Well I have been home for a little over 6 weeks now and life has continued to progress. With each passing day, I continually think of the time that I had in Africa, my friends that I miss so dearly, and the responsibility that I have to be intentional with my choices that affect those around the world. I feel the connectedness to my family in Africa to such a degree that I know the way I choose to live today, affects their lives. This is a huge and heavy burden to carry, and I thank God that I do not have to carry it alone. I have a beautiful wife and a loving community of people who have the same heart and selfless desire to change the world.

These decisions that we all have to make on the day-to-day basis cause a difficult tension in my heart and mind. Attempting to be radically different from this world, yet function in it at the same time is a daunting task that requires faith and trust in God. As much as I would like to extinguish all areas of the world from my life, there is a harsh reality that we must deal with as we live in the States… rent, gas, food, medical bills, etc… All these realities force me to have to live and function in our world to the capacity of maintaining a source of income that allows our family’s needs to be met. But, the idea of needs are so subjective… One family may say that they ‘need’ to go to the beach twice a year, while another says that they ‘need’ to have Friday night dinner at AppleBees. Each has their own classification for what their needs are and base their decisions upon their own personal convictions.

As I am learning more and more about God and his desire to bring about justice to a humanity in need, I see that those needs in our lives extend well beyond our own apartment, car, etc… but enter in to the lives of our friends abroad. It is just as much my responsibility to help meet the necessities of our friends in Africa as it is to meet that of my own family. Due to this evaluation and conviction we must evaluate our needs through the lens of God’s Word. With each passing day and each new choice, I must first consider God’s desire to bring equality and justice to a broken world and how my one decision can contribute to God’s will or prolong it.