Tuesday October 9th
Luke 21:37-38 “ Every day Jesus went to the Temple to teach,
and each evening he returned to spend the night on the Mount of Olives. The
crowds gathered at the Temple early each morning to hear him.”
This passage even states that the very first thing Jesus did
in the morning was to go to the Temple and teach. We must give God the first
fruits of our day. God gave us His first fruits; Jesus. Think about what we
give to God. What day is Sunday? Saturday is the last day of the week.
Calendars should start with Sunday, yet our society says Sunday is the last day
of the week. God deserves our best. We must go to God early and give him our
very best part of the day. Find time early in the morning to hear Him, pray
with Him, and listen to Him.
Mark 9:30-37 Jesus Again Predicts His Death, the Greatest in
the Kingdom
“Leaving that region, they traveled through Galilee. Jesus
didn’t want anyone to know he was there, for he wanted to spend more time with
his disciples and teach them. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be
betrayed into the hands of his enemies. He will be killed, but three days later
he will rise from the dead.” They didn’t understand what he was saying,
however, and they were afraid to ask him what he meant. After they arrived at
Capernaum and settled in a house, Jesus asked his disciples, “What were you
discussing on the road?” But they didn’t answer, because they had been arguing
about which of them was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve disciples
over to him and said, “Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be
the servant of everyone else.” Then he put a little child among them. Taking
the child in his arms, he said to them, “Anyone who welcomes a little child
like this on my behalf welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes not
only me but also my Father who sent me.”
n
A lot of people don’t value children—they don’t
have value, they are the least of these. We must receive someone that can’t
give us anything back. Children are the least of these. The younger, sick
orphans even get pushed aside here. You should approach God with a child-like
Spirit. Embrace children’s spirits. There are no boundaries when you are
children. God wants us to ask the Father and not worry after that. We need to
know God is going to give us what our hearts desire.
n
The disciples were arguing about power and
authority. Does that sound familiar? Everybody wants power, status, and money
in our society. Kids are never afraid to ask any question, yet we are afraid to
ask God questions. We don’t ask, because we don’t want to hear God’s plan. We
want to make our own plan. Anyone that wants to be first, must be last of all.
Jesus was trying to shot and tell his disciples to stop arguing and go out and
serve. Put yourself last. Jesus put himself last. Why does God use a child here
in the story? Children give without thinking. When you serve a child, they don’t
have status. You serve them and you go on. Children don’t have anything but
their love to give back. Don’t do something for someone to get something out of
it. You are welcoming God when you serve.
n
When you go fishing you use bait. You don’t need
bait to fish with God. We are the bait. The relationship is the bait.
9:30pm
God keeps breaking my heart over and over. He keeps giving
me and blessing this team with greater days than the previous day. Today was an
amazing, incredible, breath-taking “God” day. I got to experience Heaven on
earth today. We arrived at the work site about 9:00am this morning. We saw
where the new church is going to be laid out. We met the work crew as well.
They were very friendly, but not at all efficient like our society expects work
crews to be. They came totally unprepared to start work. I also almost killed
myself trying to uproot a bush with a pick ax. The heavy end slid down the
handle and was within inches of hitting my face. I decided to stop using the
tool after that.
All the women decided we would go with Johnnie and go on
some home visits with a nursing crew. We ended up going to six different homes
in the village there in Ramaroka. I’m going to take some time to describe each
of the visits. The first visit was to a very old woman. She had an “I love
Jesus” hat on and was wrapped up in layers of clothes. Today it was a bit
chilly out. The woman didn’t know the Lord, but she said she didn’t have any
money until pay day tomorrow and she was very hungry. I went back to the van to
look for any food that we had. I found some water and cookies and brought them
to her. She was very grateful. She told us that we were a miracle sent to her.
I started crying, as did a lot of the other team members. It was so humbling to
know I was sent by God to come and pray over her. We brought this woman to the
Lord for the first time. It was very powerful. We all placed our hands over her
hurting, frail body and took turns praying out loud for this woman’s needs.
The second house was bigger and we met two elderly brothers
who needed prayer. One had eye problems and the other had mental issues. These
men looked very old. Their hands were very worn and leathery. Every wrinkle on
their faces told a story—their eyes said so much. There were a few children at
the house. Sandy brought some pillow dresses and blankets made by friends back home
and gave a few away to the children at the house. As we were leaving the house,
a few children were staring at us across the street behind a fenced in house.
Sandy tried to go to the fence to give the children dresses. They all turned
around and ran towards the house in fear of Sandy. These children were afraid
of us because we are white. Can you imagine? These children have probably never
seen white people. Ramaroka is a village of only a few thousand. The village
has limited water, and the only access is from a well. People walk miles just
to get water they need to survive the day. Can you imagine not having a sink to
turn on, a toilet to flush, or a shower to turn on to rinse yourself off in?
Dirt roads are all they have. The dirt is a deep red, making feet and shoes
stained. Donkeys, goats, chickens, and cows line these roads and some even walk
in the middle of them. No Walmarts are in sight. The village has opened our
eyes to the many blessings God has provided for us that we take for granted.
The third and fourth homes were homes to believers of
Christ. One was an older lady that had side pains and we prayed over her. One
was a little boy that had missed school and was very sick. We invited him to
attend our program in the afternoons once he got better.
We then went to Gladysis’ house, where her dad lives. She is
one of the nurses that has been helping us today. She speaks very good English,
but she wanted us to meet her dad and pray over him. He was a very funny man.
He understands English, but he can not speak at all due to health issues. He
makes noises and says “Yah.” He has diabetes, a very swollen foot, and is in a
wheelchair. He had been working yesterday
and fell out of his wheelchair. He banged up his face and eye really
bad. He had us all laughing though. He was a very lively guy. A village woman
on the streets had noticed that we were praying over David, and she approached
Tomecio thinking she spoke the language and was from there. She told us that we
were going to her house to pray over her husband and that she was going to ride
in our car there. She was hilarious and we later found out her name was Flora.
Her husband had also had a stroke, and we met him and prayed over him. We told a
lot of the people we met today that we would pull our clothes together and
bring them new clothes and shoes. We all brought way too many clothes and
between the ten of us on the team we can pull together a lot to give away.
We then went back to the City Hall to set up for our first
day with the kiddos and to kick off our program! Two kids killed a snake in the
front yard and Johnnie chased Tomecio and I around with it on a stick. The
bathroom situation here is very interesting. There are almost likes stone/wood
portapots. They don’t have doors, so we go in groups to watch out for one
another so nobody walks in. Sandy missed the toiled while squatting today. All
of a sudden I heard, “Oh Jesus I missed the hole!” Sandy then walked out with
her pants totally soaking wet. I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants. We
took pictures and laughed amongst the other team members.
The kids showed up very excited—none of us really knew what
to expect or how many kids to expect. We had about 150-175 kids that first day!
We were so excited so many showed up! We split all of them into 3 groups based
on age. We had 30 minute group session; one group went to crafts, one went to
games, and one stayed inside the hall to learn a Bible lesson and listen to a
story. Our theme for the program was Olympic oriented and called Cross Training.
We had about 12 “coaches” and gave out cross training tshirts to the older
kids. They were in charge of keeping the kids in order and translating for us.
Most of the coaches have been sponsored and gone through the same programs as
well. Doug and Tomecio taught the lesson today, while Chris, Tim, Sandy, and I
were in charge of games. Stacy, Susan, Robyn, and Meri did crafts with the kiddos.
I have never in my short 24 years of life experienced Heaven
on earth like I did today playing outside with the kids. There is a large dirt
soccer field about a 50 yards away from the City hall. We decided that we would
get the kids in a big circle to stretch out first, then follow with relay
races. The kids have never seen people stretch before, let alone play a relay
game. They were so eager to learn and engage in the activities. I stood in the
middle of the great big circle while the coaches spread themselves out amongst
the big circle. Each group we saw had about 60 kids in each group, so our circles
were huge! Standing in the middle of the circle calling out stretches and
watching the kids smile and try to imitate was something I will never forget.
The kids laughed and made faces when something really stretched or hurt. They
laughed and giggled at the various moves we did. Stretching is a part of my
every day life, whether I stretch before I work out or when my girls at
gymnastics stretch. I have always looked at stretching as an everyday part of
my day. These kids, stretching was a new thing they had never even thought
about, heard of, or seen. It was unbelievable to see all of them having so much
fun just doing basic stretching. Sandy and I set up rocks earlier today to mark
the starting and ending places of the relay races and teams. We split the big
groups into 3 teams and they all made single file lines. They learned for the
first time how to do relay races. The kids LOVED THEM! They had never learned
to concept of one person going at a time, and racing back to tag the next
person in lines hand. They laughed, encouraged each other one, yelled, and had the
best time. The joy in all of their faces was just a sight to see. Even seeing
the “babies” try to do it was just priceless. None of the kids were too shy,
and they all wanted to take turns. We did running races, races with the soccer
balls, crab walks, and bear walks which was turned into Lion walks because they
didn’t know what bears were.
The kids were so eager to just be with us; touching our
hands, watching our every move. All eyes were on us, and it was amazing to have
their full attention. We wrapped up the program with singing and dancing as a
whole group back inside the City Hall. We laughed and danced. The coaches even
looked like they were having fun. I thanked them for coming and got to know
quite a few of them today. The end of the day when they kids left was one of my
favorite parts of the day. All the children wanted to shake our hands—wanted to
touch us before they left. They were filled with pure joy—only joy that comes
from Jesus. It was a moment I will never forget. No parents came to pick up
these precious children—they all left the hall and walked along the red, dirt
roads back to their homes. There was no parent pick up like we have back at
home. They just all retreated back to where they came from. The team then
packed up the van and headed back to Ave Maria, talked about how we can get more
involved in sponsorship, how we get Northview and other people involved once we
go back home.
I find myself asking the Lord, now what? Lord, what do you
want me to do with this life you have blessed me with? Where do you want me to
go next? Open up my eyes, ears, and heart to seeing, hearing, and feeling your
presence. Help me to know your plan and will for my life. I am open to any
door. The doors are all open. Show me the way and I will follow. I want to love
Jesus through loving these kids that have very few people that love them. These
kids do not know what love is. Help this team to know how to show your life.
Help us to be more like you tomorrow. Thank you so much for allowing us to
experience Heaven on earth today. Your kingdom, it was here today. It was here
in a small village in South Africa. We tasted home today.
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