First, I must tell you that, since I was a young child, I had envisioned traveling to Africa. For some strange reason, I knew that I would be going there someday. I used to even draw pictures of what it might look like. I must have been reeled in by those Save the Children commercials at some point. I was definitely a sensitive kid.
The opportunity came about when I heard that an organization my parents were involved with called Good Samaritan Ministries (a world-wide non-profit counseling agency) was taking a trip to Uganda. The second I heard about it, I told my parents I was going on that trip. They initially smiled and said "ok honey" and kept it moving. After I said this repeatedly for about a month, my step-dad called the group and inquired for me. The crazy thing is that they were specifically looking for a teenager to take with them! When I heard that, I knew that God had specifically planned for me to go on that trip. Just like my other mission trips, the money was raised miraculously for me to be able to go.
I will never forget the moment I stepped onto the pavement at the airport in Uganda. It felt like a miracle occurred that I had waited my whole life for.
Throughout the trip, we traveled around Uganda and Kenya. We visited widows and orphans and brought them food and medical supplies. I played soccer (they call it football, which makes more sense) with lots of children, I sang songs and danced, and I helped teach social skill lessons, such as relationships/sex education.
I also washed my clothes in buckets, accidently ate one of my contacts, and I lost my luggage for two weeks, so I had to wear my friend's long dresses that didn't really fit me. I bought beautiful African art work that I still have. I picked coffee beans off trees and saw monkeys swinging from trees down a main highway. I went to the zoo and saw a huge hole in a lion's cage. I'm still not sure what was going on with that but it was crazy to see!
Adding to the plethora of experiences I had while there, I also got infected with malaria. Despite taking all of the precautionary measures, I still became infected. I think it was because I stayed the night with the little girls during the last night of camp and my mosquito netting was not properly placed. They had begged me to stay and every other night I had been going back to the apartment we were staying at for safety and so that I could have proper netting. Having malaria is like having the worst flu of your life. I knew I wasn't going to die, but I certainly felt like I was going to.
With all of the craziness, this trip was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. This is where I learned first hand that true religion is serving the widows and orphans.
Although it feels good to do, Christianity is not dressing up in your Sunday best and heading to a brick building every week.
It's about getting dirty by building a house made of red mud bricks for a woman who lost her husband to disease and who has to raise five children by herself. It's about playing a game of soccer with 20 kids that were all orphaned by AIDS.
It's also about lending some money to a friend during a hard time in her life. It's about driving a friend to work while her car is broken down. It's about spending real, quality time with your children that doesn't involve a screen of some sort. It's about spending time with someone else's child that doesn't have enough adults to look up to.
This is what Jesus is all about. I hope all of my family and friends get to meet the real Jesus someday and before that time comes, I want to show him to everybody. I'm going to fail at it sometimes, because I'm imperfect, but I'm going to try my very best. Not by what I say, but by what I do.
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