don’t have expectations when you go to Africa. i mean it. you can’t actually know what it is like until you’re here, and you can’t actually know what being Jesus to your community is like until you are in the midst of it. for some people they need to be familiar in bold prayers so they can cure the sick and cast out the demons, but for me and my team we have to be rooted so strong in the Word. we need to know who Jesus was so well because we can’t talk about Him at our ministry.
we are working at a refugee camp in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with people that had to flee from the Somalia border. with their families fighting for land and power, thousands fled from villages and found themselves in the capital city. what used to be a corrupt factory was shut down by the mayor and turned into a safe home for these families. rows of tin houses and mothers cooking over fires and families sitting on piles of rocks line the streets of the camp. streets that we have the privilege of walking through and gathering up as many kids who want to play as possible. literally hundreds of them.
as much as i would love to be able to pray with each family or sing worship songs with the kiddos, that isn’t allowed. in order for us to be invited into the camp to spread a little light, we had to agree to not speak about our faith, because it is mostly a muslim population and we are keeping respectful relationships with them.
coming into Africa i like to think i had no expectations. i had been teaching english all over for the majority of the past 6 months and i figured this would be the time something completely random would be thrown into the mix. because of that, the Lord has been having to teach me some new things in order to be His hands and feet even when my mouth is quiet. “Be still.” He has been speaking over me time and time again. “BE still.” rather than DOing His work consciously through conversation and devotions and leading chapel, the Lord is reminding me that BEing who i am in Him is the loudest i could ever shout His name.
as i try to better myself and my faith every day i want to read endless knowledge. my urgent tendancies make me want to be given answers from the wisest writers and prophetic verses. but the Lord is saying no. He is saying know me by just being with me. He is telling me that i know enough about who He is that in order to become the person He has planned in my soul that i just need to be in His presence throughout my day. i don’t need to fight my soul and try to battle demons that attack. EXODUS 14:14 “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
last month in guatemala i bought some souvenirs at a market and the woman gave me a free bracelet as a thank you. when i recieved it i remembered thinking how it had the colors of jewlery we would make in VBS crafts that told the basic gospel story: black is our sin, but right on top is the red of His Blood that covers us. that washes us clean with blue and therefore we are pure white. green is the new life we get to live with Him until we see his glory in heaven as the yellow.
one of the first couple days at the camp i was sitting in the grass with some girls (they’re now my little sisters who greet me first off the bus and last to let go when i leave). i was teaching them colors in english using the bracelet on my wrist. later on as we walked across the cow fields, one of the girls found the exact same bracelet in the grass. later i found out it had fallen off my teammate Caroline’s ankle and she left it so a kid could find it and enjoy it. i tied it onto the little girl’s wrist and she then showed everyone walking by our sick new friendship bracelets. she still wears it every day and makes a point to make them touch as we hold hands.
as much as i would love to pour out the message behind those six colors, i can’t. that’s why it is so important that we follow the life that the Lord walked out in kindness and love and joy and peace and goodness. God told me He will provide someone to fulfill the explanations as long as we continue to just Be Him to the kiddos. i trust that there will be someone in her life that will be able to explain that bracelet to her and lead her to a life with Jesus.
the people living there are curious about why 20 white girls spend their mornings and afternoons around their camp swatting flies away from our eyes and mouths and sitting in fields playing hand games. the people living there KNOW something is different about us, not just the fact that we are from the States. the difference in how we love and treat people is how we can speak out our faith at the camp. the parents constantly thank us for loving their kids, something that can be so lost in their circumstances. parents have even said we love their kids better than some of the families love them. by just BEing who Jesus was, God will lead the people into His comforting arms.
i want to challenge you: before your feet touch the ground in the morning, take ten minutes to be still with the Lord. set your alarm a bit early, sit up, maybe put on some nice mood music. find that place in your mind where you can clear the plans for the day and focus on the character of the goodness of our Father. don’t even talk to Him in your head. feel his presence and let it take your mind, body, and spirit. that cup of coffee will be waiting in the kitchen whether or not you sit with Him, but you may not go into your day focused on the important things if you don’t start it right.
