getting started

So deciding I wanted to go to Africa was easy...how i was going to get there was the great unknown.  I went to an orientation meeting for Clean Water and met people who had been on previous missions to Rwanda.  My goal that night was to be able to say more than my name without bursting into tears! I was not very successful:) there was so much to learn, seriously, so much! I thought I would just pack a bag and grab passport and go...clearly I had much to learn, and many things would really stretch my levels of comfort (figuratively, literally and spiritually). The first lesson being that I was expected to ask for contributions to pay for my passage...couldn't I just write a check for myself? asking for money is so hard..so uncomfortable...so embarassing! i mean, really, in this economy? so I talked to people who had gone before me and they helped me to understand that this was a way of sharing what I was doing.  That casting a big net would  let everyone  participate...not just with contributions, but with prayers, encouragement and awareness of this global giant.  So I walked around for like a month with a file full of revision after revision of my contribution letter. I mean, you would have thought I was writing a thesis! but I wanted it to be perfect! not too much...not too vague..you know, just right. Finally,  I drove to my mom and dad's house and we made this a family project...sign...stuff...stamp...send!! we prayed over those blue envelopes..i mean...what would people think? what did I really think? funny, for the most part,I march to my own drummer not too worried about what others think..but on this one, asking for money, i kinda did. but that was because i was making it about me(hello) and not about the mission...
Well, checking the mail has taken on a whole new attitude!
deborah of africa

let's catch up!

Well, true to form , I intended to start this blog at the end of January...now its the 3rd of May...you get the picture... If you know me, I am not the most techie person ever, and this feels alot like homework( albeit self imposed) so I tend to avoid it, but now that I set it up....it's pretty easy! Soooo,  here goes!  I AM GOING TO RWANDA!!! its  been a life long dream to get involved on a mission, but somehow I got a little sidetracked somewhere between graduation and forty! and it wasn't kids...just life... my career, and I am not gonna lie, I was having too much fun.  And yet that little voice in the back of my head that was there when I was younger  telling me to get out of my comfort zone started getting louder.  I had so much and my life had been blessed in so many ways, what next? A friend of mine starting telling me about a bible study group he was in that was going on a mission trip to Africa.  I begged him to let me join.  That was 5 years ago.  They are an amazing group of people who have become my second family. They ended up going to Argentina that year and I continued doing good works here, but I still had that fire...act locally, think globally.  Changes in me started slowly. Funny how that works. Cuz I am not the most patient person! I want results yesterday! But God knew when I would be ready and He was shaping me while I was I just jumping into local action with my bible study group.  So fast forward..We had two guests at our group one evening sharing the works they are doing in Rwanda. And I was so in. I am learning as I walk through this. It is truly hard to imagine that on this planet there are people dying because they are thirsty and because they have no access to safe, clean water. Something I have in abundance and is as necessary as air. Unclean water kills 5 million children, one every 20 seconds in the developing world. Waterborne disease kills more than violence and wars combined..to me these are staggering, unacceptable facts.  SOOOO..I am going to RWANDA..and I look forward to sharing my journey !!! xoxoxo  deborah of africa