A month left...

It is almost too hard to believe that I have only one month left of living in Salem, Oregon, at least for a while. Even more surprising to me is that I really have less time because I will be working outrageous hours the next three weeks before I leave. Like many changes, this one is bitter sweet. I am excited to meet new people, to be in a new place, to not be “here” anymore. But at the same time, I finally feel really connected here in Salem and there are friendships I am not ready to give up, or at least slow them down. It will also be hard to leave Salem Alliance. I will miss being connected into Crash, The Link, drama, small groups, all those different activities and the great people of that church.

Yet, time does not end and I know that God wants me over in Minnesota. I feel like God will use me even more over there. I hope there will be great opportunity over there and that I will be able to use all the skills God has given me.

Pride-Something you can't hide

A condition of the human heart that feeds off of the demolishment and degrading of others. This blob, this monster that lives in each and everyone of us only grows when it can place itself higher than the next person. It feeds on the failures of it's closest friends and as it grows, its strength grows along with it. I have noticed that pride is a constant battle. I am a solider in out of the field of love and hate fighting for the right--love. Yet, as hard as i fight, the war rages on and it seems as though it will be a lifelong battle.

I don't think it is only us as individuals. We are currently based in a society that is capitalistic. That is, we constantly rank ourselves in order to push others to improve. Though this helps our products and keeps cost down, it comes at the price of stress and greed. Even built into us from an early age we find that grades matter, class rank is essential to look upon, and SAT scores define your intelligence. Though many of us can mentally recognize these as farce statements, it is much easier to know, than to believe. And so we fall into this trap of who's better than who and supposedly rank ourselves in our own worth. Then as soon as we know how is above us in ranking, we work to move past them while we feast upon those who fall into a lower ranking than ours.

The only issue with this is that if you place us on a true scale of self worth; 1. You compare apples to oranges because people come in varieties; 2. At the end of the day, we are all the same. We all have the same option of loving and causing peace and helping the world. And at the end, we all die. yes, everyone is worm food. Therefor, if i can accumulate all the money of the world and be considered the most powerful man-- then die in a car accident. What good was my money. Nothing. Therefor, a pride of wealth, power, is only as good as what the individual uses it for. Pride takes a backseat as we are supposed to take that power and use it to serve others, placing yourself at a lower ranking than those you are serving. This will store up treasures in Heaven, which do matter after you are dead. So pride, just like any other sin, can be defined as "promising what it can not deliver".

Though this is a battle, which seems to have no end, it is clearly worth fighting the good fight to never feed the monster. I would consider this not a mindset, like many things are, but rather the fight is very physical. By literally placing others before you in line, investing your money into other's futures, and by living as though everyone is more important than yourself, this monster will have no power. This is ultimately where i want to be. People have so much worth and value, it only makes sense to try to show the same love to them as God has to me.

So i will continue to fight the blob that is starving inside me, and by the power of God i believe that i can keep it starving.

I Give Ye...Pictures

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39746508@N06/sets/72157620254040707/

Here is a link to a good chunk of my Africa pictures. Feel free to look through a couple, feel free to look through all. Hopefully this gives you a good glimpse into my trip.

Cleansing Showers and Empty Buckets

It had been a long day of working in the 100°+ temperature. People were tired, people were sweaty, people were painted,

people needed a shower.

Though deodorant had done a great job in clothing each of our stenches that we carried around with us, the deodorant, no matter how strong, was not strong enough to satisfy how we felt individually. When you have sweat and dirt covering just about every inch of skin, all you can think about before bed is getting clean.

I needed a shower.

We went down two by two to take showers, letting the girls go first of course. They wanted the showers more than us, and the guys were fine to wait a bit longer if the girls were going to be happy.

Because there is nothing like dirty, frustrated girls,

especially in Africa.

After waiting some time, it came to Cameron and my turn to take showers. Now, in America there is really nothing complex about taking a shower. Maybe you have a bit of trouble finding the proper hot-to-cold ratio for taking the perfect shower. In the Bush, you end up facing different issues.

Everything is a bit different in the Bush.

So here we are, in the middle of West Africa, still hot—even though the sun had been down for over an hour—walking to the two stone stalls set apart from the rest of the buildings, down by the storage room.

We were a bit nervous and confused.

Nervous because we had just been told by Kevin, the missionary, that we had to be watchful for pencil vipers. Snakes that can kill you in five minutes.

death

in

five

minutes.

So along with being scared for our lives, pointing our flashlight on any little movement we saw on the ground, we were also trying to figure out how to go about showering, since it was nothing like home.

On the way down to the showers we had stopped two of the girls coming back from their shower and asked how we were supposed to use each bucket. Though it had been explained to us earlier that day, we needed a little reminder since we had so much other information being shoved into our heads. With all those other facts and stories, the shower directions must have been pushed out. There is a lot to take in from Africa.

a whole lot.

Luckily, the two girls were in a good mood (they had just taken a shower, duh) and they were willing to explain how to go about this journey of showering. They began by explaining that there should be two buckets and a basin. One bucket should be full of soapy water, one full of clean water, and the basin is the left over dirty water because that is what you stand in to pour the clean water on you after you soap up.

This made sense to us,

no problem.

Yet, when we actually arrived at the stalls, there were two empty buckets and a dirty basin.

This was a problem.

To add to our confusion, as we stood there staring down these buckets, one of the African maids came down, picked up the dirty basin, poured it into one of the empty buckets and then left with the basin.

As she was leaving we tried to ask why she was doing this, but she didn’t speak enough English, and we didn’t speak enough Jula to get a clear answer. So we waited,

the two of us,

watching for snakes,

alone.

confused.

Then out of the shadows came the same maid with the basin balanced on her head, this time, full of clean water.

We were more confused.

After she left, Cameron and I stood there discussing the proper course of action for taking the shower. We talked through possible situations, with hypothetical outcomes, yet none of them sounded very intelligent. Either way, someone was going to take a dirty shower. So finally, after too much discussion, I stepped up.

I showered.

It was awkward. I contaminated the clean water in the basin with the dirt and the paint I had collected throughout that whole day. Plus, I had soaped up in the dirty water bucket which contained, who knows how many of my fellow member's, dirt and grime.

But I felt better.

I felt a moment of coolness, and though the process of getting clean wasn’t my number one choice, I was cleaner than when I walked into that stone stall. For that, I was extremely grateful because I knew I could get good nights sleep.

There is something refreshing about getting off all the dirt that you carry and

just

be

clean.

It's time to go...

It is early. this is real! pray and hope that God works his magic through us. i will write you all when i get back! Love all of you to death!

the laying of fingers....

Commissioning: The act of granting certain powers or the authority to carry out a particular task or duty

This last weekend was certainly one that i will remember for a while. All the mexico teams and the Africa team toured around Salem Alliance from the youngest to the oldest being commissioned. It is absolutely incredible that some 80 students and adults decided to give up their spring break to go a foreign country to share God's love. Where else can you find that. 

My group went to the preschoolers, which was a cool experience to have 3 and 4 year olds praying for God's protection over our trip. Then middle schoolers were funny. They were only willing to lay fingers on feet because they felt so uncomfortable with laying hands. ha. It was absolutely priceless. We also hit up the 4th and 5th graders. 

But one of the most impacting visits was when we went into kindergarten and 1rst grade room. After talking to the kids, we all went throughout them and they laid hands and prayed. There is something so amazing about 6 and 7 year olds praying out all at once for us. It just goes to show how many people are behind our trip. I love Salem Alliance so much.

As for packing, i am all done! yes. that is right, all i need are sunglasses and some protein bars. In just a few minutes i will taking my bag that has most of my supplies in so they will be ready for the travel. I also have my plane carry on packed up. The last thing that i need to pack is the camera. Otherwise i am ready to go. This is just becoming so real so quickly! 

God has blessed me financially and i am just about done with all the money portion of it. Who would have guessed that in our economic time people would still be so generous (it all points back to God). 

I will be writing a bit more in the next few days, and then i will be offline. I promise i will write over there specifically to share with you so when i get back, i will post them. Also, i will find a place to post pictures that everyone can see, and when the videos get done, i will also have those for you. 

i bless the rains down in africa....

Africa is fast approaching. Just like anything else, it has come much faster than I anticipated and I truly find it hard to believe that in 7 days, I will be at the airport ready to go.  I am beginning to pack all the stuff i need, which seems funny because though it seems like a lot to pack, i am taking barely anything for 14 days in a foreign country. 

Our trip got slightly changed just recently. Because of a flight cancellation from New York to Morocco, we will be staying in NY for one day. This is exciting to me because i have never been to New York--there are going to be a lot of firsts. 

Also, i just picked up the video camera yesterday, and I am going to be working on getting the feel for the camera so that i can get the best footage possible. If you did not know, upon returning, i will be making some episodes of our experiences over in Africa! I am hoping through these, other people, along with you, can get a better glimpse into what it is really like over there. 

Financially, God has really pulled through. By using family, friends, even strangers, God has made this trip possible and in this "economic time" (as the big wheels like to say) it is incredible that we have raised the support to move God's kingdom forward. It is exciting that many people believe in the cause and i have a feeling that if people are praying as much as they are supporting through money, our team is going to be able to do astounding things through God. 

If you are praying or supporting financially, or supporting me any other way, I want to say thank you! This trip is a huge deal to me, and for you to be a part of it means the world! I have been and will continue to pray a blessing over your life, for the blessing that you have been to me. 

Now that i have all my random thoughts down here (i hope you could follow a few of them) i will leave you with one of my favorite missionary quotes:

"Christ alone can save the world, but Christ cannot save the world alone."

-David Livingstone

Lord here I am, send me.