Reflections

Upon arrival in the United States...life, for me, picked right back up into the chaos I left. It's been hard to find a few minutes to think about the trip, let alone write about it. Although it's hard to explain everything that happened...or even know how much this trip will affect the rest of my life, let me attempt to share a little of Kruger and the rest...

At Kruger we saw "The Big 5" Those are the animals that are the most dangerous....elephant, rhino, cape buffalo, leopard and lion. We saw all 5 in one day. That's only the 2nd time in Mike Massingham's life that he's seen all 5 in one day, and only the 4th time he's seen the leopard. It was fairly exciting. I loved learning about the different animals. For example, did you know that giraffes are double jointed in their knees and because they can kick either direction, very forcibly, they don't have any natural predators? Or did you know they only sleep 20 minutes a day? Elephants have the ability to feel seismic patterns in their feet, so they knew when the Tsunami was coming and ran for the hills before any human really know what was going on. It was truly amazing to see how God created animals with the most amazing things I would NEVER think of...most of the drive I was amazed at who He is as a creator.

The trip home was fairly uneventful, which is a bonus. Flights were good, we made all the connecting flights, luggage made it. Again a HUGE blessing!

It's been a little over a week...and I miss South Africa. When Liz was teaching on Tuesday night, she made the comment that South Africa was a beautiful country. It has oceans and mountains, beautiful scenery, animals...etc. The people of Masi did NOT agree with her. They don't see the natural beauty that surrounds them on a daily basis. I'm not sure we could have convinced them to think any differently. I think we are fairly similar.

So many times God tells us that we are beautiful, that He HAS given us certain gifts and talents and He does want to use us to further His kingdom. However we deny it. We don't see what He sees and dismiss truth for a lie. Like the people of Masi, we miss the everyday beauty of being His child and nothing He has said or done will change our mind. Whether the people of Masi were able to see the beauty that IS their country...it is still true. Whether or not we believe that God has created us to be His children and to do good works that He prepared...it is still true. So the choice is ours. Do we walk in truth or the mediocrity the world offers as life?