I'm not sure if anyone will check my blog anymore, as I've been back for a week now, but if you do read this, just know that when you ask me how my trip was and I tell you, "It was amazing," I am severely understating my summer.
As I look back to who I was six weeks ago when I arrived in Dallas to meet my team, I see a completely different person. This summer project was an intense crash course not only in filmmaking, but in my faith, my friendships, and my growth as a person. Since I came home, I've seen that the way I respond to life is different: I am more inclined to turn to God's strength rather than my own when faced with a difficult situation, and my hesitations are fewer when something seems scary or intimidating. I'm not worried about my future anymore - I have absolutely no idea what's in store for me, but I do have His promise that He has something planned.
I changed, but the change is still a process, and some changes require conscious effort. While in Africa, I saw people with less than I have doing more than I do with an equal amount of time - I would like to say that I haven't wasted time since, but old habits die hard. I met people who were willing to drop everything and be a servant to the American visitors - I pray that I will learn to give of myself so fully. I saw the power of prayer over even the smallest details of our lives, but have I learned to pray constantly yet? Nope! Thank goodness we don't have to master these things all at once.
There were many times when I walked through dusty streets and realized that what I was seeing was not much different from the world Jesus lived in - beggars on every corner, people sleeping on sidewalks, livestock everywhere and children with dirty feet - and I felt like I understood what He did a little bit better. The streets weren't paved, the people weren't all dressed in white with shining faces, and the cities didn't smell like lilacs, but He gave up Heaven to live with the least of these, lay hands on the sick and let raggedy children sit in his lap.
During our last week we visited two households in a village in Ziway, and were able to play with a group of children who gathered in the street. Half were barefoot, all were muddy, all had dirty faces and clothing that barely fit. One little girl, about six years old, climbed into my arms and would not be put down for anything, and I held her for half an hour or so while my group stood in someone's backyard playing with baby goats. Words can't express how I felt when she would sit back and look at me, then throw her arms around my neck again in a tight squeeze. I think I realized right then how we must look when we go to Jesus: broken and in tatters, muddy, not smelling that great, but willing to throw our arms around His neck and just love Him. And how awesome it is that He stoops down in the mud to hold us.
Our last week in Ethiopia was a lot more relaxed. We took a boat out on Lake Ziway and saw some hippos, and got to eat at a restaurant that had apparently been built on the residence of a group of monkeys. (The monkeys exacted revenge by stealing food off of people's plates.) We got to pet a baboon, and a few members of our group received a surprise lice inspection during our visit. And we were well prepared for our return to America, though the advice of our project leaders was easier listened to than put into practice. Our return has not been without frustration, exhaustion, or sorrow over saying goodbye, and it's easy to choose to wallow and forget about prayer and your family and friends, and just watch movies all day.
However, we have been called to greater things, and I know the Lord will carry us through it, just like he carried us through ten-hour flights, three short films and five weeks in a foreign country. I want to thank all of you for reading, and for all the support and encouragement that made this trip possible. I'm quite sure I will never be the same again. I recently told a friend how funny it is that we went to Africa expecting to change a small part of it, and though we might have in one way or another, it was really Africa that changed us.
God bless,
A Lionhearted Girl
