Africa has a way with me.

Africa has a way with me. Driving past the perfect rows of tall rubber trees, it let's my soul take a deep breath. It's like an element of me becomes what it's suppose to be in Africa. I just returned last week from a 2 week trip to Liberia with the college-age team. Our goal was to do a leadership seminar, and build from it a team of leaders that could decide for themselves what ways their communities could change. Rain beating on the tin roof, we shouted at each other teaching the group about how to plan out a detailed project plan. They sat at tables together listening and taking notes about how to grow in leadership skill and capacity. Trying to catch every breeze possible through the open doors, we sat with groups of Pastors and Leaders and discussed the details of every principle.

In the morning our team drove through the city to witness Liberia waking up, and ladies going to the market in the foggy morning- their colorful fabrics wrapped around their waists. We drove past fields of corn, cassava, and sweet potato scattered in between the coconut trees. We got to the location of our leadership seminar on the first day, and there were 3 men on time... the 37 others surely just woke up late or got stuck in traffic... right? Oh well, not everyone in the world depends so much on a clock.

One of these men smiled and introduced himself to me, “James”. We ate oatmeal and cornbread together for breakfast, and he told me about his church, his family, and his farm. James- a farmer by trade, and a pastor by calling. After a while in conversation with him, I began to realize how brilliant he was. A humble farmer on the outskirts of Monrovia, he soaked up every bit of the leadership seminar taking pages and pages of notes with plans to reteach all of it to his church and the people in his community. He beamed with excitement and pride telling us how grateful he was, and what he was going to do with it. This is why we do this, for people just like him.