I never thought that I would have a blog, wouldn’t really identify myself as much of a blogger. Then again, I also would have never thought that I would be moving to Africa for a year. Six months ago, with graduation months away, I wasn’t sure what my next step would be. With a little luck, or maybe fate, I came across a program called Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM) on the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America’s website. The program, an opportunity as I see it, accepts young adults from all over the United States and sends them all over the world to serve and live among others in faith and accompaniment.
Receiving an invitation to a weekend of country interviews and discernment a few months after applying to YAGM was both exciting and nerve-racking. The possibility that this may really be what I will be doing next year was setting in. It was the first of many “Oh My God” moments I will encounter, as my country coordinator Brian would say. During the discernment weekend held in April, I learned about the seven different countries that YAGM’s live and serve in, met and had an amazing time with the other ‘young adults’ and ELCA Global Mission staff, and at last learned that I was offered the opportunity to live and serve in the southern part of Africa.
I absolutely accepted that offer. Since then, I have gradated from UW-Madison with a Psychology degree. Shortly after that, I have learned that my time in Africa will be spent in Kimberley, South Africa. Kimberley is the capital of the Northern Cape and located in the center of the country. I will figure out where my time and service will be spent within the community some time after my arrival. Until then, I will spend the rest of my summer working, applying for graduate schools starting in the fall of 2012, being with friends and family, and highly anticipating my departure on August 17th.
I have named my blog “Ubuntu- In the City that Sparkles”. Ubuntu is an African concept or philosophy. It focuses on the relationships people have with one another, that a person is who they are because of what we all are. Nelson Mandela says, “Ubuntu does not mean that people should not enrich themselves. The question therefore is: Are you going to do so in order to enable the community around you to be able to improve?” This concept reminds me of what we focused on during the weekend of discernment- the idea of accompaniment, meaning that we are walking side by side with our global companions just as God walks with us. Kimberley, my future home, is significant for its history in diamond mining and because of that is known as the “City that Sparkles”. I look forward to this time I have to learn more about myself, as well as my new community in South Africa while applying Ubuntu in all that I do.
I hope that through this page I will be able to put into words, even if just to a small extent, what I will learn and experience.
