{"id":1974,"date":"2013-04-09T07:01:36","date_gmt":"2013-04-09T13:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/?p=1974"},"modified":"2013-05-28T14:15:17","modified_gmt":"2013-05-28T20:15:17","slug":"im-going-to-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/2013\/04\/09\/im-going-to-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019m going to Africa."},"content":{"rendered":"

Community Health Abroad 2013<\/strong>
\nfrom Kelsey Maguire<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Jesus was still speaking, some people came
\nfrom the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. <\/em>
\n\u201cYour daughter is dead,\u201d they said. \u201cWhy bother the teacher anymore?\u201d<\/strong><\/em>
\n\u00a0Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, <\/em>
\n\u201cDon\u2019t be afraid; just believe.\u201d<\/strong><\/em>
\n\u2026 He took her by the hand and said to her, \u201cTalitha koum!\u201d
\n(which means \u201cLittle girl, I say to you, get up!\u201d).\u00a0 <\/em>
\nImmediately the girl stood up and began to walk around
\n(she was twelve years old). <\/em>
\nAt this they were completely astonished.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cTalitha koum.\u201d In two words, Jesus mended the gap between life and death. He impregnated the still heart of a young girl with the electricity to beat again. He spoke the air into her lungs and the pulse throughout her stagnant corpse, to restore life. I can\u2019t seem to read this verse without hearing a certain familiarity, a tender voice I know has spoken into my life since before I was born. \u201cLittle girl\u201d, The Father says, \u201cwake up.\u201d Despite all doubt and delusion of defeat, The Father urges us to leap into his loving sovereignty, designed for the good of the world and the pleasure of my own, unique heart alike, letting life begin.<\/p>\n

This verse has been heavy on my heart lately. I feel that this is partly due to the great awakening that has occurred in me over the past year as my relationship with Christ has blossomed and strengthened, and partly due to the huge leap of faith that this story requires; a leap that I am now being challenged to take. When all hope was dead and the onlookers suggested, \u201cWhy bother?\u201d<\/p>\n

Jesus called out, \u201cDo not be afraid; just believe\u201d<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Just believe- two simple words that are much easier said than done. The other night I was falling asleep while writing in my journal and I began to list the fears about my trip that were in my heart at the moment:<\/p>\n

\u201c-I\u2019m afraid of imagining it all wrong, of writing it wrongly before it even happens, of building up hopes and realizing I knew nothing. <\/em>
\n-I\u2019m afraid of nothing happening at all. <\/em>
\n-I\u2019m afraid of getting there and feeling useless, displaced, and confused instead of all the profound, life-altering things I\u2019m supposed to feel. <\/em>
\n-I\u2019m honestly a little afraid of the money coming in. I\u2019ve held so much faith in the provision of this need but the thought of falling short after so much generosity has been shared worries me.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I had been allowing the logic of our broken world to extrapolate for me where my plans were going. But you see, with a God who rebukes death, who defies logic and reverses the finite in two simple words, the logic doesn\u2019t matter and my worry is fruitless. Jesus commands only one thing of me in this journey; to believe.<\/p>\n

The other day I received an email from the founder of the ministry with whom I am traveling. A little background- many of my friends are traveling on a school-sponsored mission trip this summer. They’ve been studying books, holding meetings, turning in deposits, getting shots, and discussing bug sprays and malaria medications- real substantial stuff. Meanwhile, I, who am traveling independently, have been raising money and wondering what kind of skirts I should wear. Needless to say, I feel a little ill-prepared. And, while I am fully enjoying my new-found courage and cool in the face of this large decision, this new lackadaisical approach feels a little bit like the first time on a bike without training wheels- out of control and impendingly painful.<\/p>\n

So when I received this email from the ministry that I am traveling with and the content said. \u201cAre you still planning to join us in June? :)\u201d I had to laugh. Am I joining you? Are we talking about Dairy Queen or Africa here? I think I\u2019m coming! But you know what? I loved it, because that\u2019s how God works! He functions in a way that going to Africa means simply saying so and opening your heart for His way there. It means that every now and then grand things are going to come together, completely independent of any worry or work on my part. It means that by the undeserved blessings of good family and friends, of sheer, unwarranted divinity, I\u2019ll get there. And I needn’t doubt, or lose hope, or have fear, whether the funds are low or the plans appear hazy. Because I’ve already done all the work required. I asked the question and I know where I will go.<\/p>\n

I am going to Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Community Health Abroad 2013 from Kelsey Maguire \u201cWhile Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. \u201cYour daughter is dead,\u201d they said. \u201cWhy bother the teacher anymore?\u201d \u00a0Overhearing what they said, Jesus told … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,17,7,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chs","category-community-health","category-nursing","category-mission-trips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1974"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2307,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974\/revisions\/2307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}