i need africa more than africa needs me

i'm apart of a group called mocha club. basically you donate the price of two mochas a month ($7) to africa and in turn recruit your friends to do the same. i'm currently trying to recruit from the seminary and apartment complex...but feel free to join even if you arent!!!

mocha club has encouraged their donors & bloggers to blog about the title above. please visit the mocha club online to learn more about africa and how we can help...

i spent the month of november, in 2000, in the countries of kenya and malawi. whenever visiting third world countries i am always struck by the fact that such stunning beauty and stark filth can be in the same place. in kenya, i visited one of the large slums on the continent. i watched a maasai warrior dance. i learned how to make maize and help feed the sweetest children in the world. i saw baby elephants, a whole pride of lions, & an entire plane of animals with beauty you could only dream of.

africa. even the name evokes so many feelings and thoughts in people. but when i say the word it makes me think of a small classroom in malawi where i learned what it meant to long to see God and for this earth, with all its beauty and its filth...to be made new.

i spent the most of my time in malawi. i went with a small group of people from church and i had decided to stay a few weeks longer to see if that was where i wanted to stay, permantely. i obviously chose a different path but the things i saw, the things i encountered awakened me to some truths i needed to learn.

i've seen "rougher" places. i've been to poorer lands. But no where had i seen a joy to know God. in that classroom, that day that shook me to the core, a group of little ones gathered to learn. i stood and watched as the teacher lead them in a prayer, after their morning breakfast, and then they sang a song.

" Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King. Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King...
No more dying there, we are going to see the King. No more crying there, we are going to see the King. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, We are going to see the King."

I sat stunned as i watched their faces sing these words, mean these words. I knew i didnt know what it was to long for Jesus to come and make all things new. To not have parents, siblings, everyone die around me. I knew i didnt know what it was like to go hungry, but to understand i would get to be in the presence of a king, The King!

Jesus promises to right all the wrongs in this world. To take ugly and make it beautiful. To take our scars, our wounds and make sense of it. He promises an unending life of goodness and rightness.

Heaven isnt some vague concept to these children I saw singing. They knew. They knew that this life wasnt it, wasnt all that was to come. No, there was/is something better. They knew that even though they were little and filthy and poor-they could meet the King! I finally got the concept of King and I believed it too!

it's a shame that i had to travel around the world to understand God a bit better. but i think thats kinda the point. He uses people and nations and tribes to teach us different parts of Himself. He is God after all and there's lots to know. Thats why I need Africa... to show me more of The King.

So as we all prepare for this Advent Season, this season where The King becomes a baby- let us all be mindful of his Kingness. And as we put lights on our tree, stockings on our mantles, wreaths on our door...let us do it because The King is coming! He is coming to earth to make it right.