Speak for Me

I have waited long enough to start to share my time in Ethiopia with all of you. Some of you have patiently waited and I am truly sorry for keeping you waiting. I am finding it much harder to share my experiences with others than I had anticipated. I have plenty to talk about, but it's hard to find a beginning and an end to the experience because it doesn't have one. It has impacted my life, it is currently impacting my life, and it will continue to impact my life. I also find it hard to talk about because this experience is so much bigger than me...than all of us, really. I find it difficult to find the words to describe how I felt and what I saw.

I continue to think about lyrics to a song by Jaci Velazquez because it is exactly how I feel:

What have I to offer
To a world in need
Yet for some unknown reason
You have chosen me

Lord you have set my journey
You've prepared the way
Still, I'm desperate for the words to say

All I am is willing
All I have is in your hands

Every brief encounter
that you send my way
Is it just to show the love You gave me?
I see their troubled faces
A hunger deep inside
Lord, I depend on You to touch their lives

Light what burns within me
Let Your truth shine through my life

Speak for me
This my plea
Say the words I can't express
Sing for me
A heavenly melody
That the people will be blessed
Speak for me


I feel this way about telling my story to all of you...I have no words that make a coherent sentence...I don't have the words to express how I feel...I'm quiet about my experience because I want no pat on the back, I don't want someone to tell me "good job", I don't want someone to say, "what did you do there? Just try to not get aids?" (Yes, folks, I heard that one.) I don't want any glory because I did nothing while I was there. Nothing impactful for those people. I mean, I went there, spent a few weeks with them, came home and went on with my life and they went on with theirs. The people impacted me more than I will ever impact them.
I really don't have my own story to tell. My story is their story. The people I met in Ethiopia invited me into their lives and were so generous. I was completely refreshed by them and it was great to connect with people for who they are as a person...nothing more and nothing less...

So, with that, I will share "their story" which they have let become "my story". I will let them speak for me and let their truth shine through my life!

Much love,
Jen