Breakthrough

The biggest prayer on my heart nowadays is that Hannah and Hailey will have a heart for Tanzania; that they will want to be here more than they want to go back to America.  So far every time Hannah acts up she says it is because she just misses everyone so much that she can’t help but do the wrong thing.  Sometimes at night I hear her just praying and praying that Jesus will let her friends know how much she misses them.   I am so thankful that she had such amazing friends in Wenatchee that she has kept this tight of a grip on them but it is also hard for her to move on.  Hailey follows suit.  One time in the car Hailey couldn’t stop crying and I kept asking her what was wrong. She said she wanted to go home but every time I would say we are almost home she would say “no!!!” so finally I asked her what home did she want to go to and she responded by saying “Abby’s home and Mya’s home” (these are her friends in Wenatchee). She was trying to tell me she just wanted to go back to Wenatchee.  She wasn’t prompted in any way and we hadn’t talked about Abby or Mya’s home in a while so this was her own little mind remembering home.  These have been heartbreaking for me as a mom and I keep trying to figure out ways to make them feel like this is home but in the end I know I just need to pray for their hearts to open up here and for them to feel comfortable. When they get sad we talk about going home to visit for a couple months and that normally helps Hannah settle down. I know it has only been 3 months but I have just been waiting and waiting to hear her say she likes it.  Finally the other day we were walking from Nick’s class back to our apartment and Hannah looked at me with tears in her eyes and said, “Mommy, if we go back to Wenatchee I would miss this place so much. I would cry every day. Can we please stay here? It’s okay if I miss my friends in America, they know I love them and miss them.  Please mommy, please can we stay here?”  After that we talked about all the things she would miss about Africa and the list was long!  Hailey then said she wanted to live in Africa not Wenatchee.  That night the girls and I sat out on our patio and watched the sunset (one of their favorite things to do) and Hannah said “see mommy, like this.  It is so beautiful. I would miss seeing the beautiful sunset if we left here and listen to those silly chickens, they are so loud all day and night. I wouldn’t see chickens and cows if we went back to Wenatchee.”  I am so proud of my girls. We have a long way to go but this is a huge step in the process of adjusting here.  I am seeing their hearts for Jesus grow bigger and bigger every day.  It is such a blessing to watch Hailey fall down (I’m getting to the good partJ) and watch Hannah run to her side and pick her up, brush her off and ask her if she can pray for any of her cuts.  When we are places with other kids the girls are starting to realize these kids don’t have the toys like they do so they give them some of their toys to play with.   We are so thankful for the family he has given us!

Cream of wheat and PBnJs

Some things i have learned about tanzanian culture:

The word "please" doesn't compute
The white taxis don't stop if you are crossing
Celine Dion has made a serious comeback in Africa
When food is available, everyone has a few minutes to talk...

We had a teacher from Korea this month that came to talk about humility and Servanthood. He was teaching in English and there was a translator was speaking in Swahili. It was a really good set of teaching for a couple of reasons. First off, as he spoke with such a thick korean accent, it was hard to catch all that he was saying. So, in order to understand everything, I had to really focus on the Swahili translation of what he was saying. Needless to say, I picked up a lot of new vocal. Lately all of us have been speaking quite a bit of Swahili; even the girls. They now have a couple of worship songs that are their favorites in Swahili.
The second reason I enjoyed what he had to say so much was how inspiring he was. He is a 59 year old man that says he is just about finished with his missionary training after 25 years of full time ministry. He described a time in his life when his ministry to a group of day-laborers was just to show up with tea and bread under a tree. He said so many came to the lord in those days and I was captivated. So I got an idea...
Around the corner from where we live is a long stretch of houses with lots and lots of kids. Every saturday morning, the girls ask to go for a walk so one Saturday I got up early and began to cook a huge pot of cream of wheat and a stack of quarter sliced peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and we went for a walk. As I mentioned earlier, as soon as food is available people have time to listen. We got about a quarter mile down the road before a whole group of kids were surrounding us eating sandwiches and porridge. While they ate, Hailey passed out more food while Hannah and I told them about Jesus. Eight of them asked Jesus into their hearts right there on the road. I praise the Lord that He used us in that way and I praise Him even more that my children were able to be a part of it. It was a good week.

You are for me

Blog post

Since being here there have been some amazing days and some hard days.  For some reason after coming here I was introduced to a song we had on our Itunes all along but I have never sat down and listened to it.  The girls and I have quiet a few “ballet classes” a week where I put on some ballet type music and they dance around.  Fortunately I didn’t load any real ballet music so we put on our worship songs and dance around.  There is one in particular that has stood out to me every time it is played.  Hannah knows every word now and it is her favorite song to dance to.  One day I sat and just wrote out the words for myself to meditate on and now every time I hear it I am able to focus on Jesus and feel so blessed that I have a God that is for me.  He isn’t just for me when I am happy and content and comfortable in life but he is for me in a place I feel that everything is against me.   Some days I feel that the language, the weather, the snakes/scorpions, the awful things that are happening to the masaai girls, the loneliness, the children right out my door, dying of disease that could so easily be cured in the U.S.,  all of these things are too much but then I remember that God, the God of the universe that holds everything in His hands, MY GOD is for me!  He doesn’t want me to crumble when things look too hard.  I need a reminder all the time that God is for me.  This brings me sooo much peace and I hope if you are in a time of transition in your life or struggle that seems to big to overcome or even if you are in a great  place in your life that these words will just continue to confirm the truth that we know in our hearts that our God is for us.

 The song is by Kari Jobe and is called “You are for me”

So faithful, so constant, so loving and so true so powerful in all you do.

 You fill me, you see me, you know my every move, you love for me to sing to you.

  I know that you are for me. I know that you are for me.

 I know that you will never forsake me in my weakness and I know that you have come down even if to write upon my heart to remind me of who you are.   

 So patient, so gracious, so merciful and true so wonderful in all you do, you fill me, you see me, you know my every move you love for me to sing to you.

 I know that you are for me, I know that you are for me, I know that you will never forsake me in my weakness and I know that you have come down even if to write upon my heart to remind me of who you are

The Road Less Travelled, Cont...

The second remarkable fork in the road that I was able to hear about was this young man in the picture above. His name is Yohana (John) and he is a Maasai man from Loliondo. It's a Maasai village near the Serengetti. He told me he wanted to come to my house and talk with me about a need that he had. Now, this has become a regular thing here and it often pertains to money. He came by and sat down and we began to talk. I asked him what he needed and to my surprise, he started talking about his little sister. He told me about his family. He was very sick 10 years ago with some kind of heart complication. He went to the Doctors in Loliondo and no one could help him. So, travelled here to Arusha, but still no doctors had anything they could do for him. He returned home and his family prepared for his funeral. he was ready to go home and die. But, somehow, he heard about a man across the border in Kenya that would pray for people and they would be healed. One last change to live! He talked with his mother about making arrangemments to go see the man, and so he was coming out of Maasailand where he lived to Loliondo town in order to find a ride to Kenya, when all of a sudden he saw the very man that he was going to see in the town of Loliondo! He approached him right away and demanded prayer! The man prayed for him and right there his heart condition left. He knelt down and gave his heart to Jesus and returned home to his family who were still in the midst of his burial arrangements. When he got home he told everyone to stop. He had been healed and now he loves this one called Jesus so much because he was so gracious to him! soon afterward, his youngest sister, Mary, began to come to church and found Jesus to be exactly who her brother told her he was. Another brother didn't like that they were going to church, but he came one day with them also, and he met Jesus and was changed. Soon followed his mother, but his father to this day is uninterested in anything having to do with these things. This is why Yohana was at my door. He came to ask for prayer, not for money. He came to ask if I would pray for his young sister, Mary. Mary is away at boarding school because a group from Denmark sponsored her to study and she loves it. However, there is a man in the village that has already made an arrangement with Yohana's father for a bride price for Mary. Mary is 17 and doesn't want to marry yet, but she just wants to finish school. She wants to keep learning and to be ready to marry when it is time and to choose for herself what kind of man she will marry. Their father is fed up and has sent her messages at school calling her home. Now, in about a month, there is a school break and all of the students have to return home. The moment Mary steps foot in Loliondo, she will be grabbed from the side of the road and locked in a room until she is married. Then, she will be kept in that room until she has been impregnated so that she is no longer allowed to attend school. Yohana was making plans to go home a few days before the break to tell his father that Mary should be allowed to stay at school and not made to come home and marry. He wanted prayer because he didn't want all of this to happen to his youngest sister and he was going home to tell his father so.  I heard Yohana talking in my living room and all of a sudden I began to think about my youngest sister, Melissa.  I thought about her when she was 17, how beautiful she is and was, how smart she is and all of the plans she had then.  I remember the young man she chose to be her husband and how happy she is now in her family, what a wonderful man she has chosen herself and how much they love eachother still today.  If I were in his position, I'm not sure I would have the same composure he afforded in my living room.

The reason I write about Yohana is two-fold. First, is to ask that you would join me in praying for Yohana and Mary. Pray for the Lord's favor and his protection for both of them. The second is to say that every decision we make counts. This young man is on staff here at YWAM as an evangelist and he is incredible. Somebody 10 years ago decided to make a trip to Loliondo and God had put some incredible things in motion for Yohana in that man's decision. I'm sure he has no idea what the fruit is from that one short prayer he prayed so many years ago, but the ripples are making there way all over Africa. Now, as we think back about some of the places we have gone for the Lord, maybe some have felt insignificant, maybe some of seemed like we didn't get to see much happen, but everything is sacred. Every decision counts. Every seed planted matters.

And now for your viewing pleasure.... Yesterday evening it was just about to rain and the sun was setting.  I looked out the door and there was sweet little Hailey taking in every bit of the sunset that she could.  I couldn't help but take a picture. 

And below we have a praise report!!  Praise the Lord that all of you are praying!!  Because this little guy below here just happened to be crawling across our living room floor this week and someone caught a glimpse of him.  We killed it before it could sting anyone.  Thank you for praying for us, thank you Lord for protecting us from danger! 

The Road Less Travelled

This week I have been reminded that there are forks in the road for everyone and they are everywhere. Every morning, we wake up and begin making decisions and nothing is inconsequential; everything is sacred. Each decision we make changes something. Everything that we do has a serious affect on somebody somewhere.
Two men have made decisions that I have been aware of and it is changing my perspective about missions in Tanzania. One came to my attention yesterday evening, when a young man from Hong Kong came to my door asking for some help. It turns out that he had found some trouble that he didn't expect to encounter in a DTS in Africa, but he found himself being drawn into a group of doing some bad things. Soon he was giving in to them and all of them were eventually caught. Wow! Well, praise the Lord, he changed his behavior, he was extended grace and at the fork in the road, he took the road less travelled. The reason he was at my door was because the group continued to entice him and he wanted some advice. Soon, the things happening with some of the students that started with the one thing extended to something way beyond just a small mistake.  What is going on here!?!?!? After I heard this, there was no sense in waiting around. I went straight to the young men enticing this poor kid and buffeted information out of each of them. I gave them one day to come clean and when they didn't, I went straight to the DTS leadership and divulged everything. Now, we are less some students at DTS, but the affect it has had on me is significant. I have heard stories about the problems in Africa and even rumors about Pastors and ministers, even missionaries, involved in all kinds of immorality, but seeing it first hand is a different thing all together. Young men barely old enough to be soldiers, barely old enough to vote, barely old enough to rent an apartment are making decisions that will affect the rest of their lives. What have I come here for? Why am I in Africa if not to find a way to connect to young men's lives and contribute something meaningful and positive to them. (i.e. the lifesaving words and acts of Jesus) What can I contribute if they are dead? And with that in mind, all of a sudden I have this newfound feeling of urgency in communicating the truth of Jesus in a way that men and women and children can understand. What, Oh man, does God require of you? To do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before your God. Every decision we make is to walk before him, fulfilling all that He requires of us, or to walk down a different path, to follow a different road, maybe one where the path is a little more trodden, maybe a little bit wider. What is our responsibility, then, as missionaries, those called to every tribe, tongue and nation to make disciples of all men, (each one of us that follow Jesus)? Is there any greater responsibility than to be present at the forks in the road?

Praise of a Mission Field or Worship of a Missionary

Two dichotomies I heard this week that have each given me pause and motivation for self-reflection.  The topic we are discussing right now is Worship, Praise, and Spiritual Warfare.  In the first day of our lecture, the instructor said this short statement that has been on my mind ever since.  He said, “Anyone can Praise God.  But only those that know Him can Worship Him.”  All over the world, in every country, there are so many different kinds of people with so many different beliefs about who God is.  But when good things happen, people give God praise.  “Wow, somebody upstairs must be looking out for you.”  “Wow, God really got me out of that mess.  I gotta start getting back to church.”  When you invite people to church, you can see on their faces when they really enjoy the “music” and they clap along and sing with the “band” because it is exciting to praise Him.  Then, all of a sudden the music slows down and people close their eyes and each person, individually, is connecting with a personal Creator and all of a sudden, the friend you brought with you to church has an emotion change.  Whether it is confusion, a feeling of being lost in the midst of people they don’t understand, or longing to have whatever experience everyone else is having, your friend can’t worship God until He knows Him.  It has been a really interesting thought for me especially as I take into consideration Romans 12:1, “Therefore I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.  For this is your spiritual act of worship.”  I am left with this feeling of my whole life, then, as worship or praise?  What have I been doing with my time, my finances, my thoughts, my leisure time… Do I praise God with my life when I have the time to give a little extra than the required prayer times?  Do I praise God when finances are good?  Oh, sure, I can give a little extra around Christmas time.  Especially after my bonus, God.  Oh, and how about some change in the salvation army bucket, Old Sport.  Or is my life a living sacrifice?  Is my life worship unto God?  And if not, why not? 

That brings me to the second dichotomy that I read in a book.  It’s called “Making Jesus Lord” and it is a very easy read.  If any of you are looking for something new to read, I have to admit, at first I was disenchanted by another book by Loren Cunningham, but truth be told I have been riveted by it.  Anyway, he says that every person fits into one of two categories; those who love Neil Diamond and those who don’t…no, not really.  He says you are either a Missionary or you are a Mission Field.  You are either carrying out the great commission or you are one of those the disciples of Jesus are being commissioned to.  You are either being the church or you are the reason the church still has great job security.  Because the responsibility of the Church, the charge Jesus left us with is to make disciples.  Now, if you have never heard of Jesus, or you have heard and rejected His message, well then you obviously are not his disciple…yet.  On the other hand, the less obvious but just as significant truth is that the immobilized church is just as much a mission field.  To call ourselves disciples is to follow in Jesus’ footsteps and to make disciples.  To be a disciple is to make a disciple.  If you are not making disciples you are not currently a disciple.  Which leaves me with this sobering question.  Am I a disciple?  Do I have people in my life that are working through some process of discipleship that I am helping them through?  Now, of course there are.  My kids!  I am discipling them in the Lord!  Great!  Good job, Nick.  That’s true, you are.  But now, remember the first dichotomy, is your whole life a sacrifice to the Lord as worship?  Or is your life Praise to Him, which is for sure good, but would be the same with or without God in your life?  I know a lot of really great agnostic parents.  So, the question remains, what kinds of disciples do you have?  And if none, maybe you are still a mission field…