safari day

Yesterday afternoon, Madelyn asked me to get her little bin of "fari animals" (toddler translation: safari) out for her to play with. After literally two or more hours of her making them hunt for food, building homes for their babies and practicing up on the roars and growls, I thought she might enjoy watching an animal documentary. Her only visual exposure so to these animals has been via the zoo (which we haven't been to in a few months) and the Lion King as far as how they interact and move.

I found an Animal Planet African Safari episode on Netflix and turned it on. She didn't seem in to it at first, but I sure was. It took me right back to Africa.

I remember a conversation I had with Luke leading up to the trip when I heard that we were possibly going on a safari one of the days. "This makes no sense. I honestly think a safari might be neat, but I can't imagine going half way around the world to meet Emmanuel and all those amazing people and spend a whole day looking at animals. (Insert sassy tone of voice) We have a zoo." I can't believe I actually said all that, much less typed it out, but it's the truth. I said it. Up until the day before we actually went on the safari, I thought it was actually just a possibility. I was still a little disappointed and internally (my teammates may beg to disagree on the internally part, but I was trying hard to keep my negativity to myself) pouty right up until the moment when we saw this.

An elephant? Seriously! There's this massive creature 25 yards from me. Eating and roaming and doing it's thing. Did I mention it was only 25 yards from me?

When I saw that elephant it was as if the scripture that I had tucked away in my heart as a small child, taught to various groups of kids through the years and most recently my own, came alive!

"And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good." Genesis 1: 24-25

It was captivating!! To see the creeping things and the beasts and the living creatures that God spoke in to it's very existence was faith building for me!

 

I felt myself continually thinking, "Praise you Father!". Here we were, standing in awe of the works of His hands.

The safari was broken up in to two parts; the first half was on land, the second on water. Our guides for both parts were awesome.  Part of the water we were on led to the border between Uganda and the Congo.

As Madelyn and I watched the documentary yesterday I kept blurting out, "Madelyn, Mommy saw that in person when she went to Africa! And that too! Oh and that one!!". She kept looking at me like I was crazy, but I couldn't help but be excited.

What a humbling experience and a reminder of how marvelous all that He has created truly is! I am thankful that despite my moaning and groaning he allowed me to experience something so awesome!