The green tarp.
We drove through the bush of Mozambique on the back of a truck through the dusty, dry backcountry to arrive at a large green tarp, aka the Temane Orphanage.
Not quite what I imagined when I
thought of an orphanage.
We all had our ideas of what Africa would look like, what orphanages would look like.
And this was not what I had pictured even remotely.
Here we were with our bags, in the middle of nowhere, by a large green tarp with 20 some odd kids, no running water, no electricity…our home and our family for the next week.
We set up our tents and stuff and then met the children.
Some of the kids had homes and families in the area, but their families could not afford to care for them.
Others had none.
We came with no plans and God was really quiet that week.
So, what do you do, when God takes away your words?
When God takes away the ability to communicate verbally?
Its frustrating.
You start to realize how much you depend on words to express love, to express care, to express anything.
Somewhere in our churched minds, we thought that being a Christian meant being public relations people for Jesus.
Name dropping for Jesus, wearing Christian t-shirts, saying churchy stuff, doing big stuff for Jesus, like doing big tent revivals, etc.
Sometimes loving Jesus looks like that, but other times it’s a lot simpler than that.
Sometimes, God just wants us to love in a really simple and quiet way.
The greatest command is to love one another, isn’t it?
Love believe it or not is more powerful than wearing a Christian t-shirt or dropping Jesus’ name here and there in conversation.
The week at the tarp was not what we pictured.
But did the kids experience the love of Jesus, even without our words?
We walked away feeling like what the heck we never “presented the gospel”, but we did.
It just was in a way that was different.
It was holding the hand of one of God’s little creations, teaching a child how to give and receive a hug, walking through the backcountry of Mozambique and singing “thank you Jesus”, painting a picture for a child, and just sitting with a child and letting them know they are worth stopping for and sitting with.
Somebody really wise and godly once said, “Greater than the need for food is the need for love.”
Funny how God had to take us to a big green tarp and show us His face through these little ones.
