Why I Love Africa

So I just spent the past hour looking at blogs and watching videos from other World Race participants and I am now so nostalgic for Africa! I cannot wait to be back there! The food, the houses, the grass, the trees, the flowers, the animals, the views, the sunsets, the people! I just love it all! I know this experience will be completely different from my last one but I'm extra excited about it! The hearts of these people have are just incredible. They are not perfect but they are just constantly striving to be more like Christ and get closer to him! That is such a beautiful goal! One that I want to have every moment of every day!

I cannot believe that I will be in Swaziland in about 2 weeks! That is just crazy! I have been looking forward to returning to Africa ever since I left last summer but it still hasn't hit me that I will actually be there next month! I can't wait to be changed, to see God change lives and to experience everything He has for me! I want my world to be rocked!

I have wanted to do mission work in some way, shape or form for a long time now. I've always had quirky characteristics that made my parents and family friends tell me I could be a missionary in another country (for example, I can survive off very few showers and I love sleeping on the floor). But once I experienced my first overseas mission trip to the Dominican Republic my senior year of high school and then got to go on a mission trip to South Africa last summer, God truly lit a fire in me for missions.
There is just something about getting out of our culture of wealth and excess and apathy and experiencing a different way of life that I absolutely love. People in these countries are similar to us in many ways, but it is the ways in which they are different that draws me in. Children who never stop smiling once a team of high school or college kids shows up with only stickers, strings, soccer balls and cameras. Adults who just want to sit and talk to you about how you are doing. Women selling various things in malls who remember you when you return and take the time to ask you how you're enjoying their country. Little boys who grab Bible passages in their language and, as opposed to other children who merely collect the nice paper books, lead a group of kids and try to evangelize to adults in their village even when they are repeatedly turned away. So yes the countries are beautiful and exotic but these are the things that inspire me, these are the people who challenge me.
And the thing that breaks my heart is that most of them are so lost! They don't know the love of Christ. They are living in horrible poverty and yet they can still be joyful, imagine how much greater their joy would be if they knew the Saviour! Another wonderful thing about these people? I believe that they WANT to hear about Jesus. That they WANT to be given a chance at a new beginning, a saving grace! They are not jaded to the gospel; many of them have never even HEARD the gospel! It is so refreshing to be around people who do not just dismiss Christians as judgmental hypocrites (though many people claiming to be Christians in America are, another sad fact that breaks my heart and frustrates me to no end). This is the reason I love Africa and why I cannot wait to go back.