BY DAWN REED

Let’s begin at the end.

I am writing this on the plane. We are boarded and ready to return from Gate Five in Nairobi, Kenya.

The captain has just finished making the traditional announcements in both German and English. The flight attendants have shown the obligatory video regarding every emergency imaginable.

We are heading home.

It has been an amazing week working with World Hope. Our mission team, made up of volunteers from Kentucky and Florida, provided a medical/dental clinic for the people of the Kawangware slum and the children of Hope School, made up of kids from the slum. (People in Kawangware have extremely hard lives. Many people living there survive on two dollars or less a day.)

We are bone tired. Exhausted. Excited to be going back to the U.S. yet leaving a part of our hearts in Africa.

As the plane begins to move, my heart is full of thanksgiving. Have you ever been so overjoyed you could write a Psalm? That’s me at this moment. I feel David’s words in Psalm 8:4: “What is man that you are mindful of him?”

For months, this group has been bathed in prayer. We prayed for the Lord to build the team. And He did.

We prayed for the Lord to prepare each team member. And He did.

We prayed the Lord would unify the Kentucky and Florida volunteers. And He did – beyond our wildest imagination. We were strangers stitched perfectly together like a beautiful Appalachian quilt, each connected and working together in hard circumstances. It was a wonderful example of the body of Christ.

In Acts 1:8, Jesus calls each of us to be His witnesses in our local area (Jerusalem), our state and country (Judea and Samaria), and to the ends of the earth. It’s been my experience that it doesn’t always mean to the farthest place away, but often to the last place or person you’d plan to go to. (The story of Jonah and Nineveh comes to mind.) Years ago, Africa was not on my radar. I had prayed for others to go, for God to help them on their way, but I didn’t expect to be one of them. He began to stir my heart. Soon I could think of nothing else.

A foreign mission trip serves many good purposes. First, it is an opportunity to use our gifts to serve those in need, per 1 Peter 4:10. Every summer in Nairobi, World Hope hosts a medical clinic in the latter part of June. Summer in the U.S. is winter in Kenya, so the “medical camp,” as they call it, is crucial. Last week, pharmacists, doctors, a dentist, and a host of others provided much-needed care for a people group in desperate need. The gospel was shared with each one.

A total of 996 people were seen in the clinic, with more than 100 treated by the dentist. The most important part was that 29 patients invited Jesus into their hearts. They are already being connected to discipleship groups.

Foreign missions can help put priorities in order. At home in the U.S., we are often overwhelmed and busy with everyday life. A faraway trip to help those in great need can help us refocus on serving the Lord, day in and day out, right where we live.

Though we are traveling back to the U.S., our mission is not over. We are leaving “the ends of the earth” to go home and reach our “Jerusalem, all Judea and Samaria.”

Thanks so very much to all who prayed and encouraged! You went with us!