soak in the last line

The Summer Day

Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

My heart for Africa

Much like affection for a deeply loved friend, my heart for Africa continues to grow. One of the first times I remember feeling compassion for the people of Africa was when I heard about the devastation AIDS was having on the country and Bono's response to it. I was glad that someone was doing something about it, but didn't know if or what I should be doing. A few years ago my friend was going to be in charge of getting donors to sponsor children through Compassion International and had several of the packets at her house. Of course I had to look through them and I knew that if I sponsored a child, I would like them to be from Africa. I flipped through the children’s packets and came upon a bright, smiling face of a young girl from Tanzania. She seemed so sweet and so deserving of love and a chance at life. I decided to partner with Compassion International and sponsor that beautiful young girl named Beatrice.

Fast forward a few years...I have been attending Crossroads for a few years now and LOVE it (there will be a future post on how it has changed my life). For the last few years Crossroads has partnered with a church in Mamelodi, South Africa called Charity and Faith. Several trips between the two churches have already taken place and from the time I heard about it, I have wanted to go.

There is something amazing about mission trips. Traveling somewhere to be intentional about serving people and loving on people is maybe my idea of doing the things God has given me passion for all wrapped up into one. Wow. I had never even realized that until I wrote that sentence. These kinds of trips are not easy, for sure, but my past two experiences have proven to be life changing and nearly indescribable. It has been far too long since I've taken a trip like this.

I knew that the desire to go was already within me, but I wasn't sure how it was all going to come to fruition. Brian Tome (the Sr. pastor) recently said, "Most of the time when God puts a call on your life it’s simply something you know that God would approve of and you just have to do it." That resonated within me and a few days later I went to Crossroads to attend an info session on Mamelodi and the upcoming trips. My mind had pretty much already been made up and this was only confirmation that I wanted and felt that I needed to be a part of the Go Mamelodi 2010 trip.

This is only the beginning of the journey for me; I hope you'll join me in some way. I'll be updating this blog probably a bit randomly at first, but more and more often as the trip draws near. Thanks for your charity in reading!

~With much love,
Dana

For last year's recap video check this out; my heart for her continues to grow.