Coach Freace closed his last blog out with saying that the journey to Africa has already begun and I could not agree with him more. The journey really began for me last semester as I learned more about this continent in the class History of Current Events taught by Mr. O'Neil. I was fascinated by this far away place, but even then if you had asked me I would not have dreamed of going there any time soon. I was comfortable, safe and far from anything too extreme. Why would I go anywhere?
If you asked people in my family they can tell you I am simply quite afraid of everything. I don't like talking to people I don't know on the phone, I used to have to ask my older sister Cailtin to order for me at restaurants, and when anyone begins yelling at me or someone around me I become petrified. When Mr. O'Neil introduced the idea of going to Tanzania and then handed out the applications, the first thing that popped into my head was all the things that could go wrong. The whole trip was completely outside of my comfort zone; however, over the next few days God began working on my heart to show me just how in the wrong I was.
I was reading about some of the issues ocurring over in Africa; disease, poverty and mass amounts of orphans were just a few of the things mentioned. It made me irate. Why weren't people doing something about it? Thats when it hit me that I was that person, snug and comfy in my perfect enviroment, to afraid to go outside of what I saw as safe. Moreover, I was a christian called by Christ to make a difference in this world. I was trying to be safe, but in reality as a christian I was already as safe as anyone can be. My Savior has conquered death and so I saw that it was not my place to fear and if God was calling me to go to Africa then I had no excuse but to answer that call.
Psalm 27:1 says, "The Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life of whom shall I be afraid." Turning in my application and putting submission to God over worldy fears have been some of the biggest steps for me in this journey so far. I pray and ask ya'll to pray that God will help us to overcome our fears and put our trust in him and that there will be many more big steps taken in this journey.
I am so happy that you are going lila! I will make sure that you feel safe and as comfortable as possible! :) God is going to do some pretty awesome things over there so we'll definitely be feeling His presence with us 24/7 which is the biggest comfort of all!
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