wee changes in my wee heart

In Bunda (rural Tanzania where I spent July) most people don’t have jobs and just live off their small amount of land, with their goats and whatever they can grow. Money just isn’t something people have in their pockets, yet nowhere did I see any homeless people and only in extreme circumstances are children orphaned. This is because everyone treats everyone as family, everyone is responsible for everyone. Everywhere I went I was greeted as 'dada' (sister). And I would greet everyone as mother, father sister or brother. 

You see when you start treating people like your actual family, you start to see needs that were invisible before and I really believe that this is Gods heart for his lovely church, in fact He tells us so in Philippians 2: 3+4 where it says ‘Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.’

I learnt to give people what they need, rather than just what I think they need. Here in the west we often have it so wrong, we have an 'us and them' theory, we think it’s OK to differentiate between those we give to, and those we have the same as, I made that mistake too: 

• I thought people needed us to build them toilets, but they really need us to teach them why it’s so important to use a toilet to stop run-off into the water that they drink. 
• I thought people needed me to give them sanitary items, but what they really need is for us to explain to them that menstruation is a part of every woman’s life, and that they can have a normal life without being shunned or assumed to be sick. 
• I thought people needed food but what they really needed was for me to sit and eat with them.

The only person who really knows what we need is God, and He never assumes.

Finally I have learnt that when you seek Gods will above all else through His word, praying and waiting on Him to speak, you will see MASSIVE prayers answered. A Pastor at my lovely church one time taught us from Psalm 5:3.

‘In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.’ 

He told us all, if you pray for rain, bring an umbrella. 

After witnessing prayers bigger than I could imagine being answered.  I would encourage you, that next time you pray for rain, stand outside in the street with your umbrella and praise our mighty God because He is a good and faithful father.

This summer has been so crazy for me, I have been used by my Father in so many ways, from Africa to the Sports hall, at my most energized to my absolute lowest, in my comfortable boat of our holiday bible club and out of the boat in Africa. We have a faithful God who loves us so much. If you open your life to Him, He will use you, wherever you find yourself.