An unexpected gift from friends got us thinking: where could our pooled generosity make the most impact? As it turns out, the answer involved shipping containers, East Africa, and a joyful reminder that it’s always an honor to pay the bill.

You might recall that last month, I wrote about asking God whether my Africa trips and work were important, needed, and meaningful. What follows is the story of a friend who asked the very same question—Should I be here? Same storyline, just different details.

Wide awake at 2AM in a Nairobi hotel, I found myself asking—is this really worth it? In this post, I share some honest thoughts about generosity, purpose, and how a quiet prayer turned into a very loud answer the next morning.

From missed flights and lost luggage to life-giving connections and tangible impact, this year’s Africa trip was the most challenging—and rewarding—yet.

Paddy, Jason and I (Phil) just completed a one day adventure in Denver! This day was given to meeting the following three amazing people and learning about their work, while we continue to explore how best we can serve!

After our 9/22 visit to Malawi we agreed that PurposeBOX would choose 5 rural villages to provide a Micro Power System (3KVA solar/battery/inverter).

This system is as simple as possible and scaled to provide enough power to run a small grain mill for a couple of hours a day and light up a class room for young students to study.

Saturday afternoon Oct 1st I returned home from 2 weeks in Africa. Below is my trip report. It’s not particularly polished but does tell the story. I hope it resonates:

What started as a casual lunch conversation over a year ago developed into the first PurposeBOX!

Well it’s 6 am. Deborah is sleeping. I started on this note to you all but the power went off. So Wi-Fi is dead. Then a generator started outside our room.

Folks this last weekend I returned from a week and a half in Africa, more specifically the Chibombo District several hours north of Lusaka, Zambia and Ndalani, a rural area about 2 ½ hrs north and west of Nairobi, Kenya.