I have so many stories I could tell, but I’m not really sure which one to pick for this blog. We’ve been doing so much door to door ministry and met so many wonderful people and seen so many beautiful things, I just don’t know where to start. So I guess I’ll tell you one where I was most encouraged to be here.
I mentioned before that door to door ministry has definitely been an adjustment for me and it’s actually been very difficult to remember my purpose in it. Seeing people for such short periods of time and leaving them with nothing but a quick prayer for their struggles we talked about with them for about ten minutes, it’s just not the way we view ministry in America, you know? In America we’re very big on relationships first because we basically have to earn people’s good opinion before they’ll listen to us about the Gospel, but it’s just different here.
So we would go out from about 9 to noon, eat lunch, go back out at 2 and end around 5 in the evening, and I would go to bed just wondering how much am I actually doing for these people? Then the Lord really helped me see the value in the joy in our ministry. My teammates Kristy and Jessica, our contact William, another man helping translate named Tyson, and myself were out talking with a nearby headman and his wife about their problems and about if they knew Jesus and those kinds of things. It was a nice enough conversation and the wife was being really open and honest with us, and then Tyson asked us to ask the woman about her dreams. He has this personal “tactic” (his term) to ask people about their dreams because he thinks if you have bad dreams then you aren’t saved and that you don’t have the Holy Spirit. As a person who had nightmares of the witch from Snow White, this obviously didn’t sit well with me, o my teammates. Jessica gets nightmares from eating MSG. Nightmares happen, doesn’t mean you aren’t a Christian.
He had asked me to use this “tactic” and we all were sort of saying that we weren’t comfortable with it and he kept pushing a little and I finally just asked him, “Do you never have nightmares? You personally have never had a bad dream?” and he said he had and I said, “And you’re saved right?” and he of course responded that he was and he finally dropped the matter. I’m praying that little conversaton wil forever stop him from using that method.
We went on with our day and with our ministry and when we were walking back for lunch I was chatting with William and he told me that he was very encouraged by what I had said to Tyson. He said that I had given him the courage to give constructive criticism to his fellow African where he had previously felt he couldn’t, and that I was a blessing to him in that. So he gave me my very own African name, Madalitso. (Sounds like mah-daw-lee-so). It means Blessing. I was so overwhelmed by his encouragement. How special that a tiny conversation of just pointing out some wrongs would mean so much to someone else? Enough to consider me a blessing?
The Lord just kept confirming that I was a blessing after that. We would do follow ups with people and they would tell us how much joy we had given them just by being there and listening to their lives for a little while. They called us the Nyanja word for friends now, I can’t spell it but it sounds like “sweetas”. We really do have a purpose in the little things here. Teaching the kids a new clapping game or singing a song or dancing with them or visiting a woman and having her teach us how they peel pumpkin leaves or praying over someones pain or seizures or praying over someone’s marriage or even just having someone be open about having trouble finding the desire to go to church. The Lord has us here for a purpose and it’s much greater than I can piece together in my earthly mind. I know that He is orchestrating greatness for His kingdom through all of these little blessings.
I suppose I’ll end this story for now I hope to blog more frequently but internet in Africa is a bit difficult as you might imagine. Seriously let me know in the comments if there’s anything you want to hear about, even if you just really want to know about the conditions or whatever, I’ll do my best to oblige!
