Experiencing God: African style

"How was Africa?!" This question is asked to me over and over again as I catch up with people. How can I sum up how my trip was when it was so much more then "great" or "awesome." Do you really want to know how Africa was? What I did in Africa? What the people are like? What is the culture? Who is Jesus to them? There are so many more questions to ask then just that simple one. I know it is just a start though.

I think one of the biggest questions I get asked along with it is what did I learn. I know I'm not a big processor, but even looking back I don't think I can say I learned one thing. Does that sound bad?! Let me elaborate. Learning to me implies that you didn't know the thing you learned before. I didn't learn anything, but God stretched me. I didn't learn anything, but I experienced God. Being stretched by God is experiencing God.

I'll start with how God stretched me. We all grow up in our own comfort zones. Mine was in a small, traditional Lutheran church. That box has continually been stretched since college started and I like to consider myself a pretty open individual, but I still don't think I was ready for Africa. Especially African church. Within two days of arriving, I was already in tears from being moved by the Spirit. The first Sunday we were there we went to a church called All Nations. This church represented exactly what the name says. All nations. During worship, we sang a song with the lyrics: We lift one voice, we lift one song. sing hallelujah. (I actually just looked up the song, because its that good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIHz6FrT9eg) I looked around and could just see God smile and hear him say: "This my child, is my church. These are my people. Unified." I was so moved to see what God's church looks like that yes, I cried. Revelation 7:9 says "After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb." I can only hope and imagine that what I experienced is only a taste of what heaven will be like! My view of God's love for all his people was stretched.

On to another church in the north. I'm sure a lot of people have seen videos of or have heard stories of Africans dancing and being passionate during worship. This is absolutely true! I was really excited to experience this in person, but was still taken out of my comfort zone of swaying back and forth and raising my hands (which is out of my comfort zone of my younger years). People actually left their seats to dance around the room. There would be large "follow the leader" dances around the room that anyone could join. There were youth leading songs. There was mothers leading songs. There were men leading songs. All while dancing and praising God. No one judged anyone else. No one thought I was silly for even trying to join in, except for maybe me! My view on what worship "is supposed" to look like was stretched.

The people of Africa also love to pray! This is something I really enjoyed to see and hear. However, at church mostly, one person would say things they wanted to pray for and then everyone would pray, individually, out loud, at once. The first time it happened I was thrown into confusion. I was self conscious and I don't think that ever went away. I somehow felt that even though the person next to me was praying, they would still hear me and judge me for what I was praying for (even though I have no problem leading prayers in the States on my own). If you know me, you know I have trouble praying and concentrating during prayer. I have really ever since the summer of 2010. So I would watch the Africans around me. I would watch what seemed like chaos to me, but would see them speak with authority. To boldly ask our Lord for things. To believe that these things would be done. And one day it just hit me: God hears every single one of these prayers. Even though they are all spoken at the same time, He still hears and understands every single one of them. What a big and powerful God we have to be able to do that!

I think the final way I experienced God was the fact that I was in Africa. I have wanted to go to Africa and have had a heart for Africa ever since I can remember. This summer I even found a "journal entry" from when I was in elementary school about wanting to go to Africa. My parents have known this, and I think that it worried them to even consider letting me go. One because they were concerned for my safety. Two because I think they were worried I may not come back to live in the States. At one point in my life, I think I wanted that and was okay with that. God has since shown me a different path that I'm completely blessed by! However, it was still largely on my heart to go even for a short time. And after looking into many opportunities over the years, all of which never worked out, it finally happened.

Around February this year, our trip was in jeopardy of being canceled due to lack of male interest, but I prayed that if I was meant to go to let the trip happen, if not then apparently I wasn't supposed to go. Either way, by that time, I was fine with whichever outcome. Well, as one male signed up and dropped out, another signed up at the last minute. Thankfully. Well, then fundraising began. When I knew I was for sure going on the trip, I was at 86% of my original budget. I needed to be at 100% plus the extra money for the trip. After re-evaluating and changing my budget I sent out my last fundraising letter praying that God would move. And that He did!! Within a month a half, not only did I have 100% of my original budget, but also enough for my trip which meant that with my budget cuts, I had a surplus of money!! (The amount raised was a little over $8,000 to put it into perspective). Only God could do that. He gave me the desire of my heart to go to Africa in what seemed like a snap of his fingers.

While I was there, it seemed unreal that I was there. I would have to remind myself a lot: I am in Africa. I actually got to reflect on that fact one morning about a week before we left. We were resting and going on a safari on our way back to Windhoek, and we had the opportunity to get up and watch the sunrise while overlooking a watering hole. We were hoping to see a lion or a cheetah, but no animals came besides these Turkey like birds, but that's beside the point. I remember looking out over the African plains and just thinking: I am in Africa. I am in Africa. I am in AFRICA. This is real. There are elephants and zebras and giraffes out in those plains in the wild because this is Africa. It was surreal. God had given me one of my longest standing desires of my heart. He had heard me and answered, in his time. He gave me a desire of my heart (and many more) because He loves me. Because He wants to lavish his love on me. For me to be able to experience him in this way. I'm pretty sure this also brought tears to my eyes while I sat there reflecting. Our God is pretty great isn't He?!

Now for some pictures of the trip. It's hard to pick just a few and some may be repeats from my newsletter, but oh well. There is also more on my FB page.

Parliament Park in Windhoek

We got to go to an orphanage for an afternoon

"Follow the Leader" Worship

A fav. pic from the safari

My view for the sunrise

I got to experience God's beautiful creation 

My team with the elders of a church our friend is the pastor of

Modern Day Miracles

I recently returned from Spring Break in the beautiful Rocky Mountains near Colorado Springs. The Navigators headquarters are located there, and I've had many opportunities to enjoy all that it has to offer over the last two years on staff, including a beautiful castle, that the Interior Designer in me nerds out about!! The Navigators also have a camp for kids aged from elementary to high school located right on the other side of the mountain. Some of you may have heard about the Waldo Canyon Wildfire last summer. This wildfire not only destroyed over 300 homes (several of which were Navigator staff members homes) it also threatened Glen Eyrie (the castle), headquarters, and Eagle Lake Camp.

 I remember hearing about the fire while in Jacksonville this summer and prayers immediately started going up. To give you a sense of what this fire was like, here is a picture posted by a staff member who was evacuated:

During the fire we would hear reports about how close the fire was to Navigator property or where it was on the property, but no reports about whether or not it had actually destroyed buildings. After the fire, we heard that the fire literally went around Eagle Lake Camp (only destroying one cabin) and stopped before reaching Glen Eyrie and our Headquarters building. These reports and stories were amazing just to hear about, but we got to experience them first hand last week.

As we drove up the mountain to Eagle Lake Camp, further and further out of service and civilization, we saw more and more bits of forest that had been destroyed. We saw parts that had been already cleared after the fire. We saw lines of trees untouched right next to lines of burnt trees. God's sovereignty was visible in the aftermath. Here are some pics of the drive up the mountain; followed by some of the modern day miracles!

 

This is my favorite!! That is Pikes Peak in the background. I feel as though this picture captures the theme of the week: Ashes to Beauty based from Isaiah 61!!

Eagle Lake Camp staff as they left without knowing what they would come back to, prayed for just one person to care about this place as much as they did. Well, as firefighters were on the property to fight the fire (at one point being surrounded) one in particular kept finding Bible verses strewn about and realized that he was helping to protect a Bible camp. As a Christian, this particular firefighter, started to pray and continued to fight with more passion. The one person prayer was answered!

As the fire inched closer and closer, obviously the situation got more and more critical. Then something happened, that none of the firefighters had ever seen before. The fire turned!! It was descending the mountain towards the camp, and then just turned the other direction (You'll see pics in the next story of this). Like it hit a wall and couldn't go any further! How cool is that?!

We not only helped with clean up, but also helped prep everything for their regular camp season, so I ended up actually painting a lot over the week. One of the things that I was able to help paint was the caretakers house. I enjoyed this for many reasons: heat, a framed view of Pikes Peak out the front window while working, and also we got to hear their story of the fire. The caretaker and his wife were actually visiting family in Arizona when the wildfire broke out. When they heard that the camp was threatened, they drove all night long to get back to their house and camp, but when they got to the road the forest was already closed. All they had with them was what they took on vacation and prayer. Lots of prayer. Can you imagine not knowing whether or not your house is in tact/all of your memories are in that house?! I can't!! (I know, I know. treasures in heaven, but I would want to at least try to save some memory books I have). Anyways, the fire that was descending got probably within 300 ft of the caretakers house. Standing on the porch of the house and looking straight across to the other hill with the road in between, there was the fire line!

From the front porch with only the road in between. 

These were just the stories from Eagle Lake Camp let alone stories from Glen Eyrie and Headquarters. Here is another cool picture of God's provision of just how close the fire got to Glen Eyrie.

Does this not just show how sovereign our Awesome God is?!! Soo close, yet even the fire listens to God. Just for reference Eagle Lake Camp is on the other side of that mountain peak. 

And just for fun, here are some pictures of the other things we did this week: 

Just enjoying the cold and painting!

A fellow EDGEr and our only heat source in the bathroom.

We finished the walls and painted all the red you see.

Emily, Allison and I painted all week together. If you look closely you can see paint in all of our hair.

Our fun night out we played cosmic mini golf.

Overall, Spring Break was a great bonding experience not only for KSU students to get to know each other, but also to get to know fellow Navigators at KU and UNK. We were able to hear from great speakers all week, work together for the Lord, and see amazing sunrises/sunsets over the mountains. God.is.great.