On January 11th, I’m joining a team of youth workers on a 1-week trip to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
Wait. What? Where? Why? Zimbabwe?
Where? When I was asked to go I only had a general idea of where Zimbabwe was located. I knew it was in southern Africa but I couldn’t have placed it on the map. And I couldn’t name a single city in the country, much less Bulawayo— Zimbabwe’s second largest city.
What will you be doing? If you were part of The Summit or Open you know that the Cartel has a friendship with World Vision’s 30 Hour Famine. They are regular event partners so we work with them a lot. As a teenager and a youth worker I’ve participated in the Famine a bunch of times. As I’ve gotten to know them better I’ve started to think more and more about this: What’s the impact of the Famine? I mean, I know how significant it has been for me and for students in my ministry… but what does all of that money actually do? That’s what I’m doing on this trip. My guess is that if you’ve done the Famine you have the same simple journalistic question. That’s why I’m headed to a World Vision site to see their work first hand. And I’ll be taking you along for the ride by telling stories, recording videos, and taking pictures.
Oh, and to make it even more fun there are a 7 other youth workers going, too! So that’s a whole layer of awesome on top of what we’ll be doing. Like a subplot.
Gut Check. I’ve got 3 young kids. (11, 9, and 22 months) So I don’t travel just for the heck of it. I’m in a stage of life where time away from home is really hard. When you put that on top of all of our Cartel & McLane Creative business stuff taking off, time away from home/office is very costly for me relationally and financially. So when Kristen and looked at this opportunity we really had to push past “Wouldn’t it be cool to go to Africa?” We agreed, “Yeah, it’d be really cool to go to Africa… with you. But we need to do this only if its for the right reason.”
Curious Compassion
The right reason, for me, is seeing the impact of 30 Hour Famine first hand. I want to go and hear stories, talk to people, ask questions, and get to know both the U.S. leaders of the Famine & the field staff of World Vision first hand. This is defined by curious compassion. My heart needs to see and hear that people are truly being helped in Jesus’ name. And my squirrely mind is curious about how things work.
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