Haunted By The Faces

A crisp breeze is followed by a light yellow sunrise...... 

A Hyena barks....

Smiles....laughing.....

A herd of spotted goats follows after it's shepherd..... 

Two tawny dogs play a game of chase and tackle....

Blankets and beads of red, green, blue and yellow swirly designs..... 

And the faces....oh...the faces......

Tears fill my eyes..... 

Not tears of mourning but tears of longing....Tears of remembering those faces....

Since I was 12 the idea of being a missionary has totally enthralled me with excitement. I suppose it started when I went to YD camp and took the Missionary Adventures class. I don't exactly remember who was teaching it that year...but whoever did was teaching about Africa...or taught about Africa one day anyways. After that class I came home and I remember pleading with my parents to go to Africa on a mission trip. I'll admit I think I got pushed aside a few times as well as getting the "why??" question with an odd look accompanying it, but the stirring in my heart wouldn't let up. 

Then a year later, my dad and I were filling out applications for a medical mission trip to Kenya, East Africa! Honestly I don't remember exactly how it all came to be, but I do remember filling out the applications and being in utter awe and amazement that my dream was coming true. The day of our departure has all become a blur to me. We went from Portland to somewhere in Minnesota (I think) and then to The Netherlands. The layover in Holland, as I prefer to call it, was quite a few hours. I entertained myself by wondering around the airport looking at all the people. You see, I find people very interesting to watch. I often wonder where they are going and what they are going through. 

After the layover we boarded the massive and quite luxurious 747 of the Dutch Royal Airlines which would take us to Kenya. When we arrived in Kenya and came out of the plane, the humidity immediately smacked me in the face. It was some unearthly hour of the night and yet it was still sooo humid and warm. We left the airport for the East-Central Africa Division Headquarters which we would stay at for a few nights of our trip. 

I will not go into ever single detail of our trip because if I did, we'd be here for many hours. Even though that trip was 3 years ago I can still remember every single day almost as if it had happened yesterday. Especially the days we spent in the Maasai Mara and the Great Rift Valley among the tribal people,visiting the orphanages, schools, and hospitals. But it's not so much the events of those days. It wasn't so much working in the wound care department and cleaning machete wounds of a young warrior, and it wasn't bagging deworming tablets for children, its not the events, but the people. I can still remember all their faces so clearly in my memory. 

Faces that had so little, yet they still laughed, smiles, and played. I think about them so often, I wonder if they are doing well, if they are still going to school, or are they even still alive... 

The people there are so loving and so giving it makes you really wonder how people that have so little could be this happy. I have a passion for these people, a passion that I think will never go away. I believe that God wants me in Africa to be a light for Him to His people. Ever since I've come back from this trip the longing to return keeps getting stronger each day to the point where I can't ignore it. I have often thought I am being so useless here, just laying around all day doing school waiting to be old enough to go to college and get my nursing degree so I can GO! I've especially felt that way in the last few days... 

And then I realize that God is preparing me, for if I went now, I truly know I wouldn't be ready to face the challenges that would come to me there. Still time is short, incredibly short, and I have a earnestness inside me to bring people to Jesus. Sometimes I worry that by the time I am ready to go it will be too late, but God knows best, and if I stay connected to Him and strive to follow His leading in my life I know I can't go wrong. And until then I can reach out to the people here in the states...

If only other people were willing to reach the unreached....! 

I sigh.....

He says "wait a little longer my child...." 

And I wait.....I'll wait until my God calls me to go.....but until then I'll pray and the passion inside me will not be stilled.....I will always be haunted by their faces..... 

"I'll go where you want me to go dear Lord...o'er mountain or plain or sea........I'll go where you want me to go....."