New eyes and new goals.

As I get to know 3 beautiful people from Holland, there are times when a flash of the question, "Why are they going to Africa?" goes through my mind. Then I remember how others have wondered the same about us.

We have a guest lecturer today that summed up why I love to go, to meet new people, and to get to know cultures beyond my own.

It is not just the excitement of it, although it is.
It is not just that feeling I LOVE when I realize that I just learned something new that I didn't even know I didn't know before.

It is this.
I find hope and joy in discovering a new facet of God himself in a new person or culture or situation.

When I work with kids in Santa Ana, California, who seem to have such unsurmountable challenges compared to those I grew up with in the same area of the globe, I find a new home that living, life, meaning doesn't depend on a person 'having' what I have. It depends on something so much deeper.

This gives me hope in God. In the bigger picture of things. I constantly need to be reminded that God is in control and that this all makes sense somehow ... even abject poverty.

In January, our church had 'Missions Day.' Those who participate in missions were asked to summarize why we go in a word or a phrase. Mine was, "Because the kids deserve a future and a hope." I still believe this but ... I realize I go to find out how God gives them that future and a hope, whether it is through me and some message I can give them by loving them, or by some other means that I probably don't know or understand yet.

When people ask me why we go to Africa, I usually tell them that it is through God's opening and closing doors in our lives. It seems to be where He wants us. On the other hand, it is because I want to work on some kind of solution, or at least improvement, to some Problem.

Today, I want to remember that, although those two reasons are true, it is really that I want to see and learn and discover ... "New facets of the Living God at work in every situation. I want, and need, the hope I get from that." Lord, this is my real desire. Please use me for others in the process, but keep me centered in this ultimate goal. Keep me from my tendency to want to fix, make better, approach perfection. Show me how to keep my eyes on You."