Whose vision for Africa?

As I have thought and prayed about my BIG African family over the years, a recurring image has frequently come into my mind. I have seen a big map of the continent of Africa, as if shaped like a human heart. Down the left side a huge, horrifying dagger, dripping with blood, is tearing the continent apart.

Since God has given me a love for Africa, I have asked Him repeatedly what this meant. Why should He give me or allow me to have such a horrifying vision for a place and a people that are so much on my heart?

He showed me that this is not His vision for Africa. This is the enemy's vision. (I am a Christian. The enemy I am talking about is not any person or group of people. It is Satan, a spirit being who rebelled against God.) God was showing me what the enemy intended for Africa. It wasn't easy or pleasant, but as a mother of Africa, I needed to know and understand.

As I watched in my mind's eye, the dagger turned to a cross. It too, was dripping with blood, but this blood brought not death, but healing.

God was showing me that my beloved African children were going to suffer greatly. But He saw it. He had not forgotten them. He had already sent His Son to shed His blood to provide their healing.

When I first began to live and work in Africa 27 years ago, I could not have envisioned the sufferings that lay ahead for my African family. The terrible Congolese wars were yet ahead. I met only a warm, welcoming, peace-loving people. The Rwandan holocaust was unforeseen. The long war of northern Sudan against its southern regions was just brewing. The slaughter of Joseph Kony's LRA army in northern Uganda was not even thought of. The AIDS epidemic had not yet decimated countries. Millions of now orphaned children lived peacefully with the families. But God knew the sufferings ahead. He knew how wicked men would use the precious gift He had given them--freedom to choose. His heart ached.

Was it the heart of Africa I saw bleeding, or was it the heart of God Himself?