping. Converting money from dollars to Rands isn't too bad; one American dollar equals almost nine Rands.
On Sunday I hiked to the second of supposedly four waterfalls, which was quite the adventure. I as well as many others got cut up, bitten, muddy, soaked, and nearly everything else you could think of that happens outdoors. We had a blast though and it's a day I certainly won't be forgetting any time soon.
Classes started on Monday and today is now Thursday, so the first of six weeks of intensive classes is almost over. Life as a college student in South Africa is a tricky one; it's tempting to go out all the time and not do your school work as there is so much to do! Hiking, swimming, mall runs, dance classes, going to the movies, working out, and much more quickly fill up your free time. I went to a "hip-hop" (it was really much more than that) dance class on Monday night and had so much fun! South Africans can certainly dance!
The people here are extremely friendly, for the most part. They have a joy and a freedom that is seldom seen in America. It's tough to understand (thus difficult for me to explain) without having interacted with them. A man I spoke with this morning thought it was crazy that Americans are so protective over their children and buy guns like there's no tomorrow. I explained to him why this was so and he seemed to understand. Here in South Africa children roam around all the time; granted many of them probably do so because they are orphans and lost their parents to AIDS. I found it interesting the way the man I spoke with viewed gun control, the Church, and possessions. It was an eye-opening conversation.
And then there are all the little things that make this country what it is. Chicken is an extremely popular food; there are chicken-serving restaurants like KFC and Chickin Lickin everywhere. They drive on the left side of the road (still can't get over it). Toilets flush counterclockwise. Racism is not an issue here (a dark-skinned woman is a "black woman"; a light-skinned man is a "white man"). I found this a relief as America's obsession with being politically correct gets extremely tiresome.
That, in a short summary, is South Africa. I already feel pretty close with everyone here; how can you not when you're living so close to one another?
As we like to say all the time, when things go right, when things go wrong, and just because we can...
This is Africa.
 |
| Hanging out with pre-schoolers at a non-profit |
 |
| An all-natural water slide! |
 |
| Enjoying Tea Time--a genius idea! |
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
One hour. Literally crazy.
It's 1:45 a.m. as I write this. In a little over an hour I'll be meeting up with the rest of my team (I guess that's what they're called) to go to the airport. Shuttles will take us to LAX, we'll spend however long checking in and going through customs, and then our flight will leave at 7:30 a.m. We fly from Los Angeles to D.C., then to Johannesburg, South Africa with a stopover in Senegal (in West Africa). It's all so weird. So weird.
Today was unreal. We had orientation from 8:30 to 2:30, which was all-around strange. It got me excited for Africa but at the same time made me extremely anxious; it wasn't a bad anxious, just... anxious. That feeling of being in anticipation, of being in waiting. Our commissioning service was at 4:30, which was overwhelming but so good. Because I'm attending a university significantly far from home, my family couldn't make it to the service; having a myriad of college friends nearly made up for it though. You generally don't realize the love and support that you have until something like this happens. "You never know what you've got until it's gone" could not ring more true. My appreciation for APU and my friendships here has grown, and I can only hope that I've left some sort of impact in my short year and a half here so far. I'm grateful to have two more years after this. But for now... Africa. That's my focus.
Although I can somewhat pinpoint the ways in which I want to be changed, I have this feeling (and I've been told) that my expectations will be blown away; I'll be challenged in ways that I won't expect. I will grow in ways that I do not see coming. But for that I cannot wait.
There's nothing like the semi-awkward initial interactions you have with people. As I walked into the venue where our orientation was held and looked around at the 50 or so people that I will be spending the next four months of my life with, I said, "This is it." I've heard nothing but amazing things about the people I'm going with. To experience it for myself, though, is one of the many things I am excited for. To no longer simply hear about the people I'm going with but to experience it first-hand. I feel blessed already.
One hour and seven minutes. Definitely not getting sleep tonight. But that's okay. 26 hours on a plane will provide plenty of time to sleep. It's gonna be a crazy trip!
Well, here we go! Goodbye America, hello Africa.
Hello, Africa. Woah.
Today was unreal. We had orientation from 8:30 to 2:30, which was all-around strange. It got me excited for Africa but at the same time made me extremely anxious; it wasn't a bad anxious, just... anxious. That feeling of being in anticipation, of being in waiting. Our commissioning service was at 4:30, which was overwhelming but so good. Because I'm attending a university significantly far from home, my family couldn't make it to the service; having a myriad of college friends nearly made up for it though. You generally don't realize the love and support that you have until something like this happens. "You never know what you've got until it's gone" could not ring more true. My appreciation for APU and my friendships here has grown, and I can only hope that I've left some sort of impact in my short year and a half here so far. I'm grateful to have two more years after this. But for now... Africa. That's my focus.
Although I can somewhat pinpoint the ways in which I want to be changed, I have this feeling (and I've been told) that my expectations will be blown away; I'll be challenged in ways that I won't expect. I will grow in ways that I do not see coming. But for that I cannot wait.
There's nothing like the semi-awkward initial interactions you have with people. As I walked into the venue where our orientation was held and looked around at the 50 or so people that I will be spending the next four months of my life with, I said, "This is it." I've heard nothing but amazing things about the people I'm going with. To experience it for myself, though, is one of the many things I am excited for. To no longer simply hear about the people I'm going with but to experience it first-hand. I feel blessed already.
One hour and seven minutes. Definitely not getting sleep tonight. But that's okay. 26 hours on a plane will provide plenty of time to sleep. It's gonna be a crazy trip!
Well, here we go! Goodbye America, hello Africa.
Hello, Africa. Woah.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Do You Know the Way You Move Me?
Have you ever dwelt on the notion of the love of God? And how deep, and how wide, and how long it is? It's huge. And even that is an understatement.
"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand--when I wake, I am still with you" (Psalm 139.13-18; NIV).
"But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5.8; ESV).
So let me get this straight. God formed me, saw me from the beginning, and loved me. He formed you, saw you from the beginning, and loved you. Crazy.
And then we fast forward a bit. We'd lived life a little. Heck, we screwed it all up. Yet "while we were still sinners, Christ died for us". In this God has shown us His love. So He loved us from the beginning. He loved us during. And He will always love us. Nothing can separate us from His love (Romans 8:38-39).
I'm preaching to myself as much as I am preaching to you. This is something that I often forget and wrestle with often. I don't want His love. Sometimes I am so frustrated with myself, I dislike myself to such an intense degree that I don't want Him to love me. Cause I don't deserve it. And guess what? I don't! None of us do! But God loves us anyway.
Let His love change you. Let it transform you. Think about those around you who make you think about the love of God. Those around you who are beaming with His love. The shine of His glory that radiates off of someone reflects the time spent seeking the face of God.
He is love and we are made in His image. With Him, we too, can be love. Love to ourselves (for some of us do not love ourselves), love to others, and love to the broken world around us.
"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand--when I wake, I am still with you" (Psalm 139.13-18; NIV).
"But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5.8; ESV).
So let me get this straight. God formed me, saw me from the beginning, and loved me. He formed you, saw you from the beginning, and loved you. Crazy.
And then we fast forward a bit. We'd lived life a little. Heck, we screwed it all up. Yet "while we were still sinners, Christ died for us". In this God has shown us His love. So He loved us from the beginning. He loved us during. And He will always love us. Nothing can separate us from His love (Romans 8:38-39).
I'm preaching to myself as much as I am preaching to you. This is something that I often forget and wrestle with often. I don't want His love. Sometimes I am so frustrated with myself, I dislike myself to such an intense degree that I don't want Him to love me. Cause I don't deserve it. And guess what? I don't! None of us do! But God loves us anyway.
Let His love change you. Let it transform you. Think about those around you who make you think about the love of God. Those around you who are beaming with His love. The shine of His glory that radiates off of someone reflects the time spent seeking the face of God.
He is love and we are made in His image. With Him, we too, can be love. Love to ourselves (for some of us do not love ourselves), love to others, and love to the broken world around us.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Six Days
Yup. I've got six days left in the States. Talk about weird. Talk about super weird.
I reached a state of limbo when everyone returned to APU and I was still at home in the Northwest. And then it got worse when classes started. Having APU go on without me; it was bizarre.
And then... it got even worse. I returned to APU yesterday and now things are really strange. Sleeping on a couch, needing my roommates to let me in to what was once my apartment, having no bedroom to go to, going to chapel without having to fill out a chapel card, having almost nothing to do while everyone else is busy... it's weird.
It's nice being home though. Christmas Break was good, but nothing beats being with friends and being back at the place in which you live. Even if I don't technically live here anymore. I've hardly been here for twenty-four hours yet I have had an amazing time. Catching up with friends, going on a run in the beautiful sunshine, relaxing... it's too great. I figure I'm going to need the rest before I leave, because once I leave, I won't be sleeping much until summer break. Life's about to get crazy!
I wish I had more to say but not much is happening these days. God is good.
Six days. HOLY MOLY.
I reached a state of limbo when everyone returned to APU and I was still at home in the Northwest. And then it got worse when classes started. Having APU go on without me; it was bizarre.
And then... it got even worse. I returned to APU yesterday and now things are really strange. Sleeping on a couch, needing my roommates to let me in to what was once my apartment, having no bedroom to go to, going to chapel without having to fill out a chapel card, having almost nothing to do while everyone else is busy... it's weird.
It's nice being home though. Christmas Break was good, but nothing beats being with friends and being back at the place in which you live. Even if I don't technically live here anymore. I've hardly been here for twenty-four hours yet I have had an amazing time. Catching up with friends, going on a run in the beautiful sunshine, relaxing... it's too great. I figure I'm going to need the rest before I leave, because once I leave, I won't be sleeping much until summer break. Life's about to get crazy!
I wish I had more to say but not much is happening these days. God is good.
Six days. HOLY MOLY.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Catching Up
I realize I haven't really blogged in ages. I guess life has kept me pretty busy.
The semester ended well. I barely survived Finals Week, but I made it. Classes, papers, and everything else that comes along with being a college student have come to an end for a while. Sort of.
I leave for South Africa in 12 and a half days. It hasn't completely hit me yet and I'm not sure it will until I get there. The thought of going makes me kinda nervous. Anxious. But overall I am extremely excited. I feel like a change has already begun within me. One that will continue while I'm there and will be with me for the rest of my life. Hence the "kinda nervous" part. Knowing that when I come back I will not be the same. And I will never be the same again. Definitely one of the most comforting yet uneasy aspects of life. For better or worse, you will change. The "better or worse" part leaves it up to you. It's amazing how much we can shape our lives: the things we say to others, the choices we make, and so on.
As of late I've been asking myself the question, "What kind of person do I want to be in this world?" It's been bugging me. Quite a bit, actually. I kind of know where I want to go yet I'm not completely sure. And that might be the bit that bugs me. There's one goal I am certain about in regards to Africa: to find who I am. It is kind of like there is a piece of me that is missing that I am unaware of. Trusting God to highlight whatever He needs to. He will in His timing. I have to trust that.
12 days, 15 hours, 21 minutes, 10 seconds.
Oh, boy. There's a lot to come. Good things, tough things, in-between things...
...and all those other things that will be a part of this journey.
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