I am sitting here in my hotel room in Nairobi, Kenya writing this blog post. Let me just take a moment and breathe in that last sentence because there is always a part of me that still struggles to believe the amazing blessings I have had in my life when it comes to international travel. My travel this year will take me through five continents…but for some reason, whenever I come to Africa, a little part of me feels like I am in my second home.

I am not sure how that last sentence will be interpreted by some, and I am also sure that I cannot convey the depth of emotion when I express it. I am sure that logically I should be writing those words about Europe. I was just in Berlin a few weeks ago, and I do love being back in Deutschland. Germany is the place that you put a turtleneck on me and I look like I belong. I also know that more than any other part of the world I have traveled to, I have spent the most time in Latin America. And I love Latin America to be sure. I love the food, and I have a great knack for loving how I can get people to laugh with me at how I so brilliantly butcher Spanish. But I continue to push through with my attempts to become fluent in Spanish.

But Africa…

This morning I journaled that some of the most strategic growth in my life personally has taken place in Africa. It was on my first trip to Africa in February of 2004 that I stepped off the plane in Johannesburg, South Africa and stepped into an amazing adventure with Orchard:Africa (www.OrchardAfrica.org) in learning how to make a real difference in restoring hope in disadvantaged communities in Subsaharan Africa that have been ravaged by the AIDS/Orphan pandemic. The co-founders of Orchard:Africa, Mike and Michelle Tessendorf have been some of the most amazing friends in both my life personally as well as in the life of my wife. We have learned so much about compassionate response to poverty and injustice that comes from a true place of ensuring that my service is based on the needs of those being served and not my need to serve.

It was in Africa that in January, 2012 my son and I summited Mt. Kilimanjaro at 19,341 feet. I had made a promise to my son when he was 10 that we would climb Mt. Kilimanjaro when he was 17 years old. When he turned 15, he assumed that I wasn’t going to keep that promise because I was 375 lbs and would never be able to make it to the top. It led me on a two year journey where I lost 150 lbs to keep a promise to my son. His words to me at the summit: “You kept your promise dad…”

It was in Africa in the Spring of 2017 that I was in Rwanda visiting an amazing organization Belay Global (www.BelayGlobal.org) and watched as they help transform lives of women that have been stuck in a cycle of sex-trafficking and step into a new future where they can build new lives for themselves and their children through being given an opportunity to earn an income for themselves without having to sell their bodies. The heroic work that Belay Global does inspires me to remember that even if we cannot save the entire world, we can change the world one precious life at a time. It was in Rwanda as I stepped into the Genocide Memorial Museum that I also was faced with the painful reminder that whenever we keep silent about evil, we allow bullies to minimize the value and dignity of human life.

It is here in Kenya this week that I will be at the S4 Conference that a ministry called Global Surge (www.GlobalSurge.org) is hosting. The purpose of the conference is to gather leaders from all over the world to spend time together answering one question: How do we help local churches all over the world have a greater impact in their communities? I believe with all of my heart that the local church is the hope of the world. In cities and rural areas, in slums and in affluence, in every language and in every nation: I believe in the power of the local church to add real value into their communities. This gathering is asking the questions about how we can help local church pastors who face insurmountable odds to not only survive, but thrive as they lovingly live lives of service to the people in their communities. I am investing my life to serve these pastors because I believe that they walk alone so many times and I want them to remember that they never walk alone.

I could go on and on, but I want to close this installment with perhaps the greatest reason why I love Africa: It’s the rhythm. I am 100% convinced that my words will fail me on this most important reason why I love Africa, but I will make my best attempt. Africa has experienced so much pain and struggle. From slavery, to droughts, to conflicts because of tribalism, to the exploitation of colonialism, to the devastating effects of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, all the way to the toxicity of well-meaning but poorly executed generosity that has left Africa dependent on outside aid that has demoralized the economies of so many African nations. Yet…in the midst of all of this, there is this amazing beauty of African singing, and dancing, and I cannot explain how the beauty of the smiles I see all over Africa in the midst of impossible circumstances does something deep inside of me that I have spent years trying to explain.

It is this beauty that I have seen in the traditional dancing by young people in small villages. It is this beauty that I have heard in the voices of people in a small church in Khayelitsha, a massive slum of over 1 million people, as they sing together. It is this beauty that I have seen in schools where orphaned children are learning and thriving because their village has decided to do the extraordinary act of not leaving these children to live alone. It is this beauty that I have witnessed as I watch young orphaned leaders that were mentored and cared for by a pastor in a small village grow up to become change agents in believing that’s there is a future for Africa that is looking bright, and they know that they are the key to seeing change occur.

Why do I love Africa? I love Africa because it continues to teach me how to believe that we can choose to not be defined by the painful experiences in our personal narrative. Africa continues to challenge me to not let the past dictate the direction of my future. Africa reminds me that the tribe that has lovingly stood by me for 50 years of my life are the people that matter most, and that tribe is who I find the deepest love that I need. Africa will continue to be the place that I see as my second home.

I write a blog that gets read by a handful of people currently. It is through writing that I feel a deep connection personally to things that I sometimes struggle to say out loud, but somehow find their voice when I sit down and write. The greatest desire I have for you the reader is that you will find your place that you love; the place that makes you feel more fully alive. It may be a place that you have yet to explore, and it may be a place that you already have discovered and you go back to again and again. But the challenge is that you would discover that place and go back to it often. I have an incredible gift in the confidence that I have that I will be in Africa again in the future. May the excitement you feel about the places you have yet to explore find you discovering that places that help you embrace the best version of your life…