Africa and Japan: Putting Things in Perspective

If you've been following my comments section, you know Brett is back from Africa now.

It's interesting to read his thoughts on his blog. Like this piece:

i've had some request to post some stories of Africa. I have a couple funny ones, but mostly the experience was just hard (until we got the hang of it). hard to eat, hard to get anywhere, hard to understand, hard to get water, hard to even poop...it was a real learning experience. i've never been any place where there weren't any stores. we had to buy food before venturing into the bush...but it's not like we had a refrigerator. so it was mostly cans of stuff, macaroni and oatmeal. we could buy rice, bread, and tomato paste locally, but i mostly just felt hungry all the time. it was good for me to have to trust on God a bit more than I feel I have to at home

You ever notice that when you have something on your mind, it has the weird tendency to pop up in the conversation a lot more, even with out you doing it? Or is that just me?

Anyway, we were out the other night with a group of the boys, and we had just finished dinner, and had each ordered a Chocolate Sunday and a coffee, and someone else was just talking about their friend who had just returned from a mission trip in Africa, and I mentioned I had a friend who had just returned as well. And somebody said, "It really helps to put things in perspective, doesn't it? We complain in Japan all the time because we get confused by the language, or we can't find deep dish pizza, but is nothing like the experience of being out in the middle of the bush in Africa." As I took another bite of chocolate and whip cream, I thought about how true that is.