Africa Here I Come, Ready or Not.

Friday morning I get on a plane that will take me to Dallas. There I will get on another plane, which will take me to Amsterdam. In Amsterdam, I will board a plane that, Lord willing, will take me to Sudan. From Sudan I fly into Addis, Ethiopia. Lord have mercy.

I have never been to Africa, nor have I ever flown to so many airports in one trip. When I signed up to go on this trip, I thought that surely I will be spiritually and emotionally prepared to take this journey when far-away November rolls around. Now that I am staring down the barrel of a trip to a strange land, I am getting apprehensive.

Inadequacy has a crippling effect on many Christians when we are so close to being right where God wants us to be. I can feel it with everything in me that I NEED to go to Africa. However, I can feel the sticky residue of past failures crowding my mind and causing me to feel inadequate for the task.

Inadequacy is a lie. If I am crucified with Christ, and no longer live, but Christ lives in me (Gal 2:20), then I am more than adequate, not I but He who lives in me. Christ conquered death and the grave, surely He can go on a trip to minister to orphans. If He is the firstborn of all creation, if in Him all things hold together, and if all things were created by Him and for Him, then what am I anxious about?

My pride continues to extinguish the flame that God continuously attempts to ignite in my heart. My pride causes me to think I am inadequate for this task, because it leads me to believe I am the one in charge of accomplishing this task in the first place.

I am convinced the Devil doesn’t worry about people who are too consumed with themselves to do any damage to his plots. I need to be refined, molded, and shaped into a picture of my Savior.

I am going to miss writing to you for the next 10 days, but surely I will have stories to tell you upon my (Lord willing) safe return. Pray for me in my travels. Pray more earnestly that the work of the Father is done.