I’ve been back from Africa for almost two months now. In a lot of ways, the time spent there felt like a dream, for 5 weeks, time stood still and I found a part of me again that had felt lost for the last two years. Since returning to the US, i’ve wrestled through the clash of worldviews and the different ways of life. Africa, unlike the US, lives life at the speed of relationships. Where here in the US, we live life so busy that it’s hard to keep up with people. It’s left me stuck in the middle of two familiar worlds but not feeling like I belong fully in either. My longing for eternity has become so deep because only Jesus can make sense of the things I can’t make sense of.
God has been bringing me on a journey through the gospels. I’ve seen the life of Jesus in a new way. He had tasks, yes, but His main purpose was people. The task often waited on the relationships that were in front of Him. Jesus often went off by Himself to be with His Father, and then one verse later would be quickly meeting the needs of people who came to Him. I can imagine Jesus, too, looked at humanity and knew He was not made for this world.
I could tell hundreds of stories from this past summer (winter in Africa). When I left South Africa two years ago, I was still so sick, confused, hurt, and felt like I lost so much of life as I knew it in a matter of months. Upon returning this time, Africa still felt like home but I returned with a deeper understanding of who Jesus is and my deep need, longing and dependency for Him. I saw His compassion more, His mercy more, and how His heart beats for people in a way I never understood before.
My third week in Africa, our team arrived in our first village in Uganda. We were deep in the trees and red dirt roads - my first time in Uganda, but my heart still feeling a beat for Africa and the people I love so much. The ladies at the church we were working at were a tight group. Watching how they lived life - together - made me long more for relationships, togetherness, and belonging. I started hanging out with these ladies in their “kitchen.” I put kitchen in quotations because it’s not at all what our kitchens look like. It was 5 or 6 pots, leaves as pot holders, sticks as spoons, and river water over fire. Over the course of the week, I spent my time there with these women; they were long, uninterrupted, slow days. I watched as they helped each other cook, watched each others kids, jokes, laughed, cried, and did everything together.
By day 3, I had been given a Uganden name and they were teaching me words in their language. By simply being together, we became familiar; we became family in Jesus. Each day, all the women would wait for each other and they would walk home through the village as the sun set. It was the most beautiful picture of togetherness. I left that village thinking, “if only we all lived life slow like an African kitchen…. How rich would we be? “
I think this is one of the reasons people fall in love with Africa - time stands still in such a unique way. Africa draws people in because you are so confronted with the brokenness of the world: poverty, demonic spirits, witchcraft, drugs, alcohol, starvation, etc. But despite the hard, every place I’ve ever been in Africa is strikingly beautiful. From the rolling hills of the Western Cape in South Africa, the jungle of Uganda and Mozambique, the dunes in the desert of Namibia, the vast savannahs in the Kruger National Park, mountains of Lesotho and beaches of South Africa - the untouched beauty of the continent is unparalleled. It’s such a stark contrast, you can’t help but be drawn in. To me, it’s a picture of the cross of Jesus. The pain, brokenness, and sin of the world are confronted with the extreme grace and love of Jesus as He died for us on the cross.
I’m still not sure how to fit the two worlds I know together - the only answer is the cross of Jesus and the hope of eternity with Him. What I do know is my aim is to live life more like an African kitchen - slow and steady - where the heart of people and how Jesus loves them is the most important. I want to see the beauty in brokenness in each day and to wait well for the day we will be with Him forever.
Revelation 22:12-13 NLT
““Look, I am coming soon, bringing my reward with me to repay all people according to their deeds. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” ”
