I’m packed and ready to go.  Actually, I never really feel ready to go, but hopefully I have everything I need to travel to Burkina Faso tomorrow.

This trip has been scheduled for months. However, though I helped plan the logistics on behalf of Compassion for this trip, and worked with Monterey Church on creating the itinerary, I hadn’t really thought of what it’s going to feel like to go back this desolate place in the world, until yesterday. I have been busy trying hard to get ready to leave, that I hadn’t even considered what I was leaving to go see.

Last night, in my bed, I stayed awake remembering how hot and dry this place was, and how the dust from the Sahara desert near by, swirls in the hot wind all day long. I thought about those red dirt roads and how my kidneys hurt after the long bumpy drives.    I remembered the children. Oh those beautiful children! Yet, I hadn’t seen the beast of starvation in a child for a long time, and I saw it there. Their black skin covered skeleton bodies, and the dust of the earth powdered their faces dirty, only to enforce the fact this land doesn’t have much mercy on those that live there.

Why am I going back?

I do remember those influential words I used when Pastor Brian from Monterey Church asked me, “Where can we go in the world that there is a lot of need?” He asked me this question possibly at a time when I had forgotten how beautiful Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia could be. There are needs and poverty in all those areas for sure, but something impulsively came out of my mouth, like a sprinter hearing a gun, “Burkina Faso.” I said.

The goat intestine soup was not on my mind obviously when I sold this pastor on the need in this country and the idea of going there. What sold him was the fact that 1 out of every 10 kids don’t live to see their 15^th birthday.

So I am all packed up tonight. I am not caught up with work, I have five other groups I am responsible for leaving on trips in the next two weeks with Compassion, all  going to see kids around the world. I haven’t seen Steve for a week because he is traveling too, but it’s all ok tonight, because I am doing what I am supposed to do, and that is…to go.

So, I will try to blog and keep you all up to date on what is going on. My heart is anticipating a great adventure and I am excited  to see the hand of God in motion, as he changes 21 Americans in Burkina Faso.

Philippines 4:7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.