Why Africa?

Of all the places in the world to tour, why Africa? 

Every person who goes on this trip will have a different answer, but my own goes back many years. 

I made my first trip to Africa in 1985. I was 20 and just wrapping up my Junior year of college. I longed to be in Africa since I was 13 so it was just a matter of time.

That first trip lasted two years. I lived in a mud hut, ate really strange food, learned a new language, got sick a lot, rode my motorcycle through a few war zones and had some serious homesickness.

I loved it.

I've been back many times since then and each visit makes me appreciate the continent, the people, and God in a new way.  

One thing I always tell first-time visitors to Africa to do is go out of the airport after they land, and inhale deeply. Smell Africa. Later, when they get outside the city into the countryside or on the veld, inhale deeply again and Smell Africa. The vibrancy of this continent is best explained through an olfactory transaction.  

The odor of Africa is a pungent mix of diesel fumes, bodies, earth, rain and excitement. Africa has its troubles--we read about them all the time--but Africa is also so alive you can smell it! The Church is coming alive there and growing faster than leadership and disciplers can handle. Economies are growing and so is the technology sector. Things are happening on that continent.

South Africa is a big part of these changes and will be a good place to see some of the excitement in store for the future of Africa. 

But South Africa is also a great place to go to see Africa in the rear-view mirror. The Dutch, British, Portuguese, Germans, Hottentots, Ndebele, Zulu, Sotho and so many more have been on center stage there. Gandhi, Churchill, David Livingstone, Cecil Rhodes and others all walked across those lands. And God's fantastic creativity is on display in the region, seen in her people, wildlife, nature and of course, Victoria Falls. 

Why Africa? Because it's one of the most fascinating places on earth, and because Dordt College--located in Iowa--has wonderful Kingdom-building connections in that region and we want to see first-hand what's going on. 

It's going to be an incredible Safari.