How do you express?

I am back from my trip. I am back from Sierra Leone. I am back on American soil. Making those statements seems so standard, but this trip was everything but that. As I look back on all the things I experienced, the people I met, the stories I heard, and the relationships I built over the past three weeks, I am overwhelmed with emotions. I am overtaken by feelings of joy, sadness, bitterness, frustration, love, hope, injustice, knowledge, power, excitement, passion, and heartache! It is amazing how many feelings and emotions can run through your blood all at the same time, and how you can feel so inadequate to fully express them in words. Over the next couple weeks, I am sure I will be blogging quite frequently as I try to figure out all that I learned while in Sierra Leone. This is the first of many posts relating to my trip. I hope you enjoy reading them and processing along with me.

As all those emotions run through my soul, I feel them all for specific reasons. I feel joy over the way that God has renewed my life and perspective. I feel sadness over having to say good-bye to good friends that I made on another continent without knowing if I will ever see them again. I feel bitterness over having to experience the materialism in American culture after seeing that people live on so little. I feel frustration of the lack on resources and money that is available to people in Sierra Leone. I feel love because of the love given to me from the people in Sierra Leone and knowing the Jesus loves us all no matter what! I feel injustice over seeing how people are treated, discriminated against due to certain circumstances. I feel hope because of seeing Christian disciples working to serve God even after the war that has plagued their country. I have knowledge because of hearing people's stories, seeing their lives, and listening to them speak about God's mercies and his will for their lives. I feel power because I know that God is working in tremendous ways in Sierra Leone and has a great plan for the people of that nation who are working to transform the new generation of leaders. I am excited to see how God will use the nationals under COTN to change the nation of Sierra Leone. I feel passion because I have found a place that I love and am passionate about. I feel heartache because of the tragic stories I heard during my time in Sierra Leone.

This is a small, small attempt to express what is going on in my brain and head right now.

I leave you with a picture that I have come to love and adore. This is Kadiatu Jongo, a girl I came to love very quickly. She is from a family of 17 kids, she lives in the village of Banta Mokelleh, she is six years. She loves Jesus and knows that he loves her:)