Shawna's passionate trip to South Africa :)

Hi Kajij’s it’s my turn to write about my passions and interests, and I’ll do so in the context of my recent trip to Durban, South Africa. When it comes to knowing myself, I’ve found that I’m actually a little like Dori from Finding Nemo who’s always forgetting everything. So this has been another great opportunity to re-re-re-discover what God’s placed in my heart, the way he’s wired me. I will say that overall I think that I have maybe only a couple overarching passions but almost a list of “things I want to do while I’m alive” which we kind of talked about at Michelle’s last time. One overarching passion is about economy and getting the most out of every situation, so maybe that will come through as I write about these other interests on my check list of life.

So the trip in itself related to a major thing that I want to do sometime. I’ve got a book on my shelf from college that a leader in a Christian Fellowship lent me (Kim - don’t tell Evan!) called “Working Your Way to the Nations”. It’s about the concept of “tent making”, using your profession to get to other parts of the world to spread the kingdom of God. I liked the idea of using what I’d learned in school in this way (see that economy thing?). I studied Biology and I originally wanted to do field studies in some other area of the world. However, when I decided to get married to Brian I wasn’t sure how that whole interest would play out, it’s hard to make something like that work as a newlywed. However, it just so happens that Brian also has the same interest. Enter his company, Turbocam, and the potential start of a new division in South Africa. Our whole trip this past February was to get a glimpse of what life was like there and to “hear from God” about whether this was a move we should make or not.

We were only on the ground for seven days so we had to be selective in what we did. My top two priorities were to visit a local church plant in the same family of churches as our church in NH and to visit the Botanical Gardens in Durban. The rest of the time we spent on the beach, replacing lost luggage, going to the aquarium, visiting a township with a team to teach a life-skills lesson at a school, and overall just enjoying each others company.

Brian and I are passionate about serving in local churches and so if we were to move there we’d need to feel in agreement with the vision and direction of the local church (it’s hard to find words for this, we’d have to “click”, or something), like we could be a part of what they were already doing. The church we visited is just newly formed, it was great to be able to visit on a Sunday for their meeting, go to a homegroup mid-week and also have dinner with the family leading the plant. We came away with the sense that it was definitely something that we could join up with. They’ve got a vision to see a truly multi-ethnic body formed and it’s already happening. I’ll mention one thing related to my passions that I discovered through the experience of visiting the church. Although there was a great diversity in nationalities represented, I actually felt sad as we were worshiping because there was very little diversity in terms of economic status. I missed the poor. To me everyone seemed either pretty middle class or a student at the local university. I found myself fantasizing about sending a passionate homeless person on a missions trip because God’s given them things to share around the world too. I think the experience caused me to re-realize how much I value being around the poor. In South Africa there are plenty of poor, they are in fact much poorer than here in the US, it’s amazing really the difference. After talking with the couple leading the church I know that their heart is to see them included as well.

One morning while Brian was exploring a potential work connection I went to the Botanical Gardens, my second priority. I absolutely love plants and could spend tons of time studying the tiny differences that make them technically different from each other. My primary goal at the Gardens was to determine if the Herbarium needed any volunteers. That’s where they store all the pressed plant samples for comparison in these huge upright filing cabinets. It’s one of the things my list to do while I’m alive - to work/volunteer in one (actually being able to help collect the plants in the field would be an off the charts experience, in my book). I was able to connect with a helpful individual there who said that there were plenty of volunteer opportunities. Yeah! After determining that, I just wandered around the gardens marveling in the fact that these cool tropical plants were actually native there. I think that plants just tell so much of God’s creativity, studying them, in my experience has lead to worshiping Him.

I probably should wrap this up – this is a just little snap shot of what I’m passionate about. I actually don’t know if the opportunity in South Africa will work out at this point. The question lies more with the actual business potential rather than our hearts to be involved. I believe that at the right time God will provide opportunities to do these things I’ve mentioned and I’m looking for them, and waiting for them.