What struck me most about the learning tour was...

This was one of the writing prompts (slightly adapted) that I gave the participants as a reflection exercise. The point was to just write whatever came to mind over a five minute period. So now as I reflect on the parts of the learning tour that I participated, this is what struck me most...

I was struck by the genuine concern of the participants for the people who they met. I had to remind myself that these are adults who chose to come, some doing fundraising in order to finance the trip, who have a vested interest in CFGB's activities because they donate money to CFGB and are not, as my past experience with short term trips, are teenagers coming to DOOR for a week (though in defense of youth groups, I had many enjoyable times with youth group reflections at DOOR). I was struck by the depth of their reflections that began to see the multi-faceted aspects of poverty and food security that exist here in Southern Africa.

I was struck how they prayed for the people and grappled with how best to give. I was struck by their reflections of what they will take home with them...stories of walking with their host families to fetch water, stories of spending a few nights separated from the group to live with a host family in Zambia, stories of their reaction to Tete's heat (coming in at 43 degrees celcius = something really hot in farenheit), stories of the hope they feel from the sand dams projects, how they wrestle with connecting what they have seen here with their communities back in Canada, and much more.

I was struck at how they shared where God met them. Showing them direction for their lives, to continue to be involved in CFGB Grow Projects.

I was struck by the laughter of the group. Joel had told me that they weren't really happy in Tete because of the heat (understandably so when coming from the cold of Canada a week earlier) but as our reflection time progressed, participants' senses of humor returned and we shared quite a bit of laughter (which was good for Joel and I because we tend to be too serious too much of the time). They were able to laugh at their miseries in Tete and uncomfortableness in their host families and see the good in those experiences.


I was struck how after the first morning of reflections, my immediate thought was this was worth it. Just being a part of the reflections, to hear what people were thinking, to hear what they experienced, to listen to their struggles as a group was worth all the daily headaches that I had endured since October when planning intensified and then in early November when Plan A was ditched for Plan B and the week prior to the trip when Plan B was ditched for Plan C and then while I worried in Beira how Joel was faring on Plan D. The reflection time was what I looked forward to the most throughout the planning process, the time of getting to know people, hearing their stories of what brought them to the learning tour, listening to what struck them and being able to offer a bit of what I've learned these past two years. The interchange between the community members and the participants, the interchange between the participants and the hosts-- CCM and MCC, that was what I looked forward to and that is what made it all worth it.



I was struck how the group was comprised of members of various churches. That they were unified in their prayers and care for one another and for the people they met, including us MCCers.

Now as they are on a plane back to Canada, I pray that they will be able to process all they have seen and heard and experienced and be able to communicate it to others, so that others have a better understanding of what life is like here in Zambia and Mozambique. I pray that they will share the hope that they saw along with the hardships, that they will be able to portray the dignity of the people that they met so that others see that too. I pray that God will continue to move in their lives and continue to call them to act justly, love mercy, and to walk humbly with their God.