Things I Have Seen - Reflections on our first year in Africa

I have seen children dancing with laughter and I have seen children with the lethargy of hunger.

I have see lush forests teeming with life and I have seen the smoke rising from charcoal burners illegally harvesting the forests and the dry expanse that follows.

Lunch in the Masaai Mara

I have seen people drinking clean sweet water drawn from mountaintop wells and I have seen people drawing water from murky pools.

I have seen lunch served to me on the glorious expanse of the Masaai Mara and I have seen chai served to me in homes where all of our knees touched when we sat down.

I have seen majestic sunsets from a remote island in Lake Victoria and I have seen unplanned roadside landfills where people just start dumping their trash.

Sunset over Lake Victoria

I have seen missionaries so full of vigor and gumption and I have seen other missionaries tired and weary from the work at hand.

I have seen majestic vistas while reclining on a bed and I have seen bats flying in my room with rats scurrying about.

I have seen fields heavy with their harvest and I have seen the fine dust of a dry and weary land.

I have seen unwarranted generosity toward me from strangers and I have seen people I know steal from me.

A home in the IDP camp.

I have seen my students be robust as they move effortlessly between cultures and I have seen my students be fragile as they sojourn in a world where they have no place to call home.

I have seen people living a life of privilege and I have seen people living in squalor after being driven from their homes by violence.

I have seen things that have caused me to say, “Where is God? I don’t understand,” and I have seen the undeniable and mighty hand of God at work.