Over the last week I have been struggling with a cold and exhaustion. I have been struggling with this sickness and have been missing a few activities. I was so frustrated but through my slowing down and missing a few activites the Lord showed me that He was at work. I have been building a relationship with one of our translators name nocpo. Nocpo leads the children’s ministry at the timboini church. I started to build a relationship with her, everytime our group would get together she would look for me and last Sunday I had to miss church because of being sick and she noticed that I wasn’t there. Out of 22 girls in our group she noticed that I was missing!! I took a moment and reflected on this fact. If I would not have slowed down and been sick along with missing church I would have not noticed this friendship building. Then later in the day, I went up to nocpo as she was washing some of our teams laundry in order to make money and I began to talk to her. She kept thanking me and our group for helping her finicially. I began to ask her what was the need for the money. She told me that her families house needed a roof. I thought back to a book that I read before coming on this trip, When helping hurts. I did not want to just buy her a roof because that would be hurting more than helping. As she continued to talk to me she explained the situation more in depth. My heart broke for her and her family. I wanted to help but not to hurt them. I want to empower Nocpo so that I don’t just fill this one need but I equipe her to fill future needs for her family. So back to the conversation I asked her what skills, gifts or talents the Lord had blessed her with that could be a means to make a profit. She began telling me on top of offering to wash our laundry each week that she could make jam. I told her to bring some to where we were staying and we could talk about buying her jam. She could have a business of selling homemade products to the AIM teams that come through or other africans. She was grateful for the ideas and she left to return to her family for the night.
After she left, I began thinking and praying about other ways i could help her and her family. God laid many ideas on my heart and showed me that the gifts and talents He provided me I could take and teach her. I thought about all the reduce, reuse, recycle ideas and the other craft ideas that I was trying before this trip. I am going to continue to pray and brainstorm ideas for her family. I also asked Nocpo Tuesday morning if our group could come pray with her family for a roof. She agreed and told me that she was extremely grateful. I know that the Lord will provide. I believe full heartedly in the power of prayer and that is my biggest prayer right now. Nocpo’s family needs a roof! Keep Nocpo and her family in your prayers. Our God is a provider and I believe that we will see a roof on that house before we leave.
