“My Final Thoughts”

The night before we had left to go on safari, we had a debriefing session. We went around the room and each shared some of our high points and low points. We all agreed that we wished we would have done more, made more of a contribution to the lives of the Kenyans we met. Jen and Dave both just nodded to this unanimous concern, as if they had seen it coming, but they had nothing to say about it.

Then Nate turned on some music, and we all just chilled to it, lost in our thoughts and experiences. I sat back, closed my eyes and let the music move me.

Suddenly – boom - I was no longer Chris, meek and mild, from Wisconsin, I was Dorothy from Kansas.

“If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire and if it isn’t right here in my own backyard, well, then I never really lost it.”

For how many years had I been thinking that a third world country was the only place to make a difference. But then – boom – I closed my eyes again and I was in my hallway at the clinic. Everyday in one way or another I make a difference in the lives of my patients and of my co-workers. And maybe this trip will help me to do that even more. To not despair over the little things at work, to give me the strength to keep my head and heart up and serve all people. A long way to come to figure that out, but just like Dorothy no one could tell me that. I had to learn it for myself.

This was taken pretty much word for word from the journal I kept while on our mission’s trip. I should have been reading that page every day for the past seven months, instead of just rediscovering it now. But God works in mysterious ways and we will make these discoveries when He wants us to.

And so, for now, I end my story of Kenya. My plan is to go back over it, revising and editing it. And who knows, maybe someday it will show up again somewhere. In the meantime, God bless.

(And keep checking back, coz even though this is it from Africa, it doesn’t mean I am quitting my blog. You’ll just have to be surprised by what I come up with next.)