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by Mary-Kate Martin (Author)
My pale, Wisconsin skin glistens under the African sun. A stabbing itch on my back hip distracts me from the heat as I walk to our volunteer house. The needle-piercing pain won't subside, so I ask my friend to look at the bug bite.
"It's alive!" she gasps and squeezes a tiny worm out of my skin. What I thought was a strange mosquito bite is something far worse. Skin maggots burrowed in my flesh! I cry. I'm mortified, angry, exhausted, and I'm tempted to go back home. I clearly don't belong here.
But a greater resolve returns that night as I try to sleep. Africa - it gets under your skin, a phrase Pastor Reggie told me before I left. It's not just Africa; it's her. It's her cries and her prayers burrowed far beneath the surface. She calls to Him, and He calls to me. And it runs deeper than skin. In this moment I realize there is no backing out-not now, not ever. Africa is under my skin, and it's soul-deep. Whatever it takes, I am coming for you, my promise to Sarah echoes in the night.
Mary-Kate Martin is a teacher by profession and missionary by calling. Her childhood dream was to be the first female NFL player and achieve stardom as a wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers. She settled for being a small-town teacher with God-sized dreams instead.
Originally from the Midwest, she later left her fulfilling career as a teacher to follow her calling as a missionary in eSwatini, Africa. She co-founded Hosea's Heart, a safe home ministry, where she currently lives, managing the ministry, teaching, writing, coaching basketball, and being a mother to many. As the author of Never Been Kissed, a poignant memoir of discovering self-worth amidst rejection, she has a passion for restoring purity and inspiring hope, defining messages in her life's work through writing, speaking, and nonprofit leadership.
