Off to Africa...

Prepare the way, O Holy Spirit
Make Your paths known.
To all those we encounter,
Let Your Glory be shown.

Let not my own weakness
Get in Thine own way.
For under Your guidance
Is where I will stay.



This was my prayer before leaving for Africa and I am so excited to tell you that God proved Himself a faithful listener once again in my life!

Stepping onto a plane has never been hard for me. Thanks to my mom’s side of the family, I have traveling blood running through my veins. So, on flight after flight to Africa, through Paris, I was full of excitement. That is…until about 15 minutes before we landed in Niamey, Niger. It was at that point that I experienced my “moment” of the trip. I found myself looking out the window at the most orange landscape I had ever known…looking for any signs of life and not finding a single one. It was in this moment that I turned to my best friend Valerie and said, “We are in the middle of nowhere! What are we doing here? We must be crazy!” And for the next 2 hours I hardly spoke a word, and for those of you who know me you know how crazy that is. That’s what we like to call “culture shock.”

I am pleased to tell you that my “moment” passed and never returned. I looked straight ahead at the next 2 weeks ready to take on whatever the Lord had for us and oh did He have some amazing things planned! I’m going to attempt to give you a brief overview of all the amazing ways God showed me what a HUGE God He is…so please hang on while we zoom through 2 of the most significant weeks I have experienced.

blasts from the past in Paris...

The first leg of my trip was a “bonus” from God. I was able to stop through Paris for a couple of days and visit with my friends and old teammates and roommate. It was such a special time for my heart and spirit. Revisiting my apartment and favorite places around the city took me straight back to last year. I was able to show Valerie around and give her the most Parisian experiences I could in such a short amount of time. But the best part of those two days was the two hours I spent with 3 special friends. Nam, a Vietnamese-Parisian who became a Christian last year, and I had coffee and caught up on the hard times she’s been experiencing with her mother being diagnosed with cancer. God used me to encourage her in her dependence on Him and reiterate the importance of Christian fellowship. It was a great time for our spirits to reconnect and fellowship with one another. Please be praying for Nam as she looks for opportunities to share Christ with her parents and 3 sisters!! For the remainder of the two hours, we joined my two friends, Assia (from Algeria) and Elie (from Lebanon). The most amazing thing was when we opened up the French Bible to read about the Pentecost and Assia began reading the chapter out loud in the middle of the courtyard of Notre Dame. I believe the Lord was crying tears of joy as He listened to a beautiful Muslim 20-year-old reading His Holy Word in the middle of one of the darkest cities in the world, Paris.

one bush village we stopped by...

Our time in Africa was a total of 10 days. We spent 2 days in the capital, then 7 in the village, and our last day back in the capital. Our first couple of days in Niamey (pronounced “Knee-uh-may”) were spent with a wonderful missionary family, the Cain’s. They toured us around the city, we drilled them about the culture and Zarma people, and they opened up to us about the life of a missionary family in West Africa. This was a wonderful time of transition for us, as is depicted by the normal description of Niamey, “not really a city, but a bunch of villages put together in a small area.” Let me just say that there are only 2 paved roads in the whole capital, only 1-2 flights per day, and they don’t even have a sewer system!

Don and Teresa Williams - the missionary couple of the year

The bulk of our trip was spent with a missionary couple, Teresa and Don Williams, in a village called Ouallam (pronounced “Wall-um”). Each day we spent the mornings visiting different bush villages, which required long trips in the truck on very bumpy dirt roads. It was at this point that Valerie and I developed a love for these people. Overlooking the brown hair (sign of malnutrition) and yellow eyes (usually an indicator of Hepatitis) was easy once you saw their bright smiles and beautiful expressions.

But we didn’t want to overlook their health completely, so we put on skits to teach them about health and safety and, in some cases, salvation. We felt fortunate to see those “a-ha” moments when they realized they should clean a wound and bandage it so it won’t get infected…or drink clean water when they are sick so they will be re-hydrated. We couldn’t have chose a more perfect couple to team with—after 21 years in Niger, they were an incredible example to observe and learn from both in mission-work, their marriage and their personal relationships with the Lord. We praise God for His incredible insight in teaming us with Don and Teresa and showing us that a life of service for the Lord is the most fulfilling life—no matter what city, country, or continent on which your feet may stand!

Having a month to think over all that God revealed to me through this experience gave me several thoughts I want to leave with you. Obedience to the Holy Spirit’s call to a place is all you need—He’ll take care of the rest. Africa is huge, the needs are huge, and God is huge…and He is asking us to be a part of something huge—changing Africa as the world knows it, one life at a time. Take a chance for Jesus and go someplace where you might say “We are in the middle of nowhere! What are we doing here? We must be crazy!”

Me and Val at the Niger River

Me and Valerie at the Niger River in Niamey, Niger...our last night before leaving Africa to come back home.

bend or amend....

"We know that innovators bend the world, but it’s the spiritual innovators who amend the world." (Bryan Davidson, my boss' husband)

I read this on Bryan's blog (Conversoulogy) and it made me think. I love when I run across a clever line that makes me stop and think and chew on it a bit. Larry Trammel had a lot of points/quotes that had this affect on me (although I have only heard his voice and teachings on cd). So...what does this really mean? What are the implications of this?

I think I've always wanted the first...to be an innovator that bent the world...that changed it a bit in some way. I think that's why I majored in business and have always liked business...for this kind of purpose.

The second part...though...that's the part that begins to hit home and challenge me. Is this a desire of mine? Truthfully, I don't think I've really been thinking this way, so it couldn't possibly be a desire. Amend, like bending, is a way of changing. But a bend is such a small change...When I think of bend...I think of taking a metal pipe or something like that and bending it. The consequences are that it does change a bit...it looks a little different and may not be able to be used for the same purposes, but the main substance of it doesn't change. Its still made of the same material and feels the same and can still be identified as a metal pipe.

But when I think of "amend"...I think of an ammendment to the Constitution. One simple ammendment contains so much power. It changes the interpretation of the entire document...it defines what is truth in a better way...what is acceptable and inacceptable...and eventually it can decide the fate of a person...life or death. Hmm...oh, that I would have that goal...that vision....to amend the world...it may be a small change...but it will be a change that impacts the main substance of a person, it will change the material of that being, and it will change the person to where they are barely recognizable as the same as they were before...

Thanks for the challenge Bryan! May the Holy Spirit amend me and amend the world through me.