AMERICA::AFRICA

A warning: This is my attempt to transform the massive pile of inner thoughts and enormous dreams into a semi-organized blog post. Not an easy thing to do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZMVOsl38d4

When I first heard the song "Tanzania" by Alli Rogers about three years ago, I got tears in my eyes. Little did I know that it was going to tell a part of my life story. The song tells the story of two parallel lives...one woman in America and one woman in Africa. You should listen to this song.

RIGHT NOW, as I sit on my bed in an air-conditioned house, typing out a blog post and thinking about what time to set my alarm for the morning and about whether I will make coffee at home or stop by Starbucks in the morning, another woman sits on a bench in a cramped, one-room dirt hut in Ethiopia, thinking about how she can conserve her injera bread to make it through the week and hoping that she has one more day of victory over HIV so that she can have the strength to walk several miles to the market to sell coffee beans.

So, here's the dream that has been brewing in me...

When we adopted Tem and Tessa, we received a video of their mother, Ayehu (pronounced AH-yoo) sitting in her hut, telling the cameraman about her life, how she roasts coffee beans and braids baskets to sell at the market, about her failing health, of when she gave birth to Tessa by herself in her hut, of times when she cried because the kids in the village made fun of Tem, and about her deep, passionate love for her children which caused her to relinquish them for adoption (She said, "I would rather suffer alone than have my children suffer with me.")

As I watched the video, my heart broke and tears streamed from my eyes. And, I knew I had to do something. A few years before, I woke up with a phrase from God branded into my mind: "Let my people know that I love them." I couldn't get this phrase out of my head when I thought of Ayehu.

I kept thinking about how significant and beautifully difficult it would be to visit Ayehu, to tell her that she is loved and look for ways to support and encourage her. I want to not only love her children, but to love her as well. My life is intertwined with the life of an Ethiopian woman who is only a few years older than me but lives a life drastically different than mine. But, the thought of meeting her seemed IMPOSSIBLE.

So, in an attempt to rule out this big dream and move onto others, I emailed a social worker from our adoption organization. I expected something like this, "Kate, that's a nice idea, but it is so impractical and won't work. Thanks. Bye." And instead, I received an email the next day that said something like this: "Kate, yes, this is certainly a possibility. I can work with our team of social workers in the U.S. and in Ethiopia as soon as you are ready to move ahead with this. Personally, I think it is a great idea and think that you should pursue it!"

WHAT?!

So, I am all of a sudden thinking of another trip to Ethiopia, back to the land of delicious food, even better coffee, hospitable people, loud roosters in the early morning hours, crazy traffic, and the Amharic language.
I am all of a sudden trying to imagine what it would be like to meet the mother of my siblings. What will I be thinking? What will she be thinking? How will she react? Am I going to bawl my eyes out? Will it be as great as I think its going to be? What will this lead to?

The idea seems outrageous. But, God is bigger than my biggest dreams. I have been thinking lately about how THANKFUL I am that God is a God of ADVENTURE. He could have made us mindless followers who live lives of routine and duty and obligation. But instead, he creates within us desires and passions and dreams that are just waiting to be dug out of our hearts and fulfilled by him. And, he grabs us by the hand and says, "Come with me, love! I want to bring you with me on this adventure..."

"You are young enough to believe

that anything is possible,

and you are old enough to

make that belief a reality."

-Shauna Niequist

Several things have been thrown into the mix of this adventure, reminding me of important truths and encouraging this outrageous dream...

Abby and I challenged each other to memorize Isaiah 58. As soon as you're done reading this, go ahead and read this chapter. Memorizing is a lot easier said than done. But, there is something so rich about letting it soak down to my core, knowing that it will resurface often when I least expect it. Isaiah 58 is hard for me to hear. It calls us to a standard so beyond "normal American Christian" living...

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter -

when you see the naked to clothe him...

And if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness..."

Recently, I have also been intrigued with a Caedmon's Call album entitled "Share the Well"...the band took several trips to India, Brazil and Ecuador and then mixed international sounds with incredibly insightful lyrics. One of their songs, "All I Need", seems to tell the story of Ayehu...

"...years it doesn't rain
we just stay hungry for a while...
who else knew my name
before the day that I was born?
Jesus is all I need. Jesus is all I need.
This world calls me poor,
I bore my babies on this floor
He always provides
sure as the sun will rise.
Jesus is all I need..."

So, I have no idea what I'm doing.
I am a humble college student in West Michigan.
Overwhelmed by school bills.
About to start one of the busiest semesters of my life.
Thinking about traveling to Ethiopia to meet a woman who is part of my family.
Running after Jesus but stumbling and falling on my face along the way.
But, completely captured by the passionate and radiant love of my faithful and true One.

And, I still have no idea what I'm doing...