Welcome Home

"Welcome Home" - it's a bittersweet phrase. I could not be happier to be home and to see the people I love again. I love being home and was ready to come home by the end of my time in Sierra Leone. However, part of my heart is still in Mokanji. Part of me wants nothing more than to walk up to the Children's Home and love on the kids there. Part of me simply wants to go to Hubbard's store and sing and play with Milondo. It's bittersweet and no matter where I am, part of my heart will be half way around the world.

It always takes time to readjust after a trip like this and I knew it wouldn't be easy. I knew it was going to be really difficult to process everything that happened this summer. There are a lot of emotions involved. There is a lot of excitement and happiness coming home, but with that there also comes feelings of guilt, anger, and sadness.

I often find myself thinking, "It's not fair. It's just not fair." It's not fair that I have running water and people there have to walk to pump water and carry it back on their heads. It's not fair that I don't question whether or not I will eat dinner tonight AND I have access to a great variety of food, but in Mokanji, if they have the means to buy food at all it will be rice and some sort of sauce made of leaves (cassava leaves or potato leaves). It's not fair that I get to teach in a big classroom with access to technology for my students to use and almost unlimited pencils, but the teachers in Mokanji don't have the resources to give their students to ensure their success, sometimes not even a pencil. I could go on and on because there is so much that is just not fair.

Although it's not fair, I can do something about it. God commands us to love each other as Jesus loved us. God wants us to get out of our comfortable worlds that have us at the center and step out to really love someone, to bring His hope to people who desperately need it, and to ultimately glorify Jesus through it all. Love may look different in various situations, but there is almost always a cost. It may cost us our money, time, or talents to love others, but it will have a cost and the cost is always worth it!

Everything that went into this summer was worth it. I am so thankful God used me to teach and love the kids of Mokanji this summer. I am grateful that God has allowed me to be part of what He is doing in Mokanji and by God's grace, I pray I will return one day.