Mission Trip to Africa: the letter
As you may or may not know, Caleb and I took a mission trip to Africa earlier this year. It's taken me a minute to process everything! At first, I didn't know how I felt about sharing our experience, but I finally came to the conclusion that I was going to share! This trip had simply become a huge part of our story, and I believe a testimony is one of the most powerful things you can have, share, and leverage for the glory of God. I had our entire first 2 days of the trip spelled out in a blog post, but something was missing and I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Then I figured out moments before publishing it (I guess I work best under pressure), it was perspective.
Perspective was the very thing that inspired me to share about my experience. You see, on the last few days of our mission trip, we were told to write a letter to ourselves, about our experience in Africa. That letter was going to be sealed and mailed to us on a later date after our return home. When I got back from the mission trip, it was really tough to see life over here, and quite honestly I was mad. I was mad at myself for the $5k I had spent on new floors. I was mad at my neighbors for mowing their lawns and trimming their hedges instead of spending time and money on giving clothes to people who didn't have any. I was mad at social media, marketing, and advertisers. I was mad at conflict within relationships of people who just couldn't get along, and it was so obvious to me more than ever at that point that those are all schemes just to keep us busy, focused on ourselves, our own comfort, so that we are blind to the needs of others. It was this way for a while, and then slowly, as humans do, I adapted back into my culture. Africa got further away, my world got a little smaller, and I began to enjoy mowing the grass again. That's right around the time my letter came.
Talk about rollercoaster! When I read that letter, it brought back so many feelings that I never thought I'd forget. It brought back perspective. I knew that I had to share my story one way or another. So without further adieu, I'm sharing that letter I wrote myself, as a perspective into the end so that you can understand the beginning as I now understand it. I never intended on sharing this with anyone but myself (and maybe Caleb) when I wrote it. The first part of the letter was written at the dinner table on our last night in Africa. The second part was written on the plane ride leaving Africa.
Whew! That was a little nerve-wrecking to share. Thank you for reading! I know this blog post series may not make a whole lot of sense, from a business perspective, being a wedding music + entertainment company, sharing about a mission trip to Africa. But it's a part of who we are, and it's shaping a part of what we do and how we do it, and I hope you continue to enjoy reading about our experiences in Africa! We will be posting the 3-part prequel in the coming months!
"God is good. All the time. All the time, God is good. It is in His nature, always."
-The Ugandans
