I found this song video while I read fellow missionaries Ron and Barb Cline's blog about their trip in South Africa. It is a good read so far and is just starting. You can read it here.
The song on this video touches on something that I've been thinking about a lot. Namely, the way that my trip to Africa has changed me and become a part of me. It has been impossible for me to see the faces of black children in Africa now without trying to recognize some of the kids I met while I was there.
I no longer read news from West Africa without a context and a heart for the suffering there.
I have realized that by being born an American I have a historical debt that we collectively owe to black Africans and the slave trade. I can still hear the conversation I had with a black man who told me, "Your prosperity was built on the backs of black African slaves." What was just a sordid historical occurrence studied in school became personal to me that day. I still carry a bit of that weight in my heart.
I can still close my eyes and hear the enchanting music from the hearts of the women as they composed songs in church.
I can still feel the little black hand enfolded in mine as I walked across the orphanage.
I find myself asking God what I should do with these experiences that echo in my memories. How can they shape me and make me more like Jesus? How should I then live? Not easy questions.
