God is good, all the time!

We are hard at work in Kabala now, making up the mentoring sessions and counseling programs, and working with the local youth and pastors to make sure everything runs smoothly. Last weekend we got the chance to travel to Firawa, a village about 4 hours outside of Kabala, to take part in a church youth gathering and introduce the program there. I explained the program to the youth and took down the names of those who were interested in becoming mentors and taking part in the program, which nearly all of them wanted to do. I will be traveling back to Firawa sometime in June to run mentoring workshops, teach the youth about HIV/AIDS, and parter them up with younger kids they can act as mentors for. We will be starting the mentoring group in Kabala next week, and we have already made up the material for the first two mentoring training sessions, as well as three group sessions with the youth about sexual immorality and HIV/AIDS. It's amazing how fulfilled you can become just from doing the simplest work that God has set out for you - there hasn't been a moment where I have felt like this work is meaningless, even though it is tiresome and difficult to start up from scratch. Even though this program can't change the lives of every youth living in the villages, or Kabala, even if it helps just one, it is all worth it.

On Sunday, I had a moment of crashing to reality when I saw one of the girls I mentored last year come to church with her new 2 month old son. It was a reminder of how needed these education and mentoring programs are in Kabala, but also a reminder of how big God is...he can bring a new life out of a painful situation, and bring joy where there once was heartache. Seeing the smile on that new mother's face erased all the tears of disappointment and hurt I was feeling for her, because I knew God has a plan in everything.

Really, the more I am in Kabala the more I recognize that God's grace is so powerful and all encompassing - just the fact that I am able to live in a place that I never knew before three years ago, have such an amazing family and community surrounding me, and be able to do the work God has called me to is nothing short of amazing. Doing this work is a constant reminder that God can use anyone - it's not like Katie or I were meant to educate youth about sexual immorality and HIV/AIDS, or like we are more capable than anyone else - we were just in the right place at the right time, and listened to what God was asking from us, as crazy as it seemed at the time. To think that God brought me to this town in the middle of Sierra Leone, and has made me feel so at home and so at peace is nothing short of incredible. It's a good reminder that everything happens for a reason, and you never know where you will end up. If I had simply chosen to take the easy way out and travel to Europe in high school instead of Africa, none of this would have happened, and I wouldn't have met any of the friends and extended family over here...or have even met Katie and many of my other friends in Canada. God is good...all the time. Whenever you are walking by faith and trusting him, there is no mountain too high for you to climb.