Every morning before leaving for our various jobs, the group ate breakfast together followed by a few words from our group leader and a couple songs sung together as a group. The songs were simple choruses, most I had heard before, and probably not paid much attention. There is nothing like context to make something ordinary stand out in a way that it never has before. I know I listened and really heard the words more on those mornings, accompanied by one soft acoustic guitar than I had before, even at large conferences with professional light and sound and 3000+ other voices. It was truly meaningful. But when I got home it became even more meaningful. The Sunday after I arrived home, a college music group was visiting and leading songs that morning. I'm not usually a big fan of those kind of groups. They seem a little cheesy and way too in-your-face happy, especially early in the morning. They began leading music and I looked over at my husband and said, "We sang this in Africa." That happened with at least 3 songs in the first minutes of the service. I had left Africa, but it had not left me. By the time the group began Chris Tomlin's Our God is Greater, I had tears rolling down my cheeks and I had lifted my hands up in awe. Every week (with maybe one exception) for 6 weeks after I returned, that song was sung on Sunday morning. It has become my Africa song...the song that takes my heart back there.
"And if our God is for us
Then who could ever stop us
And if our God is with us
Then what can stand against."
In many ways, the people of Africa have a lot that is against them, but God is for them and God is with them.
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