My Heart

It was hard to believe when I looked out the window sitting in 35 C, I was leaving the continent of Africa. I had spent 18 months in Benin and Togo, West Africa and sailed to South Africa with the Africa Mercy. I think I left part of my heart there. My heart is for the people I came to love and serve. It is a familiar feeling and the only way to cure it, is to return. So I look forward to going back in 2011 when the ship is ready to start the outreach in Sierra Leone. For now, the other part of my heart has been in Guatemala. I would even say, before I was born- part of me was there. My Grandpa Green studied in Guatemala in the '70s and '80s to work on his Ph.D. in Mayan culture. The same people I fell in love with on my first mission trip to Guatemala in 2005. I had always dreamed of going with my grandpa, but the decades-long civil war prevented travel for us. Before he passed away, he was so happy to hear I was finally going to the places he had been too. These places I can find in my grandparents' albums full of pictures of the arch and fountains of Antigua. The markets and volcanoes decorate the country with color and wonder. I will return this next week to Guatemala for the fifth time to the people that have captured my heart.

One of my favorites, my grandpa and I camping in 1985.