So the Lord must wait for you to come to him so he can show
you his love and compassion. For the Lord is a faithful God. Blessed are those
who wait for his help. Isaiah 30:18
Throughout my time in Africa I have
hoped and prayed that God would do so much. I wanted to see the lame walk, the
hungry be fed, the abused set free, and entire communities to receive hope. I
go everyday to the squatter camp and do anything I can to help at the carepoint
there to create a safe and healthy place for children to come, learn, eat,
play, and be loved. All this sounds wonderful but sometimes it is hard because
Kristin and I go everyday and many times we do not see the results of our
labors. Children still go home to bad situations, people still go across the
street to the dump because they are hungry, and the lame are still not walking.
I started to get frustrated. I prayed, “God, I have
confidence that you are with me and want me to be here in Swaziland.
Why aren’t you showing up in mighty ways? Why haven’t we seen you move? You say
you are a consuming fire. Why are you not consuming this place?” The Holy
Spirit then reminded me of a scripture that I hadn’t thought of in a while. He
spoke to me from Isaiah 40:31, “Just wait on me and I will renew your strength.
You will sore on wings like eagles.” I felt he was just telling me to wait. To
wait in faith that he is there and will work. It’s just a matter of his timing.
I started to look up scriptures that talked about waiting on the Lord and
realized that the Bible is full of this concept. From testimonies to desperate
cries, there are so many who have found that it is essential to wait upon the
Lord. We are even instructed to wait in eager expectation for the Lord.
So this is what I am doing – or at least trying to do. I am
waiting on the Lord in his wisdom and justice to come to the rescue of this
community that I have grown to love so much. And I trust he will.
Since doing that he has opened up doors to meet needs in
real ways. One day last week there were a lot of kids missing from the
carepoint. We were told that they had all gone across the street to the city dump
because a truck had coming bringing expired meat. The children never get meat
so to them this was a real treat. We were appalled however that children were
sorting through waste to get expired meat. We knew we couldn’t solve this
problem, but we desperately wanted to do something. We figured, Jesus had
massive feedings (from five loaves and two fish) so why can’t we. Kristin and I
went to the store with our leader, Kate, and bought enough bread, cheese, meat,
chips, oranges, and candy to feed 400 people. A small number campared to Jesus’
5000 but it was a start. Our entire team then worked to make these sack lunches
and then piled in the van and went to the squatter camp.
When we got there, we just went around the community
gathering children and brought them up to the carepoint. We played with them
and sang songs. Then we were able to share the gospel through a translator and
helped them make small crosses out of popsicle sticks. I don’t know if anyone
believed that day but I do know that God promises that his word will never go
out and return void. Then we started to hand out the food. The kids were
excited and were able to take some home to their families. We then started to
walk around handing out the food. Some took lunches to the dump for the men who
are there everyday trying to find something to live off of. It was such an
amazing then to bless the people in that way. They were so thankful for the food.
I told some men who were especially greatful that I was doing this because
Jesus loves them and wants them to have enough to eat. I love Jesus and want to
love the people he loves. The man rejoiced with me and replied, “I too love
Jesus. Yes, I love him too much!”
