One Year Later...

It has been one year since I crawled up the beast that is Africa's rooftop, Kilimanjaro, and one year since I witnessed the heart of Jesus as I never have before by watching some of Kenya's youth sing worship songs. It is crazy to think that it has already been one year. 365 days have passed.

Several weeks ago someone asked me to write something on why, after a year, I still want to talk about those kids and that climb and why I still want to raise money for the people of Africa. My hope was to write something really awesome, challenging to all the people that read it, and profound. But the fact is, the reason it has taken me so long to write this is because I don't really have an answer to the prompt.

Venture Expeditions gave me the opportunity to do something incredible and I was affected by what I saw in Africa. I was affected in a way that could not have happened unless I signed those papers and purchased those plane tickets. It was more than just a trip. It was a challenge to change the way I live.

The raw truth is this: I saw kids eating my leftover chips out of a trash pile. I saw graves of men who died giving their lives to carry the backpacks of hikers like me up Kili. I saw houses made out of cardboard and neighborhoods that are so dangerous even the government will not enter them.

So, why, after one year, do I still raise money for the people of Africa? The best answer I can come up with is this: I want those kids to enjoy their own bags of chips.