This month I have seen Gods provision in my life like I have never seen it before. I know that God has been providing for me all of my life but I guess I haven’t really paid attention to it unit this month. This month we are in Zambia and our team is doing something a little different than normal. Generally when we go to a new county we have a host that we stay with for the month and we work in their ministry. This month we are doing something the race calls Unsung Heroes (UH) . Instead of staying with a host for the month, we get to go all over the country of Zambia looking for new ministries to partner with.
So basically, our entire squad traveled to Zambia together and when we got here all the other teams had places to stay for the month and we had nowhere set to stay at all during the month. This is where Gods provision for the team and my life comes in.
What really got me thinking about all of this is a sandwich. I know weird right. One day, after we had been in Zambia for a couple of days, I was walking around in the yard we were staying at and listening to music and praying. I was really enjoying this time but for some reason I started thinking that I was hungry. I wanted to go inside and grab something but I didn’t want to leave what I was doing quite yet. So, I kept walking around in the yard and not less than a minute later there stood Josh, one of my teammates, hold a delicious looking pb&j sandwich!
Now, I wasn’t dying of hunger or anything like that, but in that moment God showed me just how much He was going to provide for me even with something as little as a sandwich. Then, I started to realize some of the provisions our team already had this month that I hadn’t taken notice of.
To start off with we didn’t have a place to stay in Zambia, but right before we took a bus ride from South Africa to Zambia we were able to get ahold of another teams contact and he got us a place to stay for the first couple of days. His house is actually where I had my sandwich revelation.
Just the next day, on the bus ride to Zambia, we actually met a lady on the bus that works with a large Christian missions organization very prominent of Africa. We started talking to her and it all ended up that we had our second place to stay for a month. We stayed with her for a few days and then moved further north.
The first man we had met in Zambia actually had gotten us a place to stay that was up north. So as we took a 3 hour bus ride north one of our squad leaders that was with us for the week got sick. We got picked up from the bus station and by the time we made it to our house for the next couple days I got sick. I went straight to bed. The rest of the team, except me and the other girl who had gotten sicker early, went out for supper and to grab some groceries. When they got back I found out that more of them had gotten sick. We all went to bed that night sick.
I woke up in the middle of the night to someone tossing their cookies. At that time 5 of the 9 of us went to the hospital and what an experience that was! We all got fluids and had to stay the night. When morning came the other 4 came to the hospital to get fluids as well. It ended up that all 9 of us had food poisoning and on top of that 3 of them had malaria. I say all of that to say that through it all God provided for us.
First off, we had an amazing man named Andrew and his wife that took us to the hospital and brought us food and took such good care of us the two days that we were there. God also provided us with a hospital that was only about 15 minutes away from where we were staying. Although it didn’t have running water, or anyone that knew how to give an IV, it was still nice to be able to feel better and have a way to get a diagnosis and medicine. We were able to get better and make it to church on Sunday.
Once we finally got out of the hospital, we were able to really meet Andrew and go to his church and check out the foundation that he runs. At the church on Sunday I got the opportunity to speak for a while on whatever God had laid on my heart. And as I began to think and ask God what I should speak on He said to me provision.
I didn’t know where to go with this but then I started thinking about Abraham sacrificing Isaac. On his way to sacrifice Isaac, Abraham told his servants to wait and that “we” would be back after we worshiped. Abraham was already sure that God would provide something in place of Isaac to sacrifice as he says later on or in Hebrews it says that Abraham figured that God would revive Isaac from the dead if thats what he needed to do.
It just goes to show that if we are obedient and have faith then God is faithful to provide for us.
We were there for a few days longer than we had planned, but God provided for us once again. Before we left we met a man named Spencer, who I call a “pastor pimp.” He works for Andrews foundation and he is in charge of communicating with all the 85 churches that work with the foundation.
Spencer set up meeting with more that 10 pastors from around the region and he helped run the meetings for us and everyone listened to him and much respect for him hence the name “pastor pimp.” We ended up getting a lot of solid contacts for future teams to be able to come partner with them.
After this we traveled 7 hours south to meet with another organization that someone else had set up for us. When we got there we got to stay at a super nice guest house for African standards. We had running water, fans, and a yard to throw frisbee. It such a nice place to stay for a couple days. The best part was the contact that we made there though. The contact was all about reaching people for christ through any means. They actually run 13 christian schools, a hospital, a malaria research lab, and they have numerous church plants in the area.
And finally as I am writing this blog while our team is in Livingstone, the biggest tourist city around. Here we have gotten to take a couple days off since we have been traveling a lot, sick, meeting lots of people. We got to Victoria falls and what a sight it is. No picture could ever do it justice. Some of bungee jumped, some of us rode elephants, and some of us got to walk around with lions.
What a life God has given us live. God has been a God of provision and I am glad that I really stopped and noticed it. As I look back on life, I see that God has always provided for me even when I wasn’t following him. From my back surgery, to the money that you donated for me to go on his journey, God is good!
