My senior year of high school I was able to go on a mission trip for 2 weeks to Namibia, Africa.  I can't begin to tell you about the scar this country left on my heart.  There is not a day that goes by that I don't think of it.  While I was in Nam I was able to love on children an help make bricks for a lady's house I would never meet or see.  While in Nam I learned a lot about myself and God.  When I got back to The States I was pretty much going through withdrawals.  Me and my fellow team members would incorporate words and phrase of the local language we learned into our everyday conversations...since we were the only ones who understood them we usually talked to each other in the halls.  We became this almost secrete club except it wasn't really secret.  It was strange for me to be drive on the right side of the road ( in Namibia they drive on the left), and it was really uncomfortable for me to just go back to my daily life, just like I did after every other mission trip I went on.  Namibia had changed me forever.

You might say/think to yourself "That's great but what does that have to do with why you picked Uganda?"  Here is where it all fits.  Coming back from Namibia I knew that God was calling me to Africa.  Not to save them from AIDS of civil war but to love on them.  The people and children crave to be loved.  For someone to not just look at them with pity and their eyes and say things like "oh how sad" or to be known for the infomercials with the starving child asking you donate your money,  all they really want is for you to love them where they are and not treat them like they are dying; to known for their faith and resilence.  Africa is ALIVE.  They have stories to tell and a faith that will blow your mind that they are dying to share them with you. 

See I didn't really pick Uganda, God did.  He presented me an opportunity to go on this trip in the Summer or 2011 a summer where I wouldn't need to take summer classes to graduate on time, a summer where I would have probably spent working and bored in Statesboro.  All I had to do was say yes and go. I really didn't have a choice though.  "You don't just come back from Africa the same...it get's into you blood."  One of my high school teachers said that to me before going to Namibia.  To finish this blog I am going to add to that statement.  You don't just come back from Africa the same...it get's into your blood, into the very escence of your being.  You might change Africa but the beautiful this is Africa changes you.  If opens your eyes to how amazing God really is and how much he works through the "least of these". 

Love Always,

Jess