After two months on the Zambia team, Regan Kramer writes from her home in the States:

The biggest thing I appreciated about African culture is the acceptance of spiritual things. No one ever looked at you weirdly for talking about Jesus. No one doubted there were angels, demons, and life after death...We may be very in tune with the physical realm, but I feel like we've made a poor trade by ignoring and often rejecting the spiritual realm, something they understand and accept.

I think one of the reasons that contribute to this sensitivity to the spiritual nature of life is the fact that death is a very real reality in Africa. When people get sick in the US, you just expect them to go to a hospital and with time, get better. But not so in Zambia...people are forced to confront death in the society around them often...That's just one lesson.

Another thing is, people often tell me how incredible what I did was and all...but to be honest, it's easier to be a Christian in Africa than America for me. You don't have the media constantly in your face telling you what you must have or look like to be content in life...In Africa, you have time to slow down, to really talk to people, to reflect on life. This has been the hardest thing about coming home—how fast paced everything is. We go, go, go. We have things to accomplish, agendas to fulfill. I'm all for productivity, but it's so so easy to get lost in all we are busy accomplishing. And so, it's being home where I feel the real challenge is to follow Christ, not in a village with no electricity.

Which leads me to two of the most simple truths of Christianity:

1. We MUST take time to seek God. To spend more than 5 or 10 minutes a day in prayer. This is the only way. There's no iPhone app for a quick and easy relationship with God. But as you take time, and he begins teaching you and working in your heart, it's SO worth it. It's not just a blissful high, but its true peace and true joy grounded in reality.

2. My life is not my own. One of the biggest reasons people have such great experiences going on mission trips is because while you're there you are very aware of your purpose: to seek God, to serve others, to learn, to grow. But when we come home...things get comfortable, we get back to "our" life, our agenda....

By God's grace, I pray he will continue to remind me that I have given up my life and it is not my own. Jesus tells us to count the cost of following him (Luke 14:28-33). For me, that's laying down my agenda for the day, my priorities, my money, my reputation in order to be a part of what He wants to do and is doing in this world.

And he said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me sake will save it." Luke 9:23-24