The Start of my African Adventure

“We have no right to decide where we should be placed, or to have preconceived ideas as to what God is preparing us to do, God engineers everything; and wherever He places us, our one supreme goal should be to pour out our lives in wholehearted devotion to Him in that particular work. ‘Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might…’ (Eccl. 9:10).”

–Oswald Chamber from his book My Utmost for His Highest

So, many of you reading this might be wondering what led me to accept an internship in Africa. To be honest, Africa has never been a place that I’ve had any particular interest in visiting. Let me rewind and tell you the story.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010. I sat across from Barb in the Tree of Life coffee shop, drinking my iced chai tea wondering what God was doing! A few weeks earlier, in my pursuit of post-grad jobs and internships, I had contacted Grace Brethren International Missions (GBIM) about possible missions internships. I wasn’t exactly sure what sort of an internship I was looking for but I have a passion for missions and I had been volunteering with GBIM already. Well, I may not have had a specific internship in mind but when the GBIM internship coordinator suggested I pray about filling an internship need in Central African Republic (CAR) I knew that was definitely not what I had in mind.

I was going to be graduating with a degree in classical piano and history and when I think of Africa, art and history are not the first things that pop into my mind. I had been praying, though, that God would send me someplace where He could use me to make a difference. So that is how I ended up sitting across from Barb, the stateside director of Project Hope and Charité. I had prayed and decided to schedule a meeting with her to hear about what the internship in CAR with Project Hope and Charité was all about, hoping that it would be nothing I was interested in. As Barb explained over our coffee date the ministry needs in CAR and the type of work God was doing there, I knew I couldn’t just ignore this opportunity.

            I did try to ignore the internship for a while. There are a lot of things I’d like to do in life and spending a year in Africa didn’t fit into my picture of how I thought my life should go. Recently I’ve had a desire to study culture, do social justice work, and learn more about how to give a voice to the voiceless and underprivileged. Over the past couple years I have traveled quite a bit and seen so much need, especially among indigenous groups of people. My well-thought-out plan was to go to Hawaii University this fall to begin a graduate program in international cultural studies where I would learn how to study culture, ethnomusicology, policy making, and Polynesian history and culture. I was accepted to Hawaii University but God seemed to be telling me to take a break from studying and start using the skills I’ve already developed to serve Him now. I kept looking into different jobs and other ministry internships but the more I thought and prayed about my future the more certain I was that God really did want me to go to Africa.

The question I had to answer for myself was this: whether I was going to make the plans for my life and then ask God to bless those plans, or whether I would be willing to give my dreams over to God and let him write my life story. I decided to trust God, the master storywriter, with the plans for my life. Though I still can’t see the bigger picture and I don’t know exactly what’s in store for me in Africa, I’m willing to give my all and serve wholeheartedly wherever and however God wants to use me.

While Africa may not be my first choice of places to intern, God has opened up my eyes to a very real need there and given me a cool opportunity to go share Christ’s love. I am saying, “Here I am. Send me (Isaiah 6:8)!” This is just the start of the story God is writing for my life and I am so excited to see what God has in store for me. I can’t wait to share with you more stories of my African adventure!

Please pray for me!

• Pray that God would continue to give me a willing and optimistic spirit and a passion to serve the orphans in CAR.
• Pray for all the preparation going into my trip. I leave in less than two months and I have a lot to do raising support, applying for visas, filling out paperwork, getting travel arranged, packing, etc.
• Pray for the ministry of Project Hope and Charité that God would use it in a powerful way to transform the country of CAR and bring many people to faith in Him.