Mandy and Jace

I’m home, but my heart seems to be lingering somewhere in the gorgeous camp we stayed at in Africa. Don’t get me wrong, I’m am beyond happy to be home. I missed my family and my amazing husband more than I can even explain, but I fell in love with the amazing women I met. Both the women of Africa who it was our mission to treat like princesses, and the amazing women from all over the US who sacrificed time, money and being with their loved ones to come together in the bush of Africa and work tirelessly to make sure everything ran smoothly.

This was a trip that when I signed up for it I didn’t know that by the time it came around I would need it so desperately. As I have written about before, I wasn’t sure why God wanted me to go on this trip back when Jamie asked me. I just had this overwhelming feeling that I was supposed to go. Now I know that God had me in the palm of His hand and he knew that I would need a place to go to let my broken heart mend. I thank God for never leaving me even when I couldn’t see Him.

We ended up having a little over 500 women come to our conference. We saw many saved, many filled with the Holy Spirit and broken hearts and lives mended. These maasai women face countless struggles daily including walking miles to get firewood and water that they carry on their back along with their babies that never leave their side, dealing with the pain in seeing their husband with his possibly many other wives and daily beatings from said husband. When they came in the door you could see the pain in their beautiful eyes. Lots of spiritual, mental and even physical pain. When they left however, they had a new found hope that was amazing to see. We would have evening services and go back to camp before dark, but that didn’t stop them from praising Jesus. We would hear their beautiful praise and worship late into the night and then again as early as 4:30 in the morning. Laying in my bed and listening to them worship freely without worry of beatings and humiliation strengthened me and my faith. I dont think we know how blessed we are. Here in America we fight over petty stuff in the church like how padded the chairs are and what shade of gray the carpet is going to be, when a world away people are just happy with a tree to stand under and listen to someone tell them about God.

I am home with a newfound love for Africa that I never thought I would have. I have experienced something that will linger with me for years to come and I am praising God that he knew back in May exactly where I would be and what I would need right now.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 13th, 2012 at 8:52 am and is filed under Mandy, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.