pictures, etc...

I am still working on finding a way to put up some pictures, and the video that I made from my trip. So far the video is on facebook, and I am trying to cut it so that it will fit on youtube as well. My pictures, well some of them, are on picasaweb.google.com/becksm12
Let me know if you have a problem accessing any of that and I hope you enjoy!

distration

Since I have been home, people have been asking me all kinds of questions, which I am actually enjoying answering. I find that I do better with questions rather than just trying to monologue about my time spend in Africa. It is also interesting to see the different questions that people have, and what they want to know about my experience. One of the major things some wanted to know was about what I learned while I was there. I am still only beginning to articulate everything that I experienced and cannot even tell you half of what I learned (it would take hours, maybe even years). However, something that I started to see while I was in Kenya that is so radically different than the church in America, was that God is so much more real or depended upon there. It has to do mostly with the our cultural differences I believe. Like the 'spiritual world' in general is much more acknowledged and active in the whole eastern part of the world. Unlike here, there is an underlying assumption that there is a God who exsists and is real; to just come to that simple realization would be such a struggle in our cultural context. But, with that understanding they are much more open to all those things and talk about it regularly. In America, we have much more available to us and like to use things to explain away situations, to make it appear as if we are the ones in control. This cultural difference only has the potential to be harmful to us when we refuse to acknowledge the true source of a problem or solution. Even within the church, we like to attribute things based on physical means rather than on the true source, which is God. I know this might be a little confusing, so let me give an example. People there would say how glad they were that God allowed me to go to Africa and to be with them. In America, if I was asked why/how I went to Africa there are multuple reasons I could give as an explaination: I had to fulfil a requirement for school, I applied for an internship with ELI, I raised support, I got on a plane, etc. Although those are all real and true answers, the most important of those responses is that God allowed me to go to Africa. Everything that I did and will do is only because of and through Him. We all, even in America, have this basic understanding, because we know God and His character. But if asked why I went to Africa, I never would have said simply because God wanted me to go there, but I would have explained it using all of these other answers.
The word that comes to mind is distractions. I think that in America Satan has been so cleaver and is using so many different means to distract us from the true and real answer to all of our and life's questions. We have so many luxeries and resources available to us, which is not a bad thing, but they have the ability to divert our attention. We so easily have the ability to say this or that is the reason for something that happened, when God is the real reason and worked through all of those things in order to accomplish the end result. In Africa, they just start by saying it was God, and here we like to say all of the other possiblities before we think about it being God. I challange you to look for God in situations more than you look for concrete explainations. Be able to distinguish what is God and what is not. I think that that is one of the most important things, and the second is being able to share that with other people. You may never know how that mights affect another person, just like I have no idea if any of this will impact any of you, but I do know that the people who shared with me left a mark so I am just trying to pass on my experience with others.
"May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us now and forevermore. Amen."