Life, such a wonderful thing! So wonderful that I have gotten caught up in it and gotten myself way behind on blogs. I will post blogs from the last two months of ministry eventually, but want to catch you up to speed on what I am doing now! I have been in Africa for a little over a month! Currently, we are in Livingstone, Zambia, working with YWAM (Youth With A Mission). We go out each morning and walk the streets of the slums. We stop wherever we feel called and share the good news to whoever will listen. The houses are tiny and built one right next to another. We sing out ‘Oh-dee,’ which is the word you use to greet people at their homes. Generally, they joyfully greet us back and then scramble to find us stools or chairs or a small bench to sit on. Often times, they give up their own seat and sit on the ground. It is a beautiful reminder to me of serving one another in love as Jesus illustrated when He washed the feet of the apostles. Next, we introduce ourselves and ask them what they know of Jesus. We ask the Holy Spirit to come and then share the Gospel, telling them all about who Jesus is, what He did for us, and who He calls us to be. It is a beautiful thing to share the Gospel because it brings it more fully into my own reality and connects me to it in a new way. I am always learning as I share. I love it when a random Bible story comes to mind while I am talking, and the next thing I know, it is tumbling out of my mouth and I somehow tie it back to the Gospel and what I was saying before. I love the unplanned nature of evangelism and how I have to tune into what God wants me to say and not what I want to say. At the same time, it terrifies me! I rather like being prepared, but I am realizing more and more that God has prepared me for this. He has prepared me through my past and through what I am currently learning through scripture, prayer, and church.
I wanted to share a piece from my journal a couple of days ago, so here you go:
We were singing earlier & I was just listening, as I didn’t know the words. Rain pounded down on the tin roof, joining in with the melody. I tuned into all the different sounds around me: Jacques, the Frenchman, singing sounds from his soul, Sanwell playing the guitar and Michael the drums, and mother nature singing right along. It was beautiful and brought joy to my heart – pierced my heart with joy really and I started to tear up. As my eyes watered, I looked at the rain and saw that they were God’s tears, they were tears of joy – there was more than just joy that I was feeling and seeing though, and I couldn’t quite place my finger on what it was. An image from the movies came to my mind, of tears falling on people and bringing new life, specifically in the movie Maleficent, when her tear falls on Sleeping Beauty. Her tears were ones of true love, the single thing that had the power to break the curse. I realized what it was that the feeling of joy could not fully encompass. It was God’s love – the truest and purest love there is. I was feeling love, His love. And just as Sleeping Beauty awakes, so God is also awakening this people of Zambia with new life. The beauty (aka the Holy Spirit) that was sleeping and in many hearts has been stuffed down is being reawoken and coming new life in Him. And as His Spirit comes to life in so many, so does His love. The moment was glorious and powerful.
I love the symbolism of rain: Water doesn’t just touch things, it drenches them, getting inside of them. It makes the world new and brings life. It has an affect and people notice it. He brought that moment of rawness and let the beauty of it seep into me and touch my soul. I feel that He was tapping into and reminding me of who I am as His daughter, filling me with the Spirit and the fruits of His Spirit: “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” ~Galatians 5:22-23. Gentleness especially stood out to me because I felt so vulnerably known in that moment, and I was reminded of the gentle spirit of a little girl who loved all things beautiful and girly and pink and still does – the girl who was a dreamer, who only saw the good and potential in people, who saw light in everything. As I continue evangelizing this month, I pray that I will tap into that rawness, the love that is unconditional and selfless, the agápé that the Holy Spirit let me experience today, but I also hope to tap into the daughter that I am and tap into my dreamer side who only sees good, just as “God saw all that He had made and it was very good.” ~Gen. 1:31. I pray that I will tap into the new rains of His love and keep my heart open, the side of me that sees the light, the potential of God and the Holy Spirit to bring about healing and conviction and a change of heart. Let the many sleeping beauties of Livingstone, Zambia be awoken by the truest of loves, awoken to new life in Christ, and filled with the Spirit to live eternally ever after. Amen.
In Christ’s Love,
Meagan
Ps. The final deadline is here and I am almost fully funded. I am so close! I trust that God will provide and invite you to consider partnering with me to continue spreading the good news abroad. Thank you for joining me on this journey! Be blessed!
