Today’s thoughts are brought to you by Kristen….
The word of today was without a doubt…faith. When I woke up this morning, I had no idea what our beautiful, incredible Father had in store for us or the truth that would be heard. All week, we have been blessed to love on these beautiful children and the bomake (pronounced bo mah gay) at the Care Pointe. It has been intense bringing most of us to tears at the life these children lead, some with kids strapped to their own backs. It is hard to fathom, even being in the midst of it, that this is an actual reality. But it is, and we, without second thought, want to launch into fix-it mode.
We ask, ‘how can this happen, where is the root of the problem, what can we do to change the situation? There must be one answer that will end all of these problems….if everyone in America alone gave just one dollar we could change the world.’ But would that really solve it if we could?
We live in an imperfect world and it is through the imperfections, through our weakness that God is made perfect and strong. Through these situations that we in America view as problematic, it in reality opens up a world of vulnerability and beauty that I had lost sight of. It opens up the opportunity to be real, rely on others and truly see our King at work. I think we pity them, when perhaps we are the ones who should be pitied. All human needs are the same. Fears are the same. Sins are the same. Our Saviour is the same. The thing that separates us is our affluence. Which honestly, in Africa, there is more love and care and faith I think because they rely on the Lord to provide because He is their option.
It reminds me of a prayer from Solomon in the Bible that asks God to not give him too much so that he might brag and be prideful but also to not give too little so that he steals for what he needs, and we seem to have both these extremes in the world. We all need to help one another because all that we have been given is by God and from God and for God.
“Yet I call this to mind and therefore I have hope: because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I will say to myself, ‘the Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him. The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him.” Lamentations 3:21-25
Today was a special day in so many ways but particularly, the highlight of the team’s day was the homestead visits. We were honored to be welcomed in to two homes. The first was of an grandfather who lived on the homestead with his daughter-in-law and three grand children. He was 93 years old. He slept on the floor of a small hut made of mud. He told us he had only heard rumors of Jesus Christ. We were able to tell him the truth about Christ and lay hands on him and pray for him that God would help him to believe and to heal him. We also laid hands on his granddaughter who had stopped attending school because her legs hurt terribly on the inside and she couldn’t walk. God prompted me to be the one who prayed for her, because my faith was small. We were told to pray expectantly knowing God would heal her, and I realized in that moment how weak my faith was because I had believed a lie. In that moment I stepped off the ledge. I prayed expectantly, and I cannot wait to hear that God has healed her and she can go back to school.
Our second home visit was a beautiful make (mah gay) who had 5 children living in her home. Her husband had abandoned them for another wife. That broke me. She makes grass mats for her income, hand sewing and weaving them. We gave both homesteads gifts of food and soap and the “mah gay” immediately raised her hands to the sky and with tears flooding down said “Siyabonga Jesu” which means Thank You Jesus! Top three of the most amazing moments in my life.
This was a sad day too because it was our last full day at our Care Pointe in Njojane (besides church on Sunday). There were tears shed on so many levels today, but God is alive and well and He is loving and moving far more than we can even begin to understand. Praise God for His mercies and passions and choosing this team to be His hands and feet. Thank you to all who are following and praying and have made this trip a possibility for us. You too are the hands and feet of our Father.
