A Look Back

So I've been busy, joyfully learning this whole social media thing. Is anyone wondering why? I think it is time to pause and reflect on what is at the core of all this. Basically, it is about extreme poverty - starvation even - people who can't get enough to eat and are drinking disease infested water, babies who are underweight and so undernourished that they can't develop properly and often die before the age of 5, children who don't have one meal a day ,people who are sick and hungry just because they were born in Africa.

My first trip to Africa was to Zambia in 2006.By that time I was concerned about the conditions there and had begun sponsoring, through World Vision, a little girl- Angelique- in Rwanda. My calling to this part of the world was so strong that I began investigating  missionary work - starting with a visit to Missionfest - where I was amazed with the quantity and variety of organizations caring all over the world, and inspired to find my place and purpose in all of this.

Eventually I found it with MATE/FCC, joined them on a medical mission trip that took me to remote parts of Zambia - and there I added names and faces and personalities to those images I had seen on TV and magazines. I met a young man who had a dream to go to university ( he's now in second year engineering) whom I have had the joy of helping and journeying with - but that is another story. So these people - now I know them!

I noticed something else - or lack of it - all those wonderful people I saw at Missionfest - I didn't see them there. Then it hit me and I thought- OH NO - the need is so vast that it is impossible to reach everyone!

Coming home from a place like Africa ( the following year I went to Kenya ) stuns me. Not only the superabundance here but the concerns we have for obesity and the millions we spend each year on things like diet pills and fads. WOW - questions like 'how can we, who call ourselves Christians and humanitarians, let this happen?' - eventually led me to the SoChange people and their conference Everything Must Change with author and speaker Brian McLaren who wrote the book. I was inspired and convinced that I/we could and must make a difference.

Since then I have been committed to doing the (im)possible because this is not fair, it is not just. If we all SHARE some of what we have with those who have so little, then we can put some hope into the midst of all this suffering. I've decided to leave Canada and join my sisters and brothers in Zambia but I can't do it alone. I will be the bridge between communities.

I invite you to join me.

For more information check out the rest of my website www.partoftheimpossible.com.