Here We Go!!!

It's a double meaning today...Clemson rolled over BC last night and never slowed. Duke is up next and we have a task at hand but the uphill journey starts here. I will be in front of the tube with my Orange on ready to do my part...silly ain't it?

No, the other hard journey is for me and my 2nd trip to Africa. I face an uphill battle in terms of raising the funds for this trip. We have to raise $3,000 per person by the end of April. We paid my deposit this week and I am working on the fundraising efforts via web, work and worship. Web is my site Africa 2008

The work part is asking my company founder and President if my trip could possibly be considered for our company charity donation. This allows employees to donate from their payroll checks each month. He and I have had some very good discussions that have challenged me to articulate why I want to go on this mission and what it means to me. I admit I didn't at first recognize God giving me a challenge from my employer to explain the trip. I wrestled with going on the trip during the ride home from Sumter and during the night following but I awoke convicted of my purpose (or so I thought). But, God works in mysterious ways and he used my employer challenging me about what this trip is about and why I want to go, to help me know. I thought I could simply say "Hey, look at me. I'm going on a trip to Africa to help others, I deserve your help." But, it's not that easy. Is it about me or about them? I needed to express that it was my faith and conviction to help those suffering break through a vicious cycle of disease and poverty as Jesus would, that is telling me that I have to go. Also that I have to cast aside my pride in asking others for help. And here's the interesting part, my employer does NOT want to support a "religious mission" and wanted to know if that was why I was going. That's what initially got under my skin but then I began to see his point of view. He's the employer for 160+ and needs to make sure every email that is sent to the company in an official capacity from him follows certain guidelines. I first told him that we are going to serve, not to save. I told him those people don't need another bunch of white Americans coming over "to save the day". We have to stand alongside, not in front or in their faces. The gospel is already being preached there and churches are growing there, we are going to strengthen the work that is already going on. I was also very clear that my faith is something I will be talking about but it is also something that will go before me and be there when I leave. It was a defining moment for me and for the trip. Had I not been challenged to go below the surface and ask myself why I personally felt called to help poor African AIDS orphans, then I might as well have stayed home and allowed someone else to go in my place. God could also be working in his life through my replies and my demonstration of faith. Our company President spent some time in Botswana on a vacation last summer and is well aware of the plight of the orphans, hearing my replies and seeing our action could be an important step for him.

This will be a hard trip with an excruciatingly long flight (17 hours there direct and even longer with the stop on the way back), minimal comforts of "modern life", and the danger of disease and crime is very real in this part of the world. Nonetheless, God has prepared me for this mission all of my life: being raised in the South in a Christian farming family, it's in the music I love, it was in my Army training and travels (lots of vaccinations and hard travel--at times :-)), it is in my nursing training and career, and even in graduate school at MUSC where I first put my own focus on this disease and what it is doing to the health and economic sectors of these countries and how that affects me. Not long after those studies I met a musician from South Africa, Vusi Mahlasela. Vusi comes from a poor township outside of Pretoria, South Africa called Mamelodi. Vusi and I spent some time after a Derek Trucks Band show in the fall of 2003 talking about HIV/AIDS in Africa and what needs to take place. God was laying more of the foundation for these missions. Then, a pastor came to Alice Drive to talk about a new group he was founded called Alongside Africa to bond churches in America with African churches and leaders. It was clear call to me. I stood and went to the back of the church after the service and told Robert that I was going on the trip. I didn't know when or where but I knew why. Guess where we went last summer for our first trip? Mamelodi! God uses a mighty big exclamation point at times. It's hard for me to ignore a sign so big, but just to be honest and human...I did try to ignore it but I'm glad I have stepped past that. It's just amazing how his plan unfolds even we can't even begin to understand how it all ties together in his master plan.

Now for the worship piece. When we first went to Freedom Fellowship last summer it was a few weeks before our first trip to Africa. Cliff and I had some discussions about the trip. Later, I have showed Cliff our videos and talked about the trip in Life Group. He and I have talked about me speaking to Freedom about my first trip but I admit I let it slide and I didn't seize the moment. This spring as the details have unfolded, we have talked more and I am now planning to not only talk about the first trip but start the process of forming a partnership that includes Freedom and other churches in the Upstate with Alice Drive and churches in Africa. We can build on what is happening in Sumter and let ADBC be a hub for this part of the journey. Did you know that Sumter county now has the highest HIV infection rate of any county in South Carolina? Do you need any other example of how God uses us to reach others? We are just beginning this long, hard journey and have so much work ahead of us. I look forward to once again being given the challenge by God to not only articulate how and why he called me but to invite others to join us as well.

But, like the Clemson Tigers, if you don't face the (Duke Blue) Devils and find the fight that is yours, you will never know why you were fighting. We spend way too much time fighting ourselves and He wants to use us in the right direction. We just have to relax, listen, focus...and let him.

See ya!