Sometimes God does amazing things even when you resist His
work.
Today, we set out to do our first round of door-to-door
Evangelism in Tanzania. I wasn’t too worried since we had gotten a lot of
practice last month in Uganda. When we finally settled in at the first house
and introduced ourselves though, the awkward moment came. Our translator asked,
“Does anyone have anything to share?” Of course everyone looked around at each
other with blank expressions, hoping someone else would step up (we only have one
translator so our whole team goes on visits together). I chimed in with,”…well
I don’t really, but I can find something if no one else does…” No one else said
a word, so, a little resistant, I opened to Ephesians 2:4-9 and had our
translator read it in Swahili.
For the next several minutes, I shared with the three women
who sat on the cement floor across form us, (they had offered us all of their
chairs in the room) about Jesus’ love for us. I explained that though we don’t
deserve to receive his grace and mercy in our lives, He loves us so much that
He wants us to have a personal relationship with Him. There’s nothing that we
could have done to remedy for the fact that we have already sinned, but Jesus’
sacrifice on the cross was payment for the punishment we deserve to serve. As I
told the women that God thinks they are special and beautiful, one of the women
spoke up. With glassy eyes, Agnes said that she wanted to have a personal
relationship with Jesus, but that she worked in a bar and as a prostitute to
feed and provide for her children. How could she live this way, yet follow
Jesus?
So much for a light round of door-to-door…
I suddenly looked at this woman in a new light. A love for
her began to grow. I felt so much compassion for her and I had to hold myself
together to not start crying. Here I was sitting with a woman who has so little
that she must sell her body, her pride, her dignity- just so that her children
can have full bellies and a roof over their heads.
The question lingered for a moment as I wondered what to
say. Then I just felt a whisper, that she would be okay. I told her that when
we draw near to God, He will draw near to us. If she wanted to pursue Christ
and follow after Him, He would provide for her. I wish I could relay the whole
conversation so you could get a better picture of all that was said, but
basically I just encouraged her that sometimes God wants us to take a leap of
faith before we can fall into His arms. We often hold on so tight to the things
that we think we need in life- we think we know what’s best for us. But in the
end, God’s plans are better and it just takes giving it all up and letting go
of what we call “security,” to allow God’s better plan to shine.
No language barrier could hide the real emotion and feeling
in the eyes of these three women. Hope. At the end of our visit, they all
wanted us to pray a general prayer for them, but asked to come visit us at our
house so they could talk more personally (I think it had something to do with
the boys being with us) and ask more questions. I am so excited to see how the
Lord moves in these relationships. As we walked out of the house today, my
teammate Amber and I just kept looking at each other, shaking our heads, and
saying “I love them!”
Crazy how God shows up even when you don’t think to ask Him
to.
