I had always heard that things move slowly in Africa. But they don’t, at least not for us. For us things have raced at breakneck speed: a good thing, since we’re here to be part of Hands at Work reaching 100,000 children by 2010. But sometimes it feels too fast, too much to take in. There are so few of us trying to manage this thing, we can barely comprehend it.

At the end of ’08 we were taking on new villages monthly. That means mobilizing, training, supporting, constructing, communicating with local people in those villages as they start caring for widows, orphans and the dying. And the pace keeps rising: through ’09 and ’10 it’ll grow to almost two new villages per week. We’re like the skin of a balloon getting pumped with too much air: stretching, but get ready for the big bang.

I feel that way now because I’m tired. It sounds melodramatic, but I feel like we’ve passed through a battle. Now we’re resting, preparing to get back in. But I’m worried. I did what I had to do or at least I did all I could do to get through 2008. It felt like survival. I’ve seen it in the Congo: for years people did what they had to do just to get through the disgusting war. And when the opportunity for peace came, they couldn’t adjust. Enough of the wrong people failed to make the transition to a new time and so war continues on.

I know 2009 is a new year. I know much of the work we did in 2008 was more than survival, was laying a ground work to prepare for 2009. 2009 will be different. But I wonder if I can make the transition. I was barely strong enough to make it through 2008. My thinking and my way of working are still back there. If they don’t transition, I’ll be the one holding us back.

In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus said this: No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. 17Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.