In the beginning of my journey to find relief, I thought I could offer it to everyone, and save everyone else. An opportunity to spend the summer in Sierra Leone in an orphanage through the mission provided by the church. What’s etched in my mind was the ride from the airport, sitting next to Magnus. I was weeping at the sight of poverty and life I had never known. It must have dawned on me, I thought I was coming there to make some “difference”, impact, the yuckiest truth… save them. 

I laugh now, not a proud laugh, but one of foolishness. The drive to understand and heal and save myself was turned so external I was on another continent offering what? Magnus very gracefully said, after my very honest share… the only thing you are “expected” to bring is love. The only “poverty” this place I was visiting was the absence of love. 

Turns out when you love, it’s not just saving another, it’s saving yourself. 

When the “work” started sticking I saw the possibility of relief with more information, self-study, and how to wake up from my own sleepy life and change. My life didn’t have to look like the lives I had seen, and as far as I was concerned, neither did theirs, and I was going to save them! 

Laugh my ass off! Log story short, trying to wake folks up by jumping on their bed and screaming the sun is shining isn’t great for me or them. So here I am sharing in a place where those who care find it, just like I did from teachers. 

As the quote says, “Your liberation is bound up in mine”