I need Africa more than Africa needs me ...

The banner above is from the "Mocha Club" website, an incredibly worthy organization that is doing some amazing work in Africa. For the price of 2 mochas a month ($7), this organization is connecting and uniting people around the world, and "providing solutions to the challenges Africans are facing".

While we were in Ethiopia we met Barrett Ward, who works for Mocha Club (Barrett is married to AWAA's Rachel Ward) and got to hear first-hand about the inspiring work this organization is achieving in Africa! Check out Mocha Club for yourself! If you are looking for a trusted and worthy organization to support, I personally recommend Mocha Club.

By the way, do you recognize the beautiful little boy in the photo? That's our 7 year old son Jayden, before coming home to America and his forever family!

This statement from the Mocha Club website really resonates with me ... "I need Africa, more than Africa needs me." There is a hard to understand truth in that statement. Once you've walked the roads and inhaled the dust and looked into the teary, wide eyes of an orphan and the weary, tired eyes of the homeless in Africa ... it sticks with you and it forever changes you.

From the Mocha Club website ...
When I think of Africa, the following images immediately come to mind: Starvation. AIDS. Child soldiers. Genocide. Sex slaves. Orphans. From there, my thoughts naturally turn to how I can help, how I can make a difference. "I am needed here," I think. "They have so little, and I have so much."

It's true, there are great tragedies playing out in Africa everyday. There is often a level of suffering here that is unimaginable until you have seen it, and even then it is difficult to believe. But what is even harder is reconciling the challenges that many Africans face with the joy I see in those same people. It's a joy that comes from somewhere I cannot fathom, not within the framework that has been my life to this day.

The images spilling out of my television showed circumstances that could seemingly only equal misery, and I was fooled. I bought into the lie that circumstance defines happiness. The truth is, in Africa I find hearts full of victory, indomitable spirits. In places where despair should thrive, instead I find adults dancing and singing, and children playing soccer with a ball crafted of tied up trash. Instead of payback, I find grace. Here, weekend getaways are not options to provide relief from the pains of daily life. Relationships and faith provide joy. Love is sovereign.

My new reality… I know now that my joy should have no regard for my circumstances. I'm ashamed by my lack of faith, but at the very same moment I am excited by my new pursuit. I'm forced to redefine the meaning of having much or having little. I'm uneasy with the prospect of change and of letting go, but just the thought of freedom is liberating. I want what I have learned to trickle down from my head into my heart - I no longer want to need the "next thing" to have joy.

I'm not saying that Africa does not need our efforts. It absolutely does need our partnership. But for me, I've come to understand that I NEED AFRICA MORE THAN AFRICA NEEDS ME. Why? Because it is Africa that has taught me that possessions in my hands will never be as valuable as peace in my heart. I've learned that I don't need what I have and that I have what I need. These are just a few of this continent's many lessons. I came here to serve and yet I've found that I have so much to learn, and Africa, with all its need, has much to teach me.