Processing....

So I have officially said my goodbyes, spent 8 hours in the Jo’burg airport, flew for 17 hours, and have made it back to the United States at 7am. I am waiting on my connecting flight to Pensacola where I know so many await me and you have no idea how excited I am! I had even intention of writing in the Jo’burg airport, but just couldn’t yet….but on my LONG flight, I had plenty of time to think. This is just the beginning of many processing blogs, so be prepared.

Friday morning, I said goodbye to people who had become my family….a place that had become my home….and a peple and places that have completely stolen my heart. I guess I didn’t realize how hard it was going to be to say goodbye. Of course I cried in the airport, but spent most of the 2 hour flight to Jo’burg crying…thinking…praying…laughing…missing…and loving. Because I wasn’t sure how to react or how to feel quite yet, I just got out my ipod and started listening to some good Hillsong. After a little bit of worship time, I flipped it over to one of my favorites, Brooke Fraser. The song of hers that is one of my favorites is Albertine. (If you haven’t heart it, look it up!) This song is about a person, but it applied so much to what I was feeling in my heart at that very moment, and still now. Some of the lyrics are as follows:

….Now that I have seen, I am responsible, faith without deeds is dead. Now that I have held you in my own arms, I can not let go….
And I am on a plane, across a distant sea, but I carry you in me, like the dust on my feet…
Now that I have seen, I am responsible, faith without deeds is dead. Now that I have held you in my own arms, I can not let go.
I will tell the world, I will tell them where I’ve been! I will keep my word, I will tell them Albertine.

Of course after hearing this, I began to cry some more. But it hit me, I have gone, I have gone to where I was called and I have seen and now I am responsible for that. I didn’t go just to say I went to Africa, I went to learn, grow, serve, and love. Although I may be 8000 miles away, I still carry Africa and my international family and the people I served in my heart back home.

This is not a goodbye to Africa. This is just the beginning. It’s time to tell the world where I’ve been and what I have seen. Because faith with out deeds is dead.

So here we go, America! Hope you are ready!