Why are we going to Kenya? - Melanie Hardacker

Welcome to the blog for the Church of the Cross mission trip to Kenya which we are calling "Pamoja". Pamoja is swahili for partnering or united and our prayer is that this will be a trip where we partner with the people of Kenya working to share God's love and that we develop lasting relationships which allow us to minister in Kenya for many years to come.

As we get ready to leave in 4 days I am sharing my story on Sunday morning of why our family of 4 is going on this trip. I thought it might be a good first post.

Our journey to Kenya began around 10 years ago; Jake was 4 or 5 years old. I remember the specific moment God placed Africa on our hearts. John and I had just seen a movie at the Edina Theater and were sitting in that area between the shops and the parking ramp looking at the back of Talbots. It was a time in our lives when we didn’t think God was going to give us any more children and we were asking ourselves what purpose he might have in only giving us one. What plans did he have for us? As we talked about Jake and who he was somehow Africa came up and a desire to go to Africa with Jake before he graduated high school was born.

Over the next year or two I thought about this trip a lot but every time I imagined the trip I did not see us on safari or sitting around some resort, I saw us in a village, working with people, being part of the culture and making friends. I knew that we were going on a mission trip to Africa at that point and not a vacation. Keep in mind that neither John nor I have ever been on a mission trip, I would actually say we sort of avoid mission type work but here I was sure we would take this huge mission trip someday.

I began to pay more attention when missionaries would come visit our church from Africa. I started developing a plan where, when we were ready, I would call one of those missionaries and ask them if we could come and work along side them for a week or two. Then 5 years ago we were part of planting this church. As soon as I learned that we were an African mission church, that we are rooted in Africa, I knew this was how we would go. I knew someday this church would go to Africa and we would go on that trip.

Then 4 years ago we adopted Isabelle. I wondered if because the Africa was part of an only child plan we might have to give it up when we adopted Isabelle. It is amazing how God weaves together all the different parts of our lives in ways we don’t always even see. Through our amazing and wonderful adoption story which I shared part of a couple years ago God took time to make sure we knew He was still sending us to Africa. God brought to us Sam, Isabelle’s birthfather, who spent the first 10 years of his life living with his missionary parents in Uganda and Kenya. At that time our only plan was to go somewhere in Africa but God already knew we would be going to Kenya and He has always known we would be bringing Isabelle with us.

Throughout the process I just waited. God planted a desire and while I could have pushed the timetable to happen sooner, frankly it was such a big dream I didn’t even know where to begin, so I simply waited for God to drop the next step right in front of me. Even as it became in my reach I had to wait on God’s time. When we first started talking mission trip a couple years ago there was a meeting to assess interest. 2 different oversees mission trip possibilities were presented. Logistically, financially the other trip to South America made so much more sense but the whole meeting all I could think was, “well I don’t know where all these other people are going but I am going to Africa.” I had to leave the meeting knowing that if they chose South America I did not have to go and trusting that God would bring me to Africa at another time.

As we have prepared for the trip this past year it has been amazing to see God provide for us and prepare us. I want to share 2 stories from this past year of how God has used unlikely people to encourage and prepare us.

Last year as we began saving for this trip and looking at the amount of money we needed to come up with to send our family of 4 to Africa and cover our expenses for a month while John wasn’t working, John came to the conclusion that he likely would not be going on the trip and just Jake and I would go. I personally found this annoying and didn’t know how to talk to him about it so I was basically ignoring him on this subject. Well he is sharing this thought with his cousin who is not a Christian and has quite a bit of ambivalence toward God. Adam looked at John and said, “sell the car. You can buy a new one when you get back. How many opportunities do you have to go to Africa?” It was the kick in the pants John needed to see how many ways God could provide the money we needed for the trip. And it has been amazing to see how many different ways he has provided exactly what we needed.

The second story is of my preparation to do ministry work. I took a part time job this past year to help pay for the trip. As I said, we basically avoid mission type work at our house but as this job was to pay for a mission trip it seemed logical to ask God to make this job a ministry for me beyond saving money. This past fall I worked with a girl who talked to me a lot about her life. She was someone who clearly needed someone to listen to her, love her and give her the wisdom clearly nobody else was giving her. Typically when I meet someone like this I listen politely, try not to make eye contact and say nothing hoping they will eventually stop talking to me. It usually works. But God reminded me that this job was my ministry and this girl needed me. One particularly bizarre story she told me stuck with me. I knew she needed someone to say more to her about it, to encourage her that she was so much more than her circumstances and I knew it was supposed to be me. I wrestled with it for several days and when I finally did say something it was in a facebook message rather than in person but I did it. While this may seem like a tiny nothing to some of you this was a HUGE something for me. Not that it changed her life in some dramatic way, I didn’t expect it to, but she was so appreciative and I could tell encouraged by it. And the experience helped give me the courage I will need to talk to people in Kenya. I may not always know what to say or relate to their circumstances but frankly I could not relate to the story this girl was telling me. But I knew God loved her and I could share that. I don’t know what is going to happen when I am in Kenya but I am prepared to listen to what God has for me to say and be brave enough to say it.

Why are we going to Africa? In truth I don’t know why we are going to Africa. We are simply following God and can’t wait to see what He is going to do with us when we get there.