High School, Africa, and 20 years...

This morning I am packing 2 bags.  One for Africa and one for my 20 year high school reunion.  This year when I step off the plane from Africa I stay in Pensacola for my reunion.  I don't even come home first. I hope i'm not sick! I hope I can cope with civilization and American stuff that soon. I hope I'll be able to digest American food.  Well, it is what it is.  God is sovereign over stomach bugs for sure.  But this has made me think back on what God has done in the past 20 years.

20 years ago God ruined my life!  Not the way it may sound though.  One day I had my own dreams, my own desires, my own wants, and in an instant it was gone! Ruined! When Isaiah came into the presence of God he cried, "Woe to me!  I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." Old life ruined, but given something so much better!

I was a senior in high school, a few months from graduating when my ex-boyfriend did the strangest thing.  He came up to me and invited me to church!  We had dated on and off, and on and off since 9th grade.  He had invited me a lot of places before but church was NOT one of them! I was interested to find out what this was about so I went.  When he drove up at Myrtle Grove Baptist Church and parked the car panic struck.  Literally.  I couldn't breath normally, my heart was racing.  I kept thinking, "I can't do this. People like me don't go there! I don't want my life to change! What if they know who I am?"  I put my feet on the dash and held on for dear life yelling, "TAKE ME HOME!" My ex (who had only recently become a Christian) said, "NO. Get out of the car and go in there! I'm not taking you home." So I ran into the church and ran straight for the bathroom.  I stayed in there and tried to gain my composure.  When I finally walked out a girl I didn't know (Carolyn Lamberth) came up to me and said, "Hey, I know who you are. You're Dana, you cheer for Pine Forrest." "Great", I thought.  Then she said, "I'm glad you're here." That was exactly what I needed.  I stayed.  I don't remember the sermon or anything else.  I just remembered that it was a miracle that I stayed! And I went back! And before long I started hearing the message.  There was forgiveness for sins because of Jesus. But that means making him Lord of your life. Every time I went and started to really think about it the same thoughts would go through my head. "Do you really want your whole life to change? You will loose everything you love.  NOTHING will stay the same. You can't do this and you can't do that."  And that would be it.  I would walk away. And yet I would go back.  Until one night there was something for students at Hillcrest Baptist Church. That night I heard the message, started to think about it.  Had the same thoughts in my head. But this time I thought, "I don't care what it costs me.  I need this!" Ruined! But I found the treasure!! Matthew13:14 says, "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field."  I didn't know for sure the value of the treasure (Jesus) at the time.  But my hunch paid off! To my surprise I was given so much more than I'd lost. I didn't do everything right, I wish I would have been mature enough not to ditch my friends.  In my mind, I was just running for my life!  I didn't want to loose what I had found (not that you can loose it).  But, that was the end of me.  And that was the beginning of me.

I called my grandma and asked her where to go to get a Bible.  My grandparents were the only Christians in my family that I knew of. I had so many questions.  I went to my grandma's to get some answers.  I don't remember what all I asked.  But I remember one question. The answer to that question would change my life again. I asked my grandma why her daughters, my mom and aunt, weren't Christians.  Now I don't claim to know what's in peoples hearts, and they are wonderful people, but there was no evidence from my for me to think they were Christ followers.  My grandma responded, "I used to pray, God just don't make them missionaries." Silence.  It felt like i'd been hit with a rock. What?  I didn't know the Great Commission in Matthew 28, but I knew that wasn't right! At that moment in the silence I thought, "well then, I love Africa".  It was the furthest, deepest, darkest place that I could think of.  From that day on I loved Africa. I even named my 4th son after Africa. Ayden from the Gulf of Ayden and Chad from the country in Africa. I told God he could have my children and take them where ever he wanted for His glory.  I never actually thought I would get to go. But I prayed for Africa. I loved Africa.


The story of how God brought me to Africa 15 years later is another story for later, but know this; If you "delight yourself in the Lord he will give you the desires of your heart" Psalm 37:4!

So today I head to Pensacola, tomorrow I board a plane for my 3rd trip to Africa.  I will get to spend time with the child/children we are adopting (though I don't know who they are).  I get to walk on that red dirt again and share about the One who completely changed my life. I get to be a part of bringing comfort to the hurting, feeding the hungry, loving the fatherless. Nothing could make me happier!
I am so thankful for His relentless pursuit of me. I am thankful for what He is doing in me now and what He did 20 years ago.


Jesus is the friend of sinners, hope for the hopeless, father to the fatherless... He is good!

By the way, I married that ex-boyfriend!