I need Africa more than Africa needs me

I realized after I posted this that I needed to be a little clearer in my description :)

I was asked by an organization called Mocha Club to write about the statement "I need Africa more than Africa needs me." They are a community-based website where visitors can give $7 a month (the cost of 2 mochas) to support a project in Africa. Journalism students at CBU are using this opportunity to spread the word about their organization: 

At this very moment, the Africa I experienced over a year and a half ago still exists. While I sit in class, Eveline and Sofia do as well. In the middle of Mathare surrounded by the world of shanties and AIDS, their smiles are etched in my mind forever, as I stress in my cottage over unwritten papers.

I become numb to a greater reality, that life in Africa awakened me to.

Is there something in the air, or in the soil that changes my perception? Or is it simply the reality of life around me. The suffering of life, and joy of spirit, that makes me aware of life beyond the task list of the day.

It is the hard things of life that awaken me to that reality. Death, sickness, hurt and struggles. These things touch emotions that otherwise go unturned. But there are opposites of these as well that serve the same effect. Life, health, joy and peace. In Kenya I saw glimpses of these as well, which brought a brighter sense of reality. A sense of purpose and belonging.

There are so many situations going on in Africa at this moment.

President Carter recently commented on the intense state of Zimbabwe. The Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo is multiplying, and the crisis in Darfur continues. Change is needed. The nations are crying out for hope and for true change. The answer to the call lies in Jesus Christ alone.

So do I need Africa more than Africa needs me?

I think the answer is that we both need Christ.

Neither of us will answer the problems of the other.

While I may not be the cure to poverty, the kingdom of God is the cure for desperation of Africa, and my own desperation to truly live.

So now i pose the question to you: Africa is more than faces of pity and hopelessness,