After nearly four months of preparation, I’m finally going to Swaziland. I raised full support, got shots, insurance, said my goodbyes, and am now sitting in Gainesville, GA at training camp, hours from traveling to the airport.
Although I expect the Lord to do some magnificent things in Swaziland, He has started preparing my heart already in the States. He’s forced me to give up on some comforts already, one of them the comfort of a warm night’s sleep.
When we got to our cabins, I noticed quickly that there wasn’t electricity and also realized that there wasn’t any heat as well. it was so hard to sleep; I was so cold. I went to bed at 11, couldn’t fall asleep until 11:40, and woke up almost every hour on the :40. It was tough. As I would lie awake I started getting bitter at the staff. As they were sleeping inside the warm meeting center, we were freezing.
I realized that I was being extremely selfish and assumed that I had rights that I really didn’t have. Although I was expecting to be uncomfortable in Africa, I assumed that I had the right to be comfortable in the US while I was still here. I was willing to give up my rights eventually, just not now.
It’s ironic because it came one night after we spent the majority of the night with the homeless in downtown Atlanta. It was freezing and these people didn’t have beds, food, warm clothes; they had the clothes on their backs and the cold, hard ground. However, they had the greatest gift of all: the hope in Jesus Christ.
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” 2 Corinthians 8:9
Jesus’s ministry was directed at the poor and despised by the rich and powerful. The early church was for the poor until Constantine nationalized it in the Roman Empire. The poor are the foundation for Christ’s ministry and it is still evident today in the lives of the homeless on the streets of Atlanta.
I was talking to my new friend Benny and he made the comment, “What a joy it is to be homeless.” The homeless do not have any worldly possessions. They have to depend on the Lord for everything they have everyday of the week. It obviously is a very difficult life. Whatever you own owns you. When you have nothing you have nothing to distract you from what God is saying. These people knew about the Lord and wanted everyone to know about it.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Mt 5:6)
Although Jesus came to minister to the poor, he looks at the heart of a man and his faith. He goes to great lengths to care for his own people, not only to take care of physical needs, but most of all to build us up as his disciples. Whether you are rich or poor on this earth is no consequence to him; he looks much deeper in the heart of a man. He knows that you can’t take anything with you when you die.
The verse that we as a group want to live by is the one on the painting above, Isaiah 61:1. We believe that the Spirit of the Lord is truly among us as we depart for a completely new continent and experience. We want to proclaim the Lord’s favor to all the nations and Christ commands us to do.
Oh what a time we will have loving and serving the Lord!
