Day 1 - African Sunrise

So, the first picture for the first post of this new blog needed to be a worthwhile one. It needed to have a great story. As I was making my decision, I thought about it for only a few minutes before I knew where I wanted to start. I started by looking up from where I normally sit in my living room and looking at the wall. This picture is front and center as an 8x10 enlargement in a collage of pictures I took on my trip to Africa.

The picture is scanned because it is a "real-life taken with a 35mm FILM camera" picture. I'll likely have several scanned pictures on here as I journal over the next year the pictures that tell my life story. Digital pictures are newish, ya know?

THIS picture, however, encompasses so much. There is so much story behind it. :) Hey, it's my first post, it's a given that it's going to be a long one.

I had dreamed of going to Africa my entire life. I did not have cable or satellite TV growing up so I usually spent Saturday afternoons watching Mutual of Omaha's 'Wild Kingdom' on PBS. Marlin Perkins introduced me to the African plains and wildlife - and I was completely captivated. Most of my young life was spent dreaming of becoming a veterinarian in a zoo just so I could work on African animals.

My time in college and vet school brought about two revelations: 1) I did not want to work in a zoo. 2) I did want to travel and do mission work.

I took my first overseas mission trip in the summer between my first and second year of vet school. I traveled to Ecuador with one of my professors from the vet school and a senior vet student. We spent 8 days high in the Andes mountains of southern Ecuador and it was the worst trip imaginable. (I'm sure there will be pictures and stories from that trip at a later time.)

Through my involvement with the student chapter of Christian Veterinary Missions, my heart was pulled to take another trip. A longer trip. A trip to Africa.

I'll spare all of the details, but let's just say that getting 4 weeks off in the middle of my clinical year of vet school was a miracle in itself. There were many months that it seemed impossible for it to happen. But then I got the go-ahead! And then all of the funding I needed to go came in! And then I got all of my required vaccines JUST in time!

A week or two before I was to leave, one my vet school classmates, Jennifer, asked me what kind of camera I was going to take with me. I told her that I just had a little point-and-shoot Vivitar. She bluntly told me that would NOT do and then stated matter-of-factly that I was going to take her camera. (Her camera was a very nice Cannon SLR with several high-dollar lenses including a 300 zoom.) I was extremely thankful for her generosity but warned her that valuable cameras were the number one target of thievery in Africa. She told me that she trusted me and I promised her I'd guard it with my life.

But I had NO IDEA how to use it.

I think it was several days to a week before I was leaving that I called and asked my friend, Chris, to show me how to use the thing. He spared me all technical details and boiled it down to what I needed to know. I remember him saying, "when in doubt, just put it on 'P.' Not on full auto (the green box) but 'P."

When you spend 6-8 months planning something like a trip to Africa and the moment comes that you get on the plane to take that trip - everything seems surreal. I kept saying to myself 'it's actually happening. I'm actually GOING!'

20+ hours of traveling later - I arrived. I arrived with only half of my team and without my team leader. (They were stuck in Amsterdam - unable to make our flight to Nairobi due to intense fog in Amsterdam preventing their landing.) I was then handed a slip of paper that read "Due to a complete FAILURE of the baggage sorting system, you will not be receiving your luggage." I laughed. I did not get my luggage for my 8 day trip to Ecuador until day 6. :) It seems to be my travel 'curse.'

I arrived in Nairobi at night. Slept hard. Had the best shower ever. Woke up in that completely brain-fogged 'am I awake or still asleep' kind of mental state. Walked outside. I was in Kenya.

And it was COLD!! No one told me it gets cold in Africa! Ha!

After several days we were all arrived, all of our luggage was arrived, and our bodies were rested, fed and acclimated to the time change. We were ready to head out into the expanse of East Africa.

We went on safari for 4 days. It was unbelievable. The 6 of us students bonded tightly as we experienced possibly one of the greatest spectacles on our Creator's planet.

This picture, this sunrise picture, was taken on our last morning on safari. It was the first morning it was not raining. :) After the sun came up we watched cheetahs stalk a flock of guinea hens.

This day - the day of this sunrise - my heart was broken open and exposed to the greatest noise my ears have ever heard. After we had finished our morning safari drive, we packed up and drove to a small church. It was Sunday. Our team leader, Dr. George Mixon, had lived as a veterinary missionary in Kenya for 6 years prior to our trip. He had been back in the states for a year working on his seminary degree. But this church is the fruit of his labor among the Maasai people in Losho, Kenya. And this day was his homecoming.

The small congregation had been excitedly expecting us. We were welcomed into a small cinder-block wall structure with a concrete floor and thatched roof. We women were instructed to sit on the left side of the room, with the men on the right. We sat on hand-carved wooden benches. And then they sang for us.

My eyes are tearing up even now with the distant memory of that melody. I have no doubt that when we get to Heaven it will be Africans who lead the worship. :)

I was engulfed in a harmony and rhythm that contained more joy and depth of heart than I knew was possible in a church. The leader sang out and the congregation echoed back a flood of worship. I stood in tears. It was the first time I really grasped that Jesus really is the Lord of ALL and really deserving of all of my heart and all worship. A translator was kind enough to give us a summary of what they were singing. One of the songs was about 'Seats in Heaven.'

I believe that those African Believers got it. This earth is not our home. They long for their Heavenly home in a way that I do not. Makes me think of Reepicheep in the Voyage of the Dawn Treader and his deep, long, heartfelt desire to go into Aslan's Land.

:)

One thing is for sure - this picture represents two births in me:

The first is the birth of the joy of photography. I took 14 rolls of film on this trip. I could only afford to have one developed in the 'one hour' department at Wal-Mart. The rest I sent off for the cheaper developing that took a week to get back. But this picture was in that first roll of film I saw. The pictures were stunning. It was not my camera - but I was extremely blessed to have gotten to use it and to capture the experiences I had. And to be able to experience them over and over again is the true joy and magic of the photograph.

The second birth is the understanding of when it says in Revelation that every tongue, every tribe, and every nation will gather at Jesus' feet to praise Him - that it is REAL.

African sunrise and African Sonrise

What a glorious day that was!