Hi Guys,
Its been a minute or two since I've written to you guys it has been incredibly busy and lots have happened. Where do i start.... Over the last few months i have been in and out of Zimbabwe hosting teams, supporting our local office and also got the privilege to attend a Brother and also long term volunteer wedding in Zim. It was such a joy to be in Zim , a place that has now become my new home! Its no longer strange to hear Shona (local language) all the time, to use dollars in stores, to buy avocados for 50cts at the taxi rank(bus stop) or enter a taxi( mini van) that quite frankly you wonder whether you will make it to your destination due to the condition of the vechle.
In all of that I have fallen in love with the people of Zimbabwe, i have loved the most vulnerable children we serve and the gogos whom they live with. I have come to laugh with them, cry with them, enjoy the awkward silence and best of all talk the little local language i know with them, I have learnt to be content in the Chaos, to love the drama and still feel like the luckiest girl in the world. Why you ask sometimes you sleep on the floor, sometimes you share someone's home for weeks at a time , you have to bath with cold water often, I feel lucky in fact blessed because i get to spend time with some of Gods favorite people. I have spent time looking through the 4 gospels ( Matthew, Mark,Luke and John) to try and understand what was important to my Jesus. How did he live his life , how can I live a life like his. And each time I see Jesus was often with the people most unpopular I mean look at the woman with the issue of blood for 12yrs, look at the Mary Magdalene, the Man troubled by legions of demons, each one of these people were rejected but each time God ran towards them. Most of the families we walk alongside are despised in their own community for being poor for being unwell at times but yet God allows us to walk alongside these precious ones, Its a privilege that he would entrust us in their presence and each day am grateful to God that despite my faults He calls me to visit those He cares about to those crying out for His help , He allows me to be part of His Will and His miracles and He ministers to them and me.
But in spite of all this, lest you think am perfect am not life happens, Life brings you on a high but it also bring you on a low but one thing that stays constant is who you are in Christ and who God is through it all. Why do i share this a few weeks ago i got tragic news from home a friend i had known for a few months had passed away. I remember that day like it was yesterday my mum said to me so and so passed away , i asked my mum to repeat the statement several times. I couldn't believe it , i didnt want to believe , How can God allow someone who i knew to love God, to pursue justice and actively fight for the vulnerable in his actions and word. How could that be. Not too mention he was a huge blessing to me and advocated for what we did here at Hands and was a huge encouragement to me when i was home earlier in the year. I struggled to understand to comprehend Gods plans in this. But i sought God and continue to pursue God I heard him say this to me that 'I am God, I am Sovereign' This individual i didn't realise left and impact in my life. Though the acquaintance was short the impact was large. As God reminded me who he was he also reminded me that 'its not about what you have but about what you do with what you have' , This person truly didnt concern himself with what he could get with what he had but he concerned himself with what would the Lord have him use it for. That challenges me to the core, where are my concerns, i pray desperately to God that i would never lose sight of what is means to walk with God to be guided by him to be used by him and what impact that lives behind. Indeed my Friends life was a testament to that.
As I struggled through the grief and seeing how God reassured me of who God is in my life I was soon hit by the reality of what it meant not to have the monthly support of my friend not only in prayers but also in finances. I felt God challenge me again how do we conduct ourselves when we are at the mountain top should not differ from how we conduct ourselves a the bottom of the mountain. What do i mean by that, God challenged me hard to keep my eyes focused on what He has called me to do here in Africa and not waiver whether the finances add up or not but in fact to dig deeper, further into What God has destined for me to be doing. This is a hard challenge some days i looked and wondered and other days i saw God really provide in ways i couldn't even imagine. I am seeing God in all this and trusting God with all I am. Am continuing to seek God and cry out that may i continue to be desperate for God. May i have no rest when i become complacent in where i am , May God also raise up my spirit to another standard to a deeper knowledge of Who he is.
So am in that place when i am speaking to myself Grace dig deep, when you feel at the bottom of the mountain know God sees beyond and above it and His working in you as you climb that mountain. I am loving the Challenge but clinging to God tighter than i ever have.
I invite you to join me, don't allow yourself to get complacent and when you are, shake yourself, and cry to the most high till that longing for God and God alone rises again in you.
Until next time
Lots of Love
Grace
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