Out of Africa: Part 9 – Exiting with Sadness (Continued)

On my recent trip to Africa, I disciplined myself to keep a daily journal of what transpired and how I felt about it. These entries are from that journal.

Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Experience #2 – Arrival at Debrief Hotel

We arrived at the Masai Mara hotel around noon. The entire staff came to be with us. Many photos and good byes were exchanged. As they left, I realized the reason they came was because, many of them had never seen this place, and they truly hated to see us go. Each of them told us that we were an encouragement to them. It was genuine; they are truly God’s choicest servants!

This hotel is extremely nice by any standard. There are differences from an American luxury hotel because we are hundreds of miles from what we would call civilization, but it is very nice. I told the other four guys at lunch the reason for this is to remove all distractions and put us in an environment as much like we are accustomed to back home so we can thoroughly process what has taken place in our lives over the past eight days and especially the last four.

Masai Mara is the name for the Kenyan side of the Serengeti. So when folks asked if I was in the Serengeti, the answer is “yes.” It is also interesting to sleep with a mosquito net due to the prevalence of malaria.

The entire team was back together at dinner tonight. It will be the first time we had all been together since last Thursday evening. Each main team, Rwanda, Ethiopia and of course Masai in Kenya took a few minutes to share some stories that impacted them. Tomorrow evening we will have a fuller sharing as a group.

After the evening meal, Gary, Joshua and I sat at the table and talked for a while. We are from very different and very similar backgrounds. I had prayed, and asked many others to pray, that the pastors on this trip would drop their pretenses and just be real. Well, that has happened with many individuals, but with these two men it has happened in a much more real way. There were numerous factors playing into it. God is doing something very unique in each of our lives and we are each trying to determine exactly what it is He wants us to do. All three of us have had very difficult and somewhat painful experiences in our churches in recent months and it has left us wounded and doubting a lot of things that anyone who is not in pastoral ministry would have a difficult time understanding. Secondly, there are difficult staffing issues awaiting us when we return. This leaves you wondering about lot of things while you are gone from the primary location of ministry.

As I plan my return in two days, I will take back much learning from these two men. I will most definitely need it while looking at what the next six months hold for me.