Why We Go

As many of you may have heard, there is currently violence in South Sudan. I am not going to go into the details (mainly because I don't understand the intricacies of the situation well enough to explain it to others), but for more information, go here.

As people have heard about the violence, the first question we have been hearing is, "will you still go?". This question is either spoken or embedded in the tone of other questions asked. I understand why it is asked. If I were talking to someone who was about to move to a country and all I know about it is that they had 22 years of civil war and they are currently dealing with more unrest, I would most likely ask the same question.

We are still planning on going as long as World Harvest says it is okay. We fully trust the ministry's decisions and know they will make the call based on wisdom and a lot of prayer. Just to clarify, the unrest that has been going on is not in Mundri (located in the Western Equatoria State)
where we will be living. The area we are going to has not seen any of the violence and unrest. We are grateful for this.

To answer the question of why we would want to go back to Africa, back to potentially another unstable location, let me tell you a recent story of what has been going on in our lives.

Meet Felicia. We met Felicia James in Jos, Nigeria in 2010. She was one of the first 10 students we accepted into the Education Center I (Theresa) taught at for two years. Felicia was a joy. She was full of life and grace and was always willing to help those around her. She was the oldest girl of 5 children and did a lot of take care of the family. Her father died in a car accident in 2007 and her mother was left to provide for 5 children on her own. During our two years in Nigeria, Felicia and I became very close. She was a student, but also a friend. She loved to dance and to help the other students learn to read. She was very bright and usually the child I would chose to model a skill for others.

Three weeks ago, Will and I received several calls from Nigeria on a Thursday afternoon. We received the horrible news that Felicia was hit by a car and died.

"Why?" "Why her?!" is all that I could think for the rest of the afternoon. We spent several days mourning together and checking in on our friends in Nigeria via phone calls. The news was so painful and almost unmanageable to understand- especially from so far away. In a moment of clarity, however, Will said, "Isn't it incredible  we have people we love so much across the world that when something this tragic happens, they call us right away and we are able to mourn with them. It's like we have another family on the other side of the ocean". He was right. As painful and horrible as it was (and still is) to mourn such a horrible loss, it is amazing we feel so connected to people so far away. During the course of getting the news, one of our good friends in Nigeria said to us, "You know you are a part of our family here. You are mourning with us just as we are".

This is why we go. We go because the people in South Sudan are real people. They are people who experience great joy and deep, deep sorrow. They are people who go through seasons of plenty and seasons of great need. They are people, just like us, who long to be loved and to love. We go because we want to have yet another family we feel connected to in another part of the world. Not because we are in need of more family (we have incredible families right at our fingertips here and it will be extremely painful to leave), but because God calls us to love. I believe God delights in the fact that we can mourn with people halfway around the globe. I believe He loves to see His children connect and grow together and cross over cultural differences in the name of love.

We go, first and foremost because God said to go. He said to go before we knew there might be conflict, but He said to go. If He says differently, we will be obedient to that. But for now, we will go because we are following after Love. Love takes you places that might not always be safe. But Love (God) also takes you to incredible places with incredible people that will leave you changed forever- just as Felicia has done in my life.

Please partner with us in prayer for South Sudan. Pray for the people. Pray for peace. Pray for Love to reign in the heart of the leaders who are making decisions for the country and for the heart of those effected by those decisions. Pray for love to win and God to reign in South Sudan.

"And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them." 1 John 4:16