This week has been a blessing! It seems as though it has been much longer than reality.
I don't really feel like I am in Africa, because it is not Africa like you all are imagining. It is cold!
As you can see it was a lot of fun, and also a lot of work, and things to learn. Brian and Lois put us right to work! We quickly settled into this busy house, and learned what it is like to be a mom. We did laundry by hand, had consistent slobber shoulders, an built up an immunity to poop and the like, with sleepless night, cooking and cleaning.
We were very busy caring for all these kids. Laurie and I felt gitty when we finally crawled into out beds where we are staying. It was a great feeling! Although the glamor wore off with the spit up, I love it.
The night we were relieved from our kids, Louis O'Tool ( the other missionary family fundraising in the U.S. until September) spoke at my hometown church, and we listened in online.
Louis, spoke about The Village and it's mission to show God's grace in the community here. He shared a short story of each child that I had just spent the weekend getting to know. Many of these stories I did not know . It was a reminder once again of how to love, and what I had really come here to do- share the salvation of Jesus' love.
In Louis presentation he spoke on the culture of sin and how easily it pleases us, as humans.
He shared a quote, speaking of the sin he had seen so easily in the culture of South Africa, and the lies and covering of sins that we try, to hide our need for Jesus.
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
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| Tumi |
::Literally::
Here in South Africa there are real children, sitting in slums, really having no idea what a "home" is. They have never seen it, therefore are content to live in the mess.
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| Such Cubby Cheeks |
:: Figuratively::
I am a child, far to easily pleased to make mud pies and delight in sins, and prideful attitudes, unpleasing to the Lord. But the difference is, I have seen the greatness of the King Jesus, and I have been called a daughter of that King, full of blessings; YET I still chose the sin. I am far to easily pleased to find my own way, then to be fully satisfied with the Lord and giver of life, the fount of living water.
"Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."- John 6:35
::How Can I?::
How can I receive these infinite joys? How can I look and see the gifts, rather than always choosing to sin?
Matthew 5: 6 says
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied"
all the while, I am serving and serving, and going hungry... I am hungry because I failed to notice and acknowledge my need for Jesus- the Bread Of Life-Jesus, the One for whom I serve, and the one who shows me grace and mercy. Jesus; the One from whom my love come, my joy, my satisfaction, my rest, my security.
I can not do anything apart from him (though I try).
If I am not thirsty for Jesus, there is a problem. I can not move past it.
If I am not thirsty for Jesus, yet am not hungry, I must ask myself what it filling up my appetite?
Pride, vanity, selfishness, independence?
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| Do we look tired yet? |
And so, I question my huger, and my thirst? Is it my ego, that leads to distraction and filth, or my Jesus, and seeking righteousness, that leads to joy?
I need to be earnestly asking the Lord, to show me my needs, and make me thirsty for Jesus.
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