12 people. 51 total bags. 7 flights and 8 airports. Approximately 301 flight hours combined…Jet lag, 3 children, a pregnant mother, a plane crash, 1 flea-infested hotel bed, a leach ridden bathroom, and a little “hakuna matata”, the whole way through.
Welcome back to Africa.
Things are a bit different for us this time. If our first trip into the Dark Continent was a family honeymoon of sorts - bathed in bliss and excitement despite the trials and extremes - this year has come with the large dose of reality that stems from crossing certain mental and emotional thresholds.
The toilets have crank arms. The kitchen doesn’t get hot water, and the water needs to be filtered (Brita doesn’t qualify). The stove has two working burners and one shocks you if you grab a pot without wearing shoes - no kidding. A hole in the screen means potential invasion from a flying hypodermic needle armed with any of a host of infectious diseases.
But you know what? As good a story as this might make, when we dropped our heads last night and tucked into our fresh sheets under the mosquito tents, we laughed about how we really get to live the missionary High Life.
In recently reading about Dr. David Livingstone, I have been captivated by the accounts of his travels and the work he did. But what is really amazing was the way he did it with so much less than we have today, and under circumstances so much more unpredictable than ours. I mean, we are talking about a man who traveled by foot (or buffalo on good days, and sick bed on bad ones) across a continent that had never been mapped, and with none of the technology, tools, or pioneers to lean on.
The truth is, when we go into the bush for ministry, much of what we experience might be very much like what Livingstone did. But we have so many to look to who have done it before. Some of them are on our team. Plus, the pay is great; we get the eternal satisfaction of people being rescued from Hell and delivered into everlasting life. However, when we "suffer" the inconveniences of life here in Kigoma - slower pace and less amenities and the sacrifice of some of the luxuries we think we deserve - it is not so far removed from living on a rural farm in many parts of the States.
In the face of those short times that we humble ourselves and simply experience with other people the lives they live daily - be it in a bush village or the squalor of a leper camp - and seeing things in the light of how others before us have done what we do with so much more pressure and less relief, it is great to be able to say that we are truly living the missionary High Life!
In the face of those short times that we humble ourselves and simply experience with other people the lives they live daily - be it in a bush village or the squalor of a leper camp - and seeing things in the light of how others before us have done what we do with so much more pressure and less relief, it is great to be able to say that we are truly living the missionary High Life!
