The Transition Artist

As the day comes to a end, I sit on the edge of my bed writing this and counting my blessings. In the short time that I’ve been here, I know I’ve already begun to be molded and shaped by the people I’ve been surrounded by. Coming to this conference has been one of the most life enriching experiences I think anyone has ever offered me. Day in and day out, I am surrounded by so much culture, so much love, and so much inspiration. I’ve listened to the testimonies and stories of ministry of men I could never have imagined meeting. Not only that, but I’ve gotten the opportunity to know these men. Over our meals and tea breaks I’ve learned about their families, their experiences, their cultures, and their hearts. We’ve told jokes, laughed together, and shared everything from awkward small talk to meaningful conversations, no matter how briefly.

Today was our last day of sit down conferences. It was a bitter-sweet end to a wonderfully enriching week. I’m looking forward to continue bonding with our country directors over the next few days, though, as we leave the conference room to embark on a few adventures, including a visit to Ellilta, Women at Risk, one of our project partners benefitting women rehabilitated from a life of prostitution and trained so that they can do work that they’re proud of and fulfilled by. We’ll be traveling two hours to their site in Nazaret tomorrow, then having a fun day around the city this Saturday and attending church together on Sunday before they all leave. Even with all this excitement coming up, I want to step back for a minute just to reflect on what I’ve learned and experienced this far.

This week has taught me a lot about Africa as a whole and about the impacts of the work I’ve been doing from behind a desk in Nashville for the past 9 months. Although I don’t know many people who can say they enjoy sitting for hours in an un-air-conditioned conference room (and granted, sometimes we got a little sleepy..), I know I’m going to miss it. In our last meeting today, I looked around the room and saw the faces of some of the most influential, hard-working, and inspiring men in the world and felt honored. These men have started churches, led water projects, cared for orphans, established ministries where there weren’t any, and gone beyond their church walls to help their communities in incredible ways, and they’re about to delve into their communities even more once they return home.

I could write for hours about the different conversations I’ve had or testimonies I’ve heard, but instead I just want to share a few lessons I’ve learned in the short time that I’ve been here.

1. The worst thing you can do for someone is give them everything they need. Of course, I’m sure you’ve all heard this before. The old, “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll have food forever.” (Something like that anyway..) I learned this is a whole different context, though. I got to hear the country directors talk about how badly NGO’s have hurt their country and their cultures, and hear stories of why helping, sometimes, literally hurts. Patson, our director of Zimbabwe, told us a story of a grandmother caring for her grandchildren who refused to work. “Why?” We asked, perplexed as to why anyone would willfully choose not to provide for children they had guardianship of. “Because she said she was waiting for a check from World Vision. She knew they would give her the money, so why go work for it?” And it didn’t end there. There were many examples like this given to show how NGO funding can literally cripple a culture, making them reliant on donors and outside funding, and hurting a local economy with no motivation.

2. Discipleship is far underrated. Let me guess, when I say disciple you say…? Jesus? The 12? That’s what I used to think of when someone said “disciple,” but a funny thing happens when you spend a week with a room full of pastors. The word disciple comes to mean much more than a follower of Jesus, but a term used to describe someone that these men walk beside. Discipling is a lot like a mentorship for these pastors, but more than just giving advice, they share life with the men they disciple, giving them a piece of themselves in return for a piece of the other. It’s beautiful to hear them talk about it. They truly love the men they’ve discipled. One pair in particular, Geoffrey and Julius, actually came to the conference together and each shared their side of the story on their relationship. Geoffrey taught Julius in a pastor training class in Uganda, saw potential in him, and made him his trusted partner in ministry, so that they could minister to two different parts of the country as two parts of one whole. “This guy needs to be celebrated, not tolerated,” Geoffrey told us of Julius. “We don’t tolerate anyone who says, ‘I don’t care about this.’ Because we care about everything.”

3. What you invest in matters. Before this conference, I typically associated the word “invest” with money. When we were asked to define it, I answered “to put stock in.” This answer is technically correct, but we were provided with a different answer. Our vision for African Leadership is to “Invest in Africa’s Servant Leaders.” Investing in this context means to “endow with quality.” Endow means “to continually support.” I “invest” in a lot of things. I invest time in school, in reading, in people, in money (how much I have vs. how much I need), etc. I thought these were all pretty good things to “invest” myself in, but when it comes down to it, there’s no way I can honestly say that I continually support all of these things with quality. So if I have to pick one, which one do I choose? I’m still grappling with this one, but the obvious answer would be to put stock in the only thing that lasts. I won’t force any religious beliefs on you here, but for me that’s God; whether or not that’s where my stock always lies is the hard part. I’ll turn this question around, though. What do you “continually support with quality?” Think about it. It matters.

4. A testimony is a gift, and a gift is invaluable. I took a class on existentialism this past semester and we read a French philosopher named Marcel who said that a testimony is not only a sharing of one’s experience, but an offering of self, making it a gift. Coming on this trip has made me understand that sentiment on a whole new level. A sharing of experience or telling of a story is such a huge gift. I can’t relay all the testimonies I’ve listened to, but I can say that a place in my heart holds them dearer than any physical gift I could ever receive.

5. There’s no such thing as too much information or too many friends. I’ve been doing my best to prepare my heart and mind for living and serving in Kenya for quite some time, and I’ve shared the details of my upcoming trip with some of the country directors. One in particular, Dennis Omondi, who I’ve really come to love (maybe partially because he reminds me a lot of my fun-loving/teasing uncle), has dedicated himself to thoroughly preparing me for that trip by sharing experiences and giving me advice. Dennis is from Kenya and grew up in Nairobi, but runs a ministry in Mombasa (8 hours from Nairobi). He’s given me hypothetical situations, talked to me at length about the area I’ll be staying in, made me aware of a lot of cultural differences and how I should handle them, and given me his contact information should I need anything. Hanging out with him and talking through what I’ll be experiencing has helped me so much, and made me feel so much more prepared and comfortable for what lies ahead of me. I also just value the companionship and fun that I get to have with him and many of the other country directors.

Now I know that list ended up being a lot longer than anyone realistically wanted to read, but I’m a detail-oriented story teller (and/or list writer). If anything, I could ramble forever about this trip because I love it so much.

I was poking around on my study abroad website yesterday and read a quote that said, “il n’y a un homme plus complet que celui qui a beaucoup voyagé, qui a changé vingt fois la forme de sa pensée et de sa vie.” (Albert de Lamartine) Which translates to, “There’s no man so complete as the one who’s traveled much; who’s changed twenty times the way he thinks and the way he lives.” I can’t think of any truer statement. If there’s any great, overarching lesson that I’ve really learned both on this trip and in my life, it’s that change is a good thing and culture never hurts, it only enhances. So my tip of the day for all of you is this: Go live. You won’t regret it.