So yeah my last post was pretty depressing. It was an expression of how I was feeling at the time, and how I’ve been feeling mostly since we’ve been to Africa. Things are getting a little better here. Nothing too special happened this weekend. Saturday we volunteered at an orphanage and I was able to encourage some of the older children to continue on their education at the university level. Kevin and I both preached on Sunday. I believe God spoke through both of us he certainly had a plan in place because I preached at the first service which was filled with mostly members. I preached on the beatitudes and it was certainly directed at those who knew Jesus. Kevin preached on finding your identity in Christ and his was more of an evangelical sermon and two visitors came to faith in Christ.
One particular lady who came to faith in Christ yesterday was very special to us. Her house burned down monday and pastor Joseph was able to use us to buy some food and clothes for her and her family. The church blessed her family and others affected by the fire all week. When she was sharing sunday morning she was telling us how much it meant to her that we cared for her in her distress. This to me was an incredible picture of what the body of Christ should look like everywhere, all the time. Amazingly there were around more people at church sunday morning than usual and we believe this was due to all the evangelism and outreach we were able to do over the week.
This morning Kevin and I were sharing with kids at the private school in the neighborhood. One girl asked me if it was hard to leave my family to come on the trip. I told her yes, but in my quick to give an answer stage said “But Jesus Christ died for my sins, so leaving my family is a small price for me to pay.” This was something I haven’t really thought much about lately. It was one of those sayings that you say before you really mean it. I have been reflecting on that statement all day and it is helping me turn my thoughts around from my own feelings and preferences to seeing this trip as wholly about Him and not me. Hopefully God will use this confession and the people around me to bring me back to the joy I’ve experienced before.
Sorry there are no pictures. I have not taken any in Africa and I have been unable to get any of the girls pictures. Hopefully in the next couple of days I can fix this and come back and add some pictures to these blogs. So keep checking in. God bless.
