Wednesday, July 22, 2009

You Ask About My Trip

I wrote 38 pages in my journal about the trip....

It only scratched the surface.

I have almost 600 photos on my camera....

I rarely had it with me.

I felt at home there....

I have often felt like a stranger in a strange land here.

Church there is fresh and alive and lasts for hours....

I've been struggling with church here.

Fresh, clean water is a luxury there....

I took a long, hot, indulgent shower here.

Community is everything there....

I don't even know all of my neighbors here.

Obtaining the next meal is the daily focus there....

I threw away half my fries from my Big Mac meal at lunch.

Signs of sickness and disease were on every happy face there....

We gripe and complain about the cost of health care here.

It took an hour to baptize 5 new believers there....

We rush through a meaningless? baptism in minutes.

Yesterday, I was on another continent -- it might have been another world....

Today, I fell into my ruts as though I had never left.

Help me, Father! This can't be right.

(More to come.)

3 comments:

Kim McClure said...

Chris,
Glad you made it back safely. Africa has a way of changing you forever.
My dream is to take Xander to see Ethiopia when he is old enough.
Kim

Sandy Kessler said...

I see a big HAND in this sandy

Barbara Martin said...

Chris, your comments about the trip to Africa speak volumes. It sounds like you enjoyed your time there and learned alot in the process. Now you just have to incorporate those feelings and remembrances into your daily life here.

Glad to see you're back safe and sound.

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