Two Weeks in Africa

I was standing in my room yesterday afternoon when Caedmon’s call song Two weeks in Africa came on to my MP3 player. Given the fact that it was another beautiful afternoon in Pietermaritzburg and I was inside, feeling rather trapped at the Manse, I was not in a good mood. For one thing, I was mistaken in my thinking that I needed to do laundry the day before. I had thought we were going to be busy. Wrong. (Actually, I could’ve waited to do my laundry until that day since all my clothes got rained on while they were hanging outside so I had to bring them in and try and figure out how to hang them up inside the house. To make matters worse, Tuesday was a beautiful day. Needless to say, it was pretty frustrating). I should’ve waited –after all, we were supposed to be doing something. Right?

Earlier that morning, my team and I met with the Pastors, Thandi (the woman in charge of the NGO), and Christine (who is our MMN connection here) to talk about our possible positions for this year. There were four different categories that the five of us are to fill – working with the youth, the missions team (this would include ESL teaching, etc), BCA (Breakthru Community Action – the NGO), and the catering team/children’s church. So generally speaking, I fall somewhere it to the missions and catering/children’s church category. But I came out of that meeting with no clear sense of anything. Still.

I am really trying to be flexible. Really trying. But still, it’s a huge challenge not knowing ahead of time what we’re doing or when people are going to pick us up or show up at the house, etc. It’s even harder to sit around all day waiting. Waiting for nothing. Or so it seems.

So there I was- folding clothes in the room as the Caedmon’s call came through the headphones. The song, Two Weeks in Africa, is a song based on the story of a girl from the states who went on a missions trip to Africa. It’s pretty “stereotypical” in the sense of what one generally thinks people go to Africa to do – feeding starving kids, helping build church buildings, etc. And although I cannot really relate to this song (I am definitely not in the bush here people), things stuck out to me. For example, I didn’t realize that some of the song takes place in South Africa. I’ve also been here for 2 weeks now. These are all minor things but there were two lines in that song rang true in my mind as I grumpily folded clothes.

Number 1: We all can feel the calling/ to make this world a little smaller.

Number 2: He [God] doesn’t need us, but He lets us put our hands in/ so we can see His love is bigger than you and me

Since I haven’t done anything (yet), these words were really needed. Even if I feel like I am completely useless here I know that I am getting a bigger perspective of God and of the world and of my life just by being here (whether I see that yet or not). However, it’s the “just by being” part that really trips me up. I’ve been “being” all summer long. It’s definitely time to do something. Still, it’s good to remember that working alongside BCI and seeing what God is already doing here is a privilege. If I wasn’t here, it wouldn’t really matter. But God is allowing me to put my hands in and see what happens. To see that Christ’s love is bigger than anything I can ever offer.