Dear Voters

Dear Voters,

On November 4th citizens everywhere will flock to the polls to vote for the next president of the United States of America. Some will vote with little conviction, others will vote as fervently as a zealot. For those of faith, some will bow their heads before God and ask for the blessings of a certain candidate.

Regardless of the Constitution, in America today there is a very close relationship between Church and State. Perhaps this relationship is not necessarily official as it was in the past but nevertheless the influence that religion has on the United States government is apparent, with the 2004 election standing as a blaring example.

Today we hear our candidates trying to proclaim God in many of their election speeches, trying to convince the voter that they have a close relationship with God and that as a result, they would be better able to lead our country. Many churches are so in tune with this religious rhetoric that many of them have officially endorsed a certain candidate and even go as far as to tell their followers that in order to see God's will done,they must vote a certain way. For many, voting is not just a patriotic duty, but a religious duty as well. For those who believe this, this message is for you:

By the time the world awakes on the morning of November 5th, one of the two candidates will have been elected President of the United States of America. This personal will be the leader of one of the most powerful nations arguably in the history of the world and will control more wealth and might than any nation before it. As Commander in Chief, the President Elect will be in control of the most advanced and deadly army on Earth, capable of bringing death almost instantaneously to anyone at any point on the globe with a single command. Under his command many great things may happen but also many horrible things as well. People will die. Rights will be violated. Morals will be broken.

On November 5th, no matter how religious the candidate may be, no matter how close their relationship with God is, no matter how pious that candidate has tried to make himself appear to the public, that candidate WILL BECOME CAESAR.

This message is not meant to eliminate the hope that many people may hold in any particular candidate but is merely meant to wake up those voters who have put an almost religious faith into their candidate. No matter how much faith we have in a candidate at the end of the day that candidate is Caesar and is in charge of a kingdom that is NOT our own.

WE however belong to a GREATER KINGDOM with an already CROWNED KING and that is where our HOPE should lay and that is where our ALLEGIANCE should lay as well. On November 5th God's will will be done and someone will be elected but that person, whomever it may be, will be Caesar, not David. Therefore, for all of you praying that "God's Candidate" get voted in on the 4th please realize that he will, but that we will not be the answer and he will not be the hope that we rely on.

True hope, true prosperity, and true peace can only come through the TRUE king- CHRIST. As for this election, give to Caesar what is Caesar's, my candidate is already KING!

Veritas et Aequitas,

Mike

The Final Two Weeks!!!

It has now been three months since our team has returned from Ghana and I have yet to go about describing the final two weeks of the trip! Needless to say, I think any anticipation of this announcement is thoroughly dead by this point but regardless, it was an unfinished task which I am finally going about finishing! Therefore, without further ado, I will now recount the final two weeks of The Ghana Rural Library Project 2008.

The last two weeks of our trip in Ghana was a time of excitement, progress, and anticipation. Where the first half of the trip had mainly been a time of adjustment, the second half was definitely a time of progress. Having been in the country now for a month, our team finally was beginning to understand (if not just accept) the way of life in Africa and figure out how to work within the African system and culture. The result of this was a great increase in the efficiency and effectiveness of the team in the community. After numerous hic-ups and a few blunders, programs that we originally set out to do finally were full under way with the local children noticing the difference.

One of the best examples of this was the after school programs that we initiated at the original library in Manhyia. Initially, our plan was to instantly enact a series of after school programs aimed at encouraging the children of Manhyia to use the library that I had built a year ago. The goal was not only to display the multiple different purposes a library could fulfill but also to encourage excitement about the library, demonstrating to the children that learning was not only fun but was fundamental to their success in the future. While this is a value that is taught relatively well in America, in Africa it is not. Education, in many ways, has failed in Africa in the past. Due to poor education, past generations who attended school were not necessarily better off than those who never did. Because of this, and because of a large uneducated adult population, the importance of school was never really passed down to the younger generation. Realizing that one could not rely on the older generation to motivate the younger generation, it was necessary to create a program independent of the childrens' families to encourage and excite them about learning.

Initially held up by certain unforseen factors (mainly a miscommunication/rivalry between two towns), we were not even able to access the library that we had originally built! But after a few meetings, a bit of yelling (its hard to keep calm sometimes), and finally some agreements we were able to work out a schedule for the library. It was thus by the final two weeks that we had regular daily afterschool programs taking place at the library with sometimes almost one hundred kids showing up to either do creative writing, yoga, young girls small group, watch a Disney movie, or simply have our team read to them.

In regards to the teaching, the volunteers had finally become accustomed to teaching in their classes and figuring out how best to communicate with their students. Initial problems in the classes ranged from not being able to control the kids to simply not being able to communicate with them. Daily at lunch we would frustratingly laugh over stories from the class room. Somedays it would be simple miscommunication between the student and teacher with the teacher asking the student "What is your favorite animal?" and the student replying "rice". Otherdays we would show up to teach only to find that our class had been selected to do manual labor and was moving gigantic stones on their heads. As crazy and as incomprehendible as it may seem, everyone eventually was able to account for this and move forward.

For me personally the greatest accomplishment in regards to my class was the fact that we were actually able to finish "Charolette's Web". Famously last year I was only able to progress through a few chapters with my students because the language and their understanding was so bad. Second time around, with the help of my teaching partner Megan, a better understanding of communicating (basically speaking extremely slow for the kids) and the fact that a book about farm animals was much more real to the children, we were able to make it through the entire book. I still remember the final day of class, reading the last page to the cheers of the children and watching them jump up and down when I told them I was putting the book in the library for them to read on their own if they wanted! It was such an amazing contrast between the United States and Africa. I only had one copy of the book but it was perhaps the greatest gift that I could have given those children on that trip. I am sure that as I write there is a child reading the book right now!

Finally, last but not least, was the actual library project. As I had mentioned earlier in the blog series, the library this year had been moving forward almost flawlessly. Looking back on it now, that was hands down one of the biggest blessings I could have asked for. My first year in Ghana, when I was alone, all I had to worry about was my class and the library. There was no team, there was no after school educational programs, there were no homestays. While difficult for me, logistically it was much more managible! This year however I felt as though my attention could never really be focused on any one thing therefore the fact that the library went so smoothly was an absolute God send. While the team definitely helped out, the major credit goes to Adu Boateng (my partner from the privous year) who oversaw the entire project with the help of Nana Opoku (the cheif I lived with). Having the authority of the cheif us, we ran into very few bumps when building the library, an absolute blessing and a good lesson for future libraries as well!

With all things going well, we finally opened the library on the 25th of July to a large crowd. The community sat us all down and danced and celebrated while person after person after person after person (it lasted awhile) got up and spoke about the importance of the library in the community. With the final unveiling, we opened the doors to the library and Assenemaso, my home in Africa for the last two years, was finally introduced to the wonderful world of books!

One thing particularly special happened to me that day as well. As a thank you for building the two libraries and for leading the team to Africa, the chief of Assenemaso decided to officially knight me as an Ashanti Chief! Therefore, after the opening ceremony of the library, the crowd made it's way over to the chief's palace to watch me become a chief. After dressing me up in a black robe (that looked a lot like a black dress) I was presented in front of the people of the town and all the elders of the Assenemaso tribal council. Then, with golden Ashanti sword in hand, I was sworn in as a Development Chief for the town of Assenemaso. After I said my oath, the crowd roared with approval and I was lifed up onto the shoulders of men and tossed into the air, a new chief! They brought me down, took off my black robe and then dressed me in a royal white Kente cloth robe with golden slippers. As I stepped out into the sun, a boy with a royal umbrella came over to shade me (for the sun is never allowed to touch a chief) and, to the beat of drums, shook hands and danced with the people. I was no longer just Nana Poku (the name my chief had given me the year before) but Nkwa-hene Nana Poku, chief of the Ashanti tribe!

Three days later, with all our bags packed and piled in the back of a van, our team departed Assenemaso, no doubt heros to the community for the work we had done. While many were excited to be returning home after 6 weeks of hard work in Africa, it was a bittersweet departure for in those 6 weeks, we had all become intimate members of the Assenemaso community and had fallen in love with the people. God truly did amazing things during that time, the benefits of which may not be seen for decades but will no doubt have a profound effect upon that community.

Skydiving with God

Sadly it has been over two months since I promised everyone a final blog entry by the end of July. For those of you who do not know, I was at that time in a rather extreme state of flux, being homeless, jobless and computerless (yes, after I made the joke about an elephant crushing my computer my laptop actually crashed). Since then, the last few months has been an amazing struggle of trying to get on my feet and restore a bit of the normalcy that once used to be present in my life.

If anyone has ever sat down with me and had a discussion about faith, they would know that I always say that faith is like jumping out of an airplane without a parachute. Most of the time in life we don't really rely on faith because either when we jump out of the plane God catches us instantly or because our plane was never really that far from the ground in the first place. Yet there are definite times in life where when you jump, you keep falling. Sometimes you fall a little bit; sometimes you fall a lot. Sometimes you might even be close to hitting bottom but the truth of the matter is that God will always be there to catch you; He will never let you hit the ground, no matter how close you get. Knowing this however doesn't always make the situation any less scary.

Well for me, this has been the characterization of the situation I have been in since returning from Africa. Having decided to return to LA, I came back with a limited amount of money, no job, and no place to live. Luckily God had provided me with a place to stay (my sister had just decided to move back to Los Angeles and graciously opened her apartment up to me) but obviously this was only temporary until I was able to find a job and get my own apartment. After calculating my expenses, I estimated that I had only a month and a half to find a job before I ran out of money and would be forced to return to Northern California. At first I figured that I would be able to find a job quickly but as days turned weeks and my account drained more and more, I began to panic that I would not be able to find a job in time. I had jumped out of an airplane without a parachute and almost a month and a half later I was still falling, with the ground zooming up faster and faster everyday. I needed a miracle fast.

Finally, two days before I was supposed to return to Northern California, I received a call about a possible job at UCLA. They thought I was good for the position and wanted to interview me. The problem was that because it was so last minute, I was only able to interview the next day. I figured that there was no way a business would want to scramble so last minute to interview someone. Luckily, I was dead wrong. My final day in Los Angeles I put on my best (and only) suit and walked onto UCLA for my job interview. After an hour long comfortable interview I was hired on the spot! God had caught me my last day in Los Angeles! I was staying! The next day I left Los Angeles to go on a family vacation to Thailand, knowing that when I returned, I would have a job waiting for me.

I have now been working at my job for one month and couldn't be happier. Last week I moved into a wonderful apartment in Culver City and celebrated by buying myself a pillow top full mattress that I found on craigslist. Though it seems like a small thing, I have been without a bed since I graduated in April, sleeping on couches, floors, and foam pads for almost six months. So to finally have a mattress after 6 months of not having my own place to lay my head is one of the biggest blessings I could have asked for. As I said, sometimes when you jump out of an airplane, God catches you right away. Other times, God allows you to full on skydive for a month in a half. But at the end of the day, if you are faithful, He will always catch you, whether it be with a brand new job, an apartment, or simply a pillow top mattress from craigslist.

A Longer Than Intended Intermission and Catch Up

As with many of the last entries, I am going to start this one off with a very sincere apology for the incredibly long absence from writing in the blog. I was thinking about coming up with some creative reason for not having written in so long but being that that would not only defeat the purpose of this blog, it would also be a lie. Therefore, nothing but the truth will have to do and thus an explanation of what has happened and indeed what will as well. So without further adieu...here I go.

It has officially been 1 month and 5 days since the last time I updated the blog and needless to say more than can be imagined has happened in that time. I would say one of the biggest developments since the last entry is merely the fact that I am actually no longer in Africa anymore, our project having ended on the 1st of July. You are probably saying "but we never found out about what happened with the library and the project!". You can rest assured that I will more thoroughly than ever describe to you all that took place in the final weeks of the project (better than normally probably because of the reliability and availability of internet here in the states) with the only difference being a slight time delay. But I am sure with a bit of imagination it will be as though all the reports are live!

Before I pick up where I left off in regards to the project however I feel it necessary to go into a bit as to why I have not been writing for so long. I wish I could say that it was because my computer was stomped on by a rhino or that I have actually been sick with malaria but the simple truth of the matter is that I just have not really had the energy to get around to writing yet. It is not that I am lazy but more so that, in a way, I am actually quite exhausted from the whole experience, both physically and mentally. The reason I have not written until now is purely because up until this point, I have not had the mental energy and will to once again recount all that has happened. It is not that I had a bad experience in Africa. That isn't the case at all. The case is more that when I returned from Africa, for the first time it hit me as to how stressful and exhausting the trip had been for me.

As I have mentioned in the past, Africa itself is a difficult place to be. The continent, the culture, the atmosphere, the people, the way of life, as beautiful and captivating as it may be, is vastly different from our own and can be exhausting to deal with. No matter how much you adjust, it is not quite possible to ever be truly "comfortable" and thus spending any extended amount of time there can be very difficult for your body (this is most easily seen by weight loss...I myself having lost an additional ten pounds and being the lightest I have been since freshman year in high school*). *others in the group have lost up to 20 pounds.

As though the physical and cultural difficulties are not enough, this time I also had the added stress of being in charge of 14 Americans. Though it was an absolute pleasure being the leader of the group (one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had in my life) it would be a total lie to understate the incredible difficulty of the job. It was hard and when I got back into the US I let out a huge sigh of relief knowing that it was over and that everyone had gotten back to the US alive. That might sound ridiculous, but never in my life had I had such a responsibility. Regardless of what people say, when it comes down to it I was responsible for the lives of 14 people and, though it was great that we happened to build a library, the biggest goal I had on that trip was ensuring the comfort and safety of my team. Needless to say it was a bit stressful! Praise be to God for helping me through it and protecting my team.

So, back to the reason it has taken me so long to update my blog, when I returned to the United States, I was exhausted: physically, mentally, emotionally. I needed a break and a break is exactly what I have been taking. It is hard to explain but I knew what my mind and heart needed and I have been trying my best to give it that since coming back and am finally starting to normalize again (though I concede normal for me is quite a relative term!). Now that I have finally "caught my figurative breath " I can finally get back to where I left off with this blog and inform you all of what happened in the final weeks of our project. Sadly though that will have to wait for a few days being that I don't want to flood people with my updates!

So once again this is a "to be continued..." but I promise that this time I will be much more prompt in writing. But until then, I am in the US, I have my girlfriend, and I have an appetite so I am off to have lunch!

A Crazy Love

I realize that all this time I have been writing that I have been talking mostly about the team and actually mentioning relatively little in regards to the library that we are building and the activities of the volunteers so, being that really nothing new or crazy has happened in the last few days (apart from me getting kind of sick off of a particularly awkward piece of chicken).

As of today everything on the library project is coming along right on schedule which I have to admit is nothing short of miracle due to the amount of work we had to do (As I am scattered a bit and am not good at remembering what I have already said, I might repeat somethings but if this is the case just consider it a refresher). Last year when building the library it took me and Adu (the guy here who helped me) exactly 6 weeks to build the entire library, with building consisting of installing a new wall, redoing the floors, installing a ceiling, fixing the roof, putting in electrical, painting and also having tons of furniture made for the library itself (shelves, tables, chairs). Overall that library cost us about $3k.

Well when we arrived here in Ghana this year and were taken to the building, I was pleased but surprised to find that the building we had this year was exactly two times as large as the one from last year. This was fine of course but the increase in size meant two things as well: an increase in work and increase in cost. Though I knew from the start we could do it, after the first two weeks after numerous set backs I began to get nervous about the completion. If everything went as planned there would be no problem but, as TIA (THIS IS AFRICA), anything can happen so I began to get nervous. Well, by the grace of God I had nothing to be worried about.

As of today the library is pretty much in a position that, once we fix up the floor, we will be able to paint and thus be complete with the project. It turns out that last year one of the biggest hold ups was actually getting the shelves for the library made (we had one of the most frustrating carpenters on earth that I still have nightmares about). This year we learned our lesson and spread the work load up amongst three different carpenters which resulted not only in all the furniture being completed on time but actually early, with the team finding out last week that all the furniture was done. For the most part this is how the entire library has been going and it is nothing short than a blessing!

In addition to the library all the students have also been teaching their own classes and tutoring and having activities in the library that we established last year. While this has been overall very rewarding for everyone, it has nonetheless been a fair source of frustration to the team which in the end really makes for a bunch of good laughs. One of the most difficult parts about teaching is simply the challenge of communicating with children who really have an extremely difficult time understanding English since they normally speak in only their tribal language. Not only is their English already very bad to begin with (even though they are supposed to be learning only in English...bad teachers???) but if you combine that with our high pitched American accents, communication is almost a joke! Most of our volunteers find themselves S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G V-E-R-Y S-L-O-W-L-Y without even having an effect sometimes. Add this to the general disorder of the school (we went to school on Friday to teach only to find our students carrying stones on their heads for a new garden...of course!) and there is almost a comic insanity to the whole situation. Even with these seemingly impossible barriers however, all of the volunteers have been making progress and, as I am proud to say for myself as well, have once again garnered the love and admiration of our students!

So alas, while the team is no doubt counting down the final days till we leave, it is already becoming bitter sweet reality. As I learned last year, Africa has a way of absolutely frustrating you to the core but, at the same time, when you least expect it, making you fall absolutely in love with what it all. Sometimes your opinion of the place varies from day to day but in the end, the love always conquers and, as happened to me, you begin awaiting the day of your return. But until then I wait and see what tomorrow brings. I am happy that God has blessed me with this amazing opportunity to serve but, as travel always does, I appreciate all the more the blessed life and loves that I have left behind. But until I come home, there is still work left to do here and all I can ask is that God bless me to do it with a joyful heart and and a happy smile.

Depressurization!

Depressurization. I cannot think of a better word to describe the last week than that. There are times in life when pressures and situations build up to a point where they are almost about to break. The build up to this point is always nerve-wracking and the breaking point is always feared but as with every buildup, there is a time after the break in which things truly depressurize and calm down. It is at this final state that we are currently at in Ghana.

As I mentioned in my last entry, the team last weekend got the chance to go off and spend a night in a very small farming village about an hour or so away from the town which we are currently in. In truth the experience should have been extremely pleasant the whole time. We arrived at the village on Saturday afternoon fully unannounced due to a mix up that took place earlier (the original village that our friend had arranged for us to go to was not a village at all but a large town and greatly disappointed the team, thus lending to our change of plans) and were greeted by the entire village as a welcome. After explaining our intentions in the village, the city council member gave us the keys to a mud store building that they used to keep cocoa beans in (being that the village was a cocoa plantation village). Our team soon settled in and spent the rest of the day reading, going down to a nearby river and, in the evening after a heavy rain, running around the village with the children chasing fireflies, imagining that we were all Lost Boys in Neverland and were actually chasing fairies. The night was beautiful and cool and everyone seemed to be in good spirits.

However by morning all this had changed. Due to the nature of the village (we all slept on a huge bamboo mat) and due to the fear of spiders (we had the unfortunate experience of finding an extremely large spider crawling over someone’s net) many of the team members did not sleep soundly. In addition to this, throughout the morning a series of strange, albeit cultural events, took place ranging from people constantly staring at us, giving us gifts of food (and a chicken) and sadly ending with the city council member coming to us raging drunk at 9am. So by 11am (our planned departure time) a very serious Sinicism had arisen in the group, bring birth to a great negativity and numerous complaints.

Now I wish that I could go into more detail but I am limited both by time (I have a meeting soon) and also the attention of you, the reader, so I will keep my reaction short and give you my 5 minute version of the events that followed. As I mentioned in the last blog, over the course of the last few weeks there has been an increasing skepticism and negativity in the group that, as I mentioned, I feared would have bad consequences if not checked. Well by the time we got back from the village the skepticism and negativity had reached what I would call a breaking point to extent that me and my leaders decided that it was time to have a group meeting to discuss it. There was a major underlying sentiment in the group that was poisoning people’s attitudes and we decided that enough was enough and we would open the closet to see what things would come out.

For over an hour we all sat down and discussed everything that was on peoples minds, listened to complains and basically had a big venting session. While asking people to say something positive, we also asked everyone to state one negative thing about the trip and how it has been affecting them. The result of this was an outpouring of frustrations (done, I must add, in a polite way) and a chance for us all to say what was on our minds. It turned out that a lot of the frustrations that were taking place in the team were very much due to Africa in general and the typical frustration that would attack anyone should they be thrown into the crazy and sad situation that often is Africa. When it came down to it many people were having a difficult time adjusting but, by fault of none, had also taken to complaining and being skeptical. The result was the negativity and skepticism that had been affecting the moral of our group for the last few weeks.

Though so much happened we ended that meeting by trying to readjust people’s views on Africa to one that focused not on ourselves but the people we were trying to serve. It was a good reminder. As servants here, we are called simply to love the community we are in, putting their needs and wants first before our own. While this may seem like a simple concept, when actually put in the situation of serving for long periods of time without any of the normal comforts that culturally we are used to, the idea of loving someone can actually be quite difficult. I think that really we don’t often realize how difficult it is to fulfill the sacred commandment of ‘Loving your neighbor as yourself’. When over here serving, it is important to always keep that commandment at the front of your heart and truly offer yourself as a servant. Otherwise your ability to love others is severely hampered and what should be a positive experience can quickly become negative. I am thankful to God that our group has made this realization together and has now readjusted the way we look at things. While we are now in depressurization, I feel that we are all headed in the right direction and that in the end, this experience will be truly amazing.

This is Africa- AGAIN!

Hello All Again!
I want to start by once again apologizing to everyone for not being able to write in awhile! Things here have been increasingly busier and busier and with the faulty internet (and now 15 Americans to share it with daily) getting a chance to sit down and type out the events of our trip is more difficult than I would have imagined! And now I only have less than 30 minutes to write so I must be quick!

We are now already three weeks into our Ghana adventure and things are finally moving along at a regular pace. Things definitely started off slow at first due to regular Africa time. It took almost 5 days longer than I wanted to get the teams into their homestays and it wasn’t until a week later that we were really able to begin with the library project but as I have said, now everything is underway and everything seems to be on schedule.

It has been interesting since I have come here because I feel for the first time in awhile I am actually quite stressed! I feel here that I never quite have a free moment to myself and from day one I was surprised at how much work I am doing here. Not only am I leading the team and coordinating everything (15 volunteers and all their food and family needs) but I am also teaching my class from last year, working in the old Manshyia library, coordinating the building of the new library in Assenemaso and also leading a mens small group with homeless workers from the north of Ghana. Of course all of this work is really rewarding but it is of course very stressful and sometimes quite frustrating with the cultural and lingual differences. I find that by the end of everyday I am quite exhausted. My daily escape is that I get to call my girlfriend every evening and talk to her but of course that makes me miss her more! Its worth it though.

I am also finding out on this trip that this is definitely the most difficult leadership position I have ever been in. While the team has been acting really well and getting along well with each other, it is inevitable that there are at times butting of heads. Furthermore, there are also times where just my leadership style seems to crash with the group. While some of these things are definitely fixable, others I have learned just come with the territory of being a leader and have to be taken in stride.

I would say one of the most difficult things about being here has been readjusting back to the African way of life. The last time I was here Africa had a profound effect on the way that I viewed life. When I returned to America, I tried my best to maintain that view and avoided readjusting to the Western view as much as possible. Now that I am back however I realize that whether I wanted it to or not, I still got used to being in America. Things are still frustrating here and it has been interesting watching the team go through these emotions for the first time. The last week there has even been some bitterness about the situation here in Africa among the members and if not taken in the proper context it could be damaging. I think we all need to be reminded of the reasons why we came to Africa, not to have an out of world tourist experience and to have an easy life but to come to a place where there truly is a need and help and love the people as God has called us to. I know that for myself this is something I need constant reminding of, particularly with all the stress I have been having lately.

Well, I will try in a few days to write more but for now I must go as my team is about to go off into the bush for the night to stay in a small farming community. Pray for our safety and strength and as always, pray for Africa!

Alive in Africa!

Hey Everyone!

I want to first start by apologizing for not being able to post for the last two weeks! For my entire stay in Uganda and Sudan I was not able to reach a computer and thus have not been able to update. This is too bad though as I have so much to say. I guess I will have to do my best to summarize basically a lot in a a little space. I hope it speaks millions.

Though I have only been here for a few weeks it is incredible the way that God has been communicating with me. As last time, Africa is proving to be a time of great reflection where I finally get a chance to sit back and really think and appreciate what has happened in my life in the last year. One of the things that has been the most pressing on my mind (perhaps a little later than most people) has been my future. Ever since last year I knew that I was being called by God to come and serve in Africa but since then the specifics of my calling have not necessarily been clear. When I got a chance to come to Uganda and Sudan to potentially work in an orphanage and help children who have had families killed by a rebel group, I thought that this was clearly God showing me where I was to work and specifically what ministry I was to work with. I am pleased to say that I was wrong.

From the day I arrived in Africa I was immediately thrown into an amazing philosophical and spiritual delima regarding the issue of nonviolence. I realized that throughout college I had spent almost all of my major studies focused on the concept of war and studying how the world, with its own views and agendas, use or fight wars to achieve their goals and wants. I had committed all of my studies with the assumption that war was acceptable and was a legitimate means of solving issues of international relations. Yet upon coming to Uganda and Sudan, two countries that for the last 20 years have been ripped apart by war to the extent that there was not a single person whom I met who had not personally been either hurt or had someone hurt/killed in the war, I was almost slapped in the face by God regarding the issue of nonviolence. I was surrounded by people who had all been violated in ways that I cannot in good conscience even describe and who, according to the world perspective, deserve more than anyone retribution for their pains and sufferings and justice against those who have wronged them, but was faced and challenged in ways that I find difficult to describe from type with the teaching of Christ which calls for us to be lovers and peacemakers, to love our enemies, to turn the other cheek and in the end to rely on God's judgement and to show mercy "as we have also been shown mercy" or, in short, to be NONVIOLENT.

Thus as I sat for days by myself surrounded by orphans and refugees, I wrestled with the message of Christ and realized that my conclusion would determine whether I would be able to work with the ministry that had so generously paid for me to go and see their work. I can almost confidently say that I have never struggled this much over anything in my entire life and I can equally say that I soon discovered that the pure purpose of my trip to Uganda and Sudan was to come to a conclusion on what I now realize had to be one of the most important philosophical and spiritual struggles of my life (both past and future) being that what my end conclusion on violence would be would dramatically determine my future being that if I came out against the use of violence I, in good conscience and ethics, could not work for any organization, either private or federal, that thus supports such an aim. Needless to say that also applied to the ministry which I was potentially going to work with and thus my determination on the issue would thus determine in reality if I would in fact work for the ministry I came over with or not.

Today I am now in Ghana and am a few days into what will be one of the most amazing projects of my life, leading a group of amazing people to build a library in a community that I am already in love with, thus granting the future of so many of the children, knowing that by building this library these kids will have a chance to educate themselves to the fullest extent, rise out of poverty, get an education, and return to help their family and friends. By the grace of God we are doing a project that WILL, if done wide scale, eliminate poverty in Africa, not by giving aid to the Africans but by empowering them THEMSELVES to rise and achieve their own futures!

I am also, however, now without a job for when I return because I have discovered that God is calling me to be a peacemaker and I cannot support any mission whose goal is to end the life of another. I have to admit that I have never been more uncertain about my future being that this job was supposed to be my plans for the next two years. But being here in Africa, seeing the pain that war causes and facing the radical challenge from Christ to LOVE, I have determined that I am called to be a peacemaker and that the answer to the evil that is war and the rebels here is not more killing but instead is love, education and dedication. By building this library I will do more work for those kids affected by war than I could ever do by killing a man who is evil.

I have just tried to summarize two weeks of the most intense struggle of my life into a few paragraphs so if you are lost I doubt it not but would love to one day sit and talk with you. But to summarize, God has shown me that LOVE is more powerful than war and that I am called thus to be a lover and a peacemaker. Though I now have no job because of this realization, I feel the warmth and excitement of now being able to fully throw myself in faith to God and see where I come out. But I have no fear for God is faithful and He sent me to Uganda and Sudan to realize things that could not have been realized any other way and I cannot wait to see what better he has in store for me!

A New Adventure Begins: Ghana, Uganda, and Sudan

As most if not all of you know, last year I spent three months in Ghana, Africa, building a library in a rural community while living with a chief and just experiencing what it was like to live and function in the totally different world that is Africa. While there God profoundly changed my life, opening my eyes to the amazing life that he had in store for me and truly revealing his message. 

When I returned to America, I was messed up.  Life as I had known it had completely changed because I had completely changed. I moved into a house by myself thirty minutes away from school, got a new job and totally new friends. I literally started a new life, moving forward with the life that God had intended me to live all along. At first I could not even imagine returning to Africa. But as time moved on and I began to really digest what had happened, my feelings began to turn and before I knew it I was once again obsessed with the continent and could do nothing but count down the days until I returned. I realized that Africa had truly become a part of who I was. 

Now, eight months later, I am sitting here writing this blog in preparation for my return. This time instead of going by myself I am taking a team of 15 Pepperdine students with me as part of an organization called the Ghana Rural Library Project. They will teach in the schools, build a library, and lead their own community development project, all while living with an African homestay. We will be there for six weeks that will once again not only further change my life but will change the lives of all those who are joining me. 

What makes this year different beyond the fact that I am taking a group of volunteers with me to Africa is that I will not just be going to Ghana but also Uganda and Sudan. I will be going officially as a member of a ministry called The Angels of East Africa. Dedicated to rescuing child soldiers in Northern Uganda and doing Darfur relief work in Sudan, God has blessed me with an amazing opportunity to serve those in the most extreme of need in the most extreme of places. 

So I write now as a beginning--a beginning of a new adventure. I am confused and excited, scared and thrilled, happy and sad.  My whole life I have been a student in school but now the real world awaits me. I go out with God by my side and His grace giving me all the tools I will need. Today my ministry begins and with it a new life. May God use me as He wills. 

Africa here I come! 

VERITAS ET AEQUITAS