Imagine walking through a poor Zambian village with me made of dirt roads, trash filling what they have of streets, flower bushes withered from lack of water, kids running through the street with no shoes kicking a ball made of paper and trash, women busy carrying large bundles on their heads, cooking, and washing clothes as they sit on the ground outside, some houses with only cloth hanging where doors and windows should be.
I didn’t always grow up with a lot and I’ve ministered to the homeless back home, but I have never personally experienced such a state of poverty. What do you tell a person when they don’t know where their next meal is coming from , when they just lost a child, their husband walked out on them, or when they are dying of AIDs and don’t know which day is their last?
How do you begin to tell someone who Jesus is who has never heard of Him before? Or again, what do you say to someone who has heard of Him but is living in such a place of desolation?
Sometimes words cannot express the amount of pain I saw in the faces and hearts of the people we talked with throughout the villages and streets. Sometimes I wanted to run and bawl my eyes out because I wish I could take away all their pain and tell them there would be no more suffering… Some didn’t understand how we could come from the States where we are blessed with homes, cars, jobs, food, and running water and then show up at their house and tell them about God. Surely the God of America is not the same God of Zambia. It’s easy to believe in God when you have so much, but it’s hard to believe in God when you have nothing. Who are we to speak into their lives?
The question daunted me until it pushed me to dig deep enough to find the answer.
I am no one. I am not a doctor who can cure you nor a fairy who can take all your worries away. I have no words to say that can ease your pain. I can share with you my struggles and relate to you on some levels, but that alone has no power, it would just be like me picking up a bottle of wine and getting drunk with you while we wallow in our sorrows together.
So why? Why was I here? What right do I have to come from a blessed country to people who have nothing and dare to tell them to hope? What do I have to give them?
While I am no one of importance, just a commoner, and I am not rich, I have no wealth to give, there is one thing I have and one reason I am here: the Hope of Jesus Christ.
Peter said it best, “…Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”
I may never be able to relate to any of these people on the level of their pain, but I can share with them the only reason I am still standing here today, and that is Jesus Christ, and He makes all the difference.
He knows all of their struggles, all of their pain, and He sacrificed Himself on the cross for them. That’s beautiful and we all need to know salvation. But that’s not all. The best part is that He didn’t remain dead, but He rose again three days later! He conquered it all, all our struggles, our sorrows, our sufferings, our pain, our sickness, our burdens…He conquered it all so He can give us healing, joy, rest, peace, strength. So He can give us HOPE.
Jesus said that in His name the sick would be healed, that the restless would have peace, the weak would find strength and I believe with all my heart that we will see that on this earth.
But what about those who still suffer? What about those who’s children still die, for those who don’t have a job, and will always be living in a poor village in Zambia?
Their Hope is that Jesus is coming back.
I don’t have all the answers to all the why’s… If God’s desire is for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, then why don’t we always see that happen? I don’t know.
But I know this, that even if we never see the completion of His will here on earth, we are not left without hope. He has not left us as orphans (*Romans 8:14-17) but He is our Dad and we are His children and He has left us an inheritance and one day every promise of God will be completed, it will be fulfilled (*Isaiah 55:10-11).
Jesus is coming back and all things will be made right. Heaven is not just a place where angels fly around and sing all day long with sweet gold roads we can walk on, but Heaven is a place where there is no more pain, no more sorrow, no more suffering, no more tears, and no more death… Heaven is our inheritance.
Like Abraham, God promised him that he would father a nation even though at the time Abraham had no children and he and his wife were too old to even think about conceiving. But none the less, God gave them a child. But still, one child doesn’t number the stars. Abraham died without seeing that promise fulfilled, but now as we look back at Israel, we can see that God kept His word and fulfilled His promise. So whatever God has promised you, whatever your inheritance is as a child of God, it will come to pass. I believe that we are to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to earth, but even if, even if we don’t see it in our lifetime, we still have Hope because Jesus is coming back!
*Romans 8:14-17
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with out spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs- heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
*Isaiah 55:10-11 “For as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void. But it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
**Praise the Lord I am fully funded!! Hug thank you to everyone who has supported me on this journey! If you’re still looking for a way to be a part of this ministry, I still have 3 teammates who are still in need of funding. They’ve been given a time extension, but it’s crunch time. They’re all incredible women and I believe the Lord is going to provide for EVERY need! Will you help support them? Every little bit helps!
Miranda Parnell, $3,200 – www.mirandaparnell.theworldrace.org
Shannon Passaro, $2,200 – www.shannonpassaro.theworldrace.org
Kelly Griffin, $2,500 – www.kellygriffin.theworldrace.org
