Africa

Africa. Just the word imparts a different feeling to my heart than it did a year ago. A year ago, the word meant safaris and wild animals. It meant dry, barren deserts. It meant a beautiful movie with Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. It meant a continent I never thought I’d see, or be compelled to see.

Today, it makes my heart beat faster, because a part of my heart seems to have been carried there. It means precious women and children whose faces I see in my sleep, people who need our help. It means a little girl named Fostina and a little boy named Makoka whom I’ve never met, but whom I pray for every day. Whom I love. It means God’s love and hope. Africa is no longer just a distant continent to me. It’s real.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you have probably seen my past posts here and here about Wiphan. Wiphan Care Ministries is an organization to which God has been leading me for quite some time. Our sponsor child Fostina attends their school in Zambia. When we made the decision in March to sponsor Fostina, as we clicked the last button to sign up as her sponsors and entered our credit card info for the monthly payment, I knew right away that I needed, wanted to do more. A few days later I woke up in the middle of the night, and heard that almost audible voice in my head saying, “You should go to Africa.”

Excuse me? ME?? Go to Africa? If you know me at all, you probably know that I do not travel well, and especially apart from my family. The idea of getting on a plane to go anywhere fills me with anxiety. I even get nervous driving on the highways in Atlanta!! So for ME to get on a plane to go to another CONTINENT … ALONE???? Um ……

But that pull, that inner voice urging me to go, was persistent. I couldn’t ignore it. So I talked to my sweet friend Andrea, who is one of Wiphan’s board members, and I was shaking as I told her that I thought I was being called to Africa. I said to her, “Is this how it was for you, when you first started getting involved with Africa and the people there? Because I can’t get Africa off my mind. I am eating, sleeping, breathing … Africa.” She said, “That is EXACTLY how I felt. It’s called…THE CALL OF THE LORD! When it’s from the Lord..you can’t get it off your mind… you can’t get it off your heart. It’s also called a miracle because there is nothing in us that could do this.”

That same week, our pastor, Andy Stanley at North Point Community Church, wrapped up a sermon series called “White Flag”. The series was about how we run from God, and this sermon in particular carried the message that surrendering to God’s purpose for our own lives isn’t enough … that we must also surrender ourselves to God’s purpose for the world. I listened to every word, feeling once again like the message was personally delivered directly to me. Andy said, “Have you ever said to your Heavenly Father, ‘God, I surrender to your purposes in the world. Just as I’m available to be good, just as I’m available to be obedient, I am available to be an extension … wherever you send me in the world … of your grace, your compassion, and your abounding love to anyone my life intersects.’”

At the end as we stood to leave, my husband turned to me and said, “I guess you are going to Africa.” On the way home from church, a friend texted me and said, “I guess you are going to Africa.”

And then … I got cold feet. I got distracted by daily life battles, by financial fears, by a hectic schedule with my kids and work, and I let it (or made it?) slip from my mind. But it didn’t go away long. When I confessed my fears and hesitation to my church group, I said, “I just can’t understand why God would even want me to go to Africa. Who am I anyway? How can I serve any purpose? I’m no one important.” And Randy said in reply, “You are important enough that God sent his son to die on a cross for you, and so you are important enough for any work he wants you do.”

So on July 8, I will board a plane for Africa. In God’s perfect way, a spot opened up on a Wiphan trip to Ndola, Zambia with a team from my children’s school. I’ll be traveling with fellow parents, high school students, and my children’s PE teacher. There we will be loving on the children and widows, while our teacher and students put on a sports camp for the children, and we work in other ways to support their school in Zambia and all that Wiphan does there. It seems I might also have the opportunity to serve Wiphan through my photography, to capture some images of the widows and orphans there that Wiphan might use to further tell their story here. Above all, we will help the women and children know that they are forever loved and cherished by God.

As July quickly approaches, I am turning to my family, friends, and even strangers for support. Will you pray for me and our team? Will you pray for safe travels and protection for us, and for our families here at home? Will you pray that God provides for the cost of our travels, and continues to provide for the daily needs of the widows and orphans there? Will you pray that everything we do there, and every story and image we bring back here, will glorify God and lead to something that improves the lives of the women and children we will support?

As with any mission trip, we will also be relying on financial donations to help with the cost (approximately $4200 per person) of the trip. Any of you who might be inclined and able to support this mission financially, I will appreciate your donations more than I can express. Donations are fully tax-deductible. Just go to Wiphan’s Donations page here, click the drop down box to choose “trips”, and please put my name on the Memo line. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for any amount you are able to give … even $10 will help!

Thank you for your prayers and support. I am so blessed by this opportunity to be a part of what God is doing around the world, and I am excited to share my experiences here at home when I return.

Much love,
Shannon

“Everyone needs compassion, a love that’s never failing; Let mercy fall on me. Everyone needs forgiveness, the kindness of a saviour, the Hope of nations…. So take me as you find me, all my fears and failures, and fill my life again. I give my life to follow everything I believe in; now I surrender.” ~Reuben Morgan and Ben Fielding, Hillsong Australia

Images and graphics used with permission.