This Is Africa!

I am sitting writing this with a huge smile on my face as I think back to the fantastic fundraiser that was held last Saturday. Panshanger Church were the hosts to my “A Taste Of Africa” night which included a quiz, authentic African food, singing, dancing and a big African party! The atmosphere was buzzing, the hall was packed and I am still amazed at the stunning amount of money raised to support my trip. I have a wonderful friend to thank who thought of the idea months ago and helped bring it all to life and other special friends who also worked their socks off to make the night run so well!

When in Uganda I will be able to look back at brilliant photos, videos and memories of the night which will remain special to me and will be something to reflect on and make me smile whilst I am away. However, more importantly I can see that God has used the event to help me right now in preparation for my time away and to teach me more about my relationship with him. Firstly, I have learnt that I need to trust God and step out in faith a little more, trying not to control every little thing myself. The event was organized over a couple of weeks and throughout this time I felt unsure as to how the event was actually going to run, who was coming and what format the programme should take. As hard as I tried never felt that I got any of these answers fully together before the start of the evening. A group of my supporters met with me 2 days before the fundraiser and some faithful friends prayed with me and told me to trust God and leave these worries with him. This I tried to do and as the night was approaching I tried to hand all these fears to Him. God is awesome – the night was a huge success! He had it all in hand and mightily blessed the event. The fundraiser was better than anything I myself could have organized, planned, hoped for or imagined.

Secondly, I have learnt that I need to chill out and be more prepared for the African lifestyle! The event turned out to be a very laid back and fun evening and everything from selling tickets to food arriving on the night was all done without a time limitation or rigid number planning – proper African style, This Is Africa!!! A week before the event there had been about 50 tickets sold but as the week went on more and more guests were asking to attend and Karen & I were even receiving phone calls an hour before kickoff asking if there were any tickets left! In the end we were just telling folk to come along and we were trusting that the food (of which we had no idea what or how much was arriving!) would go far enough. On the night there were approximately 140 guests and tons of food  – I’m not even sure where some of it came from but it was so plentiful so that we ran out of serving space for all the dishes!! What a good position to be in!! The African nature of this fundraiser has given me a wonderful taster, lots of excitement and a little preparation of the good things in store for my year away :)  

Ephesians 3:20 “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”