Gift Exchange

God Provides.  Early last week, I had a feeling this was going to be my personal theme for the week.  But even as I wrote these words in my journal, I had no idea how He was going to reveal Himself in this way just a few days later.

Jason’s 40th birthday was last Saturday, November 6.  Before we left the United States, we had made the decision to take some money out of savings so we could have a special safari day while Myrtlemay was still in Africa with us.  As a surprise to Jason, I had scheduled a safari to Tarangire National Park for the day of his birthday.  On the Wednesday prior to his birthday, I sent an email to the safari company to confirm our reservation. Even though I had already pre-paid  and had exchanged several emails discussing the date and details, I got an email back the following day indicating we’d had a miscommunication and we were not, in fact, booked to go on the safari.  I was extremely upset because I really wanted Jason’s 40th to be very special.  But as I cried, I also felt a pang of guilt, because I was crying over losing an expensive day of frivolous luxury, when many of our classmates have not been able to pay their school fees.  

As I was struggling with this, our friend Annie approached and asked what was wrong.  Annie was planning to go with us on the safari, so I shared my disappointing news.  Much to my surprise, she got a huge grin on her face when I told her the safari plans had fallen through!  She went on to explain that a few weeks earlier, she had felt God was asking her to sacrifice her safari day in order to help a fellow student with school fees.  Annie had been fighting it because she really wanted to go with us on the safari.  She had been praying about it, but reluctantly.  Then, a fellow student approached her and specifically asked her to help pay for school fees.  Faithfully, Annie laid her safari down before God, and asked God for a clear sign that she was not supposed to go.  My news about the safari was indeed the answer from God that Annie had asked for.  She was suddenly joyful about making that sacrifice because God had been so clear in His response.  

I was glad Annie had gotten her confirmation; however I was still disappointed that my plans were falling through.  I was then encouraged by Naomi, another wise and faithful friend.  Naomi believed that God had something better in mind for Jason’s birthday, so she encouraged my to stop crying and start praying for creative ideas.  We prayed together, and then I started my research on outings in the Arusha area.  

I soon found out about Arusha National Park, where you can do your own drive-through safari for much less cost than Tarangire.  I talked to our base leader, John, about the possibility of getting a YWAM vehicle and a driver to take us to ANP on Saturday.  On Friday night, I found out that John had found us a van and a driver for early the next morning!  

I figured out all the costs involved and realized we could use the money we had designated for the Tarangire safari to spend the day at ANP.  In addition, we could bless Annie and two other friends by paying their way to go with us....and still have quite a bit of money left over to help with school fees!  I knew then that God was revealing Himself to us (again!) as our Provider, and that Saturday was going to be wonderful...

And oh, how it was!  In addition to a driving safari, we took a walking safari with a  personal guide (who carried a rifle...just in case), during which we got caught in our first Tanzanian torrential downpour.  It was great fun huddling up under a gargantuan tree eating shortbread cookies, waiting for the rain to pass.  After getting drenched under the tree, we decided the rain wasn’t going to pass anytime soon, so we went back to the vehicle and headed to a restaurant for a yummy lunch.  While we were eating, the sun came back out to top off our afternoon with views of gorgeous scenery and many of God’s beautiful creatures.    We had an incredible day and sang worship songs all the way home!  Glory be to God!

“God loves the person who gives cheerfully (like Annie!).  God will generously provide all you need.  Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.” 2 Corinthians 9:7-8

          

Unanswerable Questions

The last two weeks of classes have been tougher than trying to masticate and choke down the hunks of gristly, fatty beef served every Tuesday and Friday for lunch in the pilau.  We’ve experienced the kind of tough that makes us question our core beliefs and grieve our now wavering confidence in absolute truth.  

I’m still processing the difficult ideas we’ve discussed in class, and am not sure how I’m going to put my many thoughts into words, so please bear with me as I attempt to share.  

The week before last we discussed the idea of “Worldview”.  We learned that people from the West tend to view the world from a primarily physical perspective.  Thus, we Westerners place much emphasis on science and the material world.  For example, when we get sick, we tend to look to medical science for answers, and often engage in prayer over our health as a “last resort” or only for really serious conditions.  

In contrast, people from the East tend to view the world from a primarily spiritual perspective.  So when our African friends get sick, even with a minor cold, it is typically viewed as a “spiritual attack” on the body and prayer may be the only sought after solution.  

This can be very frustrating for both Mzungus and Africans.  A Mzungu might find it exasperating that her African  brothers and sisters want to offer lengthy and loud prayers over her, when all she really wants to do is crawl home to a quiet place, and down some Nyquil.   Likewise, when the well-meaning Mzungu offers cold medicine to the ill African, it can be discouraging because what the African really wants is a powerfully spoken and highly emotional prayer.  

Learning about these extremes (viewing the world from a physical perspective versus a spiritual perspective) has shed some light on the nature of our experiences thus far in Africa.  A primary example is that since we’ve been here, we’ve heard much talk about witch doctors, magic, and demons.  These are things you just don’t hear about in the United States.  As Westerners, our first thought is to chalk it all up to over-active imaginations that have been nurtured in myths and superstitions.  But anyone familiar with the Bible has to acknowledge that the Bible also talks about sorcerers, magicians, and demons.  This leads to the question: Do they really exist?  I personally do not think I’ve ever witnessed any of these in my lifetime, other than the guy doing card tricks at a birthday party, and I certainly wouldn’t suggest that he has supernatural powers.  But I also say I believe the Bible; and if those things happened way back then, why couldn’t they happen now?  The Bible does say, after all, that God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  So if we go on to assume that those types of supernatural occurrences do still exist today, I am led to wonder why I haven’t witnessed any of this.  Am I hard-hearted to the spiritual world?  Am I not “spiritual enough”?  Or is it all just a fantastic story that has managed to survive and thrive for over 2000 years??  Again, please bear with me, I’m just sharing the various lines of reasoning my brain has wrestled with over the last 2 weeks.    

Through the course of many intense discussions, reading, and prayer, I have come to the conclusion that a Biblical Worldview involves a melding of the physical and spiritual.  Extremes on either end of the continuum result in missing the fullness of life that God intended for us.  When we look to Jesus as a role model, we see that He was concerned about both the physical and spiritual aspects of people’s lives.   Not only did Jesus forgive people’s sins (hence, healing their spiritual bodies), He also healed their physical bodies of many kinds of illness and handicaps.  In fact, when He sends out His disciples in Luke 10:8-9, he instructs them to first heal the people, then teach about the Kingdom of God.  

And as if wrestling with some of those ideas wasn’t difficult enough, last week we went on to learn about the Holy Spirit.  I was very excited going into the week, because I love learning about how the Holy Spirit can develop in us the “fruit of the Spirit”.  In other words, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can learn to have love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control in any circumstance--especially those circumstances where those characteristics are not warranted, or even possible with human strength.  For example, I find it a great testimony to the power of the Holy Spirit that Paul could show love to the soldiers in the palace guard when he was imprisoned in Rome, and have joy over his opportunity to share God’s love with them (Phil. 1:12-14).  

But my excitement over learning more about the Holy Spirit became quickly clouded when our Kenyan speaker began talking about the miraculous physical healings that can occur through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Yes, the Bible speaks of many people being physically healed through the Holy Spirit, but again, I’ve never witnessed this personally.  In fact, I spent a good portion of the week crying because I just still can’t understand why God didn’t miraculously heal our friend, Jenna, who died at age 5 of cancer in January of 2009.  So the same questions of the previous week returned but with a slightly different angle:  Do miraculous healings still occur today?  If so, why didn’t our prayers heal Jenna?  Am I not “spiritual enough”?  Or is it all just a fantastic story?  

Honestly, I went through a period of wondering what I am doing here, and really wanting to catch the next plane out to my comfortable home and my comfortable world view in Mountlake Terrace, Washington.  But no matter how far out of my comfort zone I am stretched, I just can’t get past the fact that God has revealed Himself to me, time and time again, especially during this journey of coming to Africa.  Even though I still don’t have answers to many of my questions, I am choosing to rest on what I do know:

I know God exists.  I know He created me.  I know He loves me.  I know He is trustworthy.  And because of those facts, I persevere.  And for the rest, I take comfort in the following scriptures:

I Cor. 13:12 - “Now we see things imperfectly as in a poor mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.  All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God knows me now.”

Proverbs 3:5-6 - “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways, acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.”

Isaiah 55:8 - “My thoughts are completely different from yours,” says the Lord.  “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.”

Romans 11:33-36 - “Oh, what a wonderful God we have!  How great are His riches and wisdom and knowledge!  How impossible it is for us to understand His decisions and His methods!  For who can know what the Lord is thinking?  Who knows enough to be His counselor? And who could ever give Him so much that He would have to pay it back?  For everything comes from Him; everything exists by His power and is intended for His glory.  To Him be the glory evermore. Amen.”

Romans 8:26-28 - “And the Holy Spirit helps us in our distress.  For we don’t even know what we should pray for, nor how we should pray.  But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.  And the Father who knows all hearts knows that the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.  And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.”

Comments and additional scriptures would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks for reading and sharing.