A Purposeful Peek

I mentioned Poli and Antonnyo, "our African kids" in my first post about Africa .  What I knew was that I couldn't wait to meet them and that I hoped to spend at least one day with them while staying in their home village. What I didn't know was the incredible way in which God would honor that desire. It was Wednesday morning under the hot Togo sun, and my gaze constantly drifted to the lone clock on the wall of the pavilion that served as the church/school/makeshift dental office.  I was not wishing away my time with the 60 patients who eagerly awaited their turn in a dental chair, meanwhile congregating outside under the woven straw canopy. Nor was I counting down the time until I could rinse the sweat that was pooling underneath my scrubs or guzzle my next bottled water. I was simply counting the hours, minutes, and seconds until 12:00 noon, when I would finally get to meet our beloved kids. Bruno, our gracious host and principal of the school, had arranged for u...

We began as a team of thirteen. Four dentists, two dental assistants, two pharmacists, a pharmacy tech, a pastor, a pastor's wife, and two other adventurous women.  Just ordinary people blessed with an extraordinary opportunity to travel to Sub-Saharan Western Africa. Some of us knew each other long before Africa, but most of us met in the few months leading up to the trip. Others literally met at the airport for the first time. We went to serve, love, and pull a LOT of teeth. Five days of dental clinic. Over three hundred patients and somewhere in the neighborhood of a thousand tooth extractions. But the real story is not about who we are or what we did... She left before sunrise and walked from the border of Benin, a neighboring country. She heard something on the radio that gave her hope. Hope that she might find relief from pain that she had been suffering from for far too long. She arrived only to find that her infection was too severe for immediate treatment and that ...

Before I share details from our latest adventure, I have to start at the beginning... As far back as I can remember, I have always, always had a desire in my heart to go to Africa. Not to go on a glamorous safari with the lions, tigers, and bears, (oh my!) - although that would be amazing - but because I've always been so fascinated by African culture and the passionate people and beautiful children who call it home.  Back in 2005, I was one of many, many college students at my church who wanted to go to Africa for the summer and so I applied and prayed like crazy that God would send me.  But, He sent me to Albania instead. Wait, Albania? Isn't that somewhere in Africa? Exactly. I had no earthly idea where that was until I was practically on an airplane flying to this 3rd world European country for the summer. A summer that turned out to shape my life more than I could have ever imagined. But that's another story for another day... Albania 2005 Suffice it to say that...