Inspired by Dad's Pentecostal sermon

It has been way too long. It has been too long since I have written. But more than that it has been too long since I have just say back, stopped moving, and let myself just be. I can barely comprehend that it has been over 5 months since I was in Tanzania. And look at me--I feel as if I have done nothing. Not only have I done nothing to promote the cause of The Carpenter's Kids program--but I also have rarely written to my friends back in Dodoma. I got into grad. school. That is pretty much the extent of my "accomplishments" since mid-December.
But I also feel it was just last week that I was on a bumpy road on my way out to some dusty village somewhere to join in singing and dancing and praying and laughing while snapping photos and shaking numerous dry, cracked, warm and loving hands.

Mostly I just want to make sure I don't forget. If I lead my life in the average American dizziness of unawareness--just thinking of work, sleep, food, friends, sleep some more...how have my travels expanded my mind, my world view? Sure my brain processes some things differently. Sure, I have more stories starting with, "When I was in Africa..."
But really, if I don't devote more of my time to telling the story, more of my money, more of my prayers, more of my energy towards the people of Tanzania...then I feel somehow that I have failed.

Tanzanian's are some of the kindest, warmest, compassionate and selfless people I will ever meet. I feel blessed to have been a part of their culture and their communities, even if just for awhile. I hope that I do take my MPH degree in Global Health and go back to help the people that inspired me to study public health to begin with.

But for now I need to continue telling the story. I have not yet had any of my photos of Tanzania printed yet. Somehow I feel that by printing them, organizing them, and putting them into an album--it'll be a sign that that chapter of my life, that block of time, is over. That there are not more photos to add to the story...

But memories, friends, adventures, faces, generosity, don't just end when the last photo is taken, when the last page is full. Just as the last words of the Bible were written so long ago...
and yet the love and energy and grace of the spirit is active and changing and developing in and out and through each of us every day. In the same way I hope that the life I had in Tanzania will not be just a story of days past, but an ever-present mindset and manner of interpreting my current life, here in the USA.
I will with God's help.