Eric's Story

Going to Africa was truly a life changing experience for me. One that I still don't understand the full effects of yet. You have heard us talking about"relationships", and that is where my lesson began.
I felt an overwhelming desire to be close to people. To build relations with the people both in Kenya, and in Sudan. They seemed to have a very grounded and simple ease about them that I wanted to understand and wanted to be able to apply to my life. Learning how to really communicate with people of another culture presented its own challenges. It's funny but we all seemed to talk a bit differently after a couple of days. It wasn't just a difference in dialect though. It was more of a difference in our cultures. One of the biggest differences I found between our culture and theirs is patience. The people in Africa are just a lot more patient; both with others and with life in general. Like if something doesn't happen when it should, it's ok...it will happen when it happens. We called it "Africa Time". But they seemed to have that same kind of understanding for each other too. More of an acceptance of each other and their faults as well as their good points.overall I think they live in a much more positive and objective atmosphere
The best part of the trip to me was, by far, the opportunities that I had to just share in these peoples everyday lives... sharing the only real bond that we had... The Lord. I have never felt that I was more in the will of God than on this trip sharing together His presence and glory, and providence. Through my encounters with a few people on this trip, I feel like I have a better understanding of just how important we are to the Father. I'm convinced He sent me all the way to Sudan to give a copy of the Old Testament to a young man, whose name is Simon Mamer, and to tell him that he was to teach it to the other people there in Sudan, even though right now he is a student in Uganda. What I can't really put into words is the powerful effect that had on both of our lives! God was speaking to Simon through me. We both knew that what was happening was very important, just because of how far God had gone to make this meeting happen. We were both touched by God in a way that would change the rest of our lives. Kind of the way it is every time God reveals Himself to us. To say that we were overjoyed, would be an understatement...we were filled to the rim and overflowing! Simon told me, a couple days later, that when he told his family what had happened, they were all rejoicing and praising God very "seriously". I thought that was a cute way to put it. Needless to say, I came away from the whole incredible experience with a mixture of excitement and awe and peace and wow. But there is one thing that I know in my heart, that I can't seem to stop thinking about,and I feel like I'm supposed to relate to You, and that is that we are all just as important to God as Simon is....as Jesus is....He loves us all that much.