Partners in the Gospel

Partner - a person who takes part in an undertaking with others, often involving shared risks and profits

8,270 miles away and across 8 time zones I was blessed to witness a beautiful picture of what it looks like to be partners in the gospel with a community of believers from a different background, culture, and continent.  Each day, our American team of 10 partnered with 8 Tanzanians to achieve our common goal.  Our combined team was also able to equip over 10 local pastors and 5 local medical trainees.  We greatly depended on each other to help achieve our goals.  If our team of 10 had shown up in the village without the support of our Tanzanian friends we would have seriously struggled.

There were two memorable moments when this partnership was so evident.  One was on Thursday of our trip.  I remember standing in a corner of the church getting a sip of water and taking a minute to look around.  I was overwhelmed when I realized that the clinic was mainly being run by the people we had trained.  One of our goals was to leave behind people who were trained in how to assess basic medical needs.  It was amazing to see this in action.

The second time I was blessed by this partnership was on our last day in Dihombo village.  Mari Beth, our team leader, had come down with a nasty stomach bug.  Pastor Joel asked that she be escorted into the church so that we could pray over her.  She came in and sat in a chair in the middle of a circle that included our team, our Tanzanian team, the pastors she had poured into throughout the week, and members of the church congregation.  We stood together as one and lifted up unified prayers for healing.

"I thank my God every time I remember you.  In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." - Philippians 1:3-6

Gracious and Giving

"When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required." - Luke 12:48  

According a top economist you need just $34,000 annual income to be in the top 1% of the world's richest people... and HALF the world's richest people live in the U.S.  So by the world's standards most of you reading this blog are considered "wealthy".  We are blessed to live in this great country with so many resources, opportunities, and "things" that make life  comfortable.  But if you are like me you often don't look at all of these "things" as gifts God has given us to make spreading the gospel that much easier.  But what if we realized that God has given us much because He requires much?  What if we understood that all of these blessings are given to us to bless others?

What joy is found when we eagerly give away the things God has blessed us with in the hopes that it will encourage and help our fellow brother and sister in Christ?  What beauty there is when we come before the Lord with open hands instead of clinched fists and ask that He show us how to live a life that is poured out as an offering.  Man, I was convicted of this over and over again while in Africa.  In 2013 the average income in Tanzania was $860. The people that we were able to minister to have so little, but in many ways have so much more because they understand the joy of giving.  

One day as I was eating my lunch on the bus I had several precious children bring me beautiful flowers.  Such a precious gift.

Another day I was talking to several kids and trying (in odd sign language and broken Swahili) to find out what they were eating.  The next thing I knew I had one child go pick a mango for me and another child offered me some homemade candy.  They were so eager to share what little they had.  

Another thing that struck me was how content the people were to wait.  Some people would show up early for the clinic and they would sit patiently and wait until their name was called to be seen.  I worked in the pharmacy for the majority of the week.  One day this precious elderly man came up to the pharmacy and politely told our nurse/interpreter that he was still waiting for his prescriptions.  We looked back through the stack of forms and found that his only had a recommendation by the doctor to see an ophthalmologist, but no prescriptions to be filled.  Nurse Monica relayed this to him and he smiled, said "Thank You" and left.  What?  I would have climbed over that table and throttled the "pharmacist".  I would have yelled and pitched a fit that my time is precious and are you kidding that I just waited here for hours for nothing?  And that is ugly to realize.  I was reminded of this gracious man when I went to the post office earlier this week to attempt for the 5 gajillionth time to straighten out my mail.  I pray that I will constantly be reminded of the gracious and giving hearts of these incredible Tanzanian people!

Lord, give me the boldness to give until it hurts.  Give me an eternal perspective instead of an earthly view.  Let my life be poured out for the sake of making your name known to the ends of the earth.

"But store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven..." - Matthew 6:20

Perspective

I'm starving.
So annoyed... I had to wait 10 minutes in line at Wal Mart.
Ugh... I don't have anything to wear.
I'm bored.
I had to park so far away.  All of the front spots were taken.

You know what stinks... When God slaps you in the face with your selfish, lazy, self-centered mindset  (like slaps you hard and it stings and maybe makes you tear up a little).  But you know what's awesome... When He uses that stinging slap to wake you up out of your narcissistic stupor and opens your eyes to a more fulfilled life.  In America it is so easy to slip into this way of life because we have everything right at our fingertips and we have become spoiled.  But when I saw the joyful faces of so many people who by American standards have nothing, I was instantly convicted.  And for that I am thankful.

I have uttered the above statements more times than I can count.  But my prayer now is that the Lord would remind me in those moments of my precious friends in Africa and their joyful and content attitudes.

"I'm starving."  I have no idea.

"So annoyed... I had to wait 10 minutes in line at Wal Mart."  We had people come to the medical clinic who waited for hours without ever complaining.  Lord, teach me to be patient.

"Ugh... I don't have anything to wear."  This adorable little nugget was one of the most joyful children I have ever been around.  Does he look worried about his torn shirt?  He had on the same clothes several times and could care less.  

"I'm bored."  The children of Dihombo village were content to play games, sing songs, or just sit and be.  This is a picture of one of the pastors who joined in as we were trying (unsuccessfully) to play a game that the kids taught us.  You draw eight squares in the dirt and try to get a rock into each square without missing any of the squares.  Oh, and you can only hop on one foot.  I am sure with an extra year of practice I could have dominated this game.  We played red light/green light, follow the leader, hopscotch, limbo, and sang songs with the kids and they never complained of being bored.

"I had to park so far away.  All of the front spots were taken."  This is a picture of the pastors who showed up every day to be trained and taught by Mari Beth.  One of them walked all the way from the top of a nearby mountain each day.  

Lord, give me eyes to see the blessings that I have become so used to.  Help me not take these things for granted and show me how I can use the blessings you have given me to be a blessing to those around me and around the world.  

This video perfectly summarizes the difference between first world "problems" and third world joys.  Third World Joys

Beauty Beyond Measure

If you are like me I have always pictured Africa as dry, hot, sandy, and flat.  I am sure there are areas of this enormous continent that match that description, but I was shocked to find that Tanzania is anything but flat and sandy.  Over the eight days I spent in Tanzania I was continuously awestruck by the beauty of God's creation.

From the green, mountainous landscape

To the beautiful smiles of precious children

To wild animals grazing in what I imagine Eden was like

To the bright colors that were everywhere

Clayton, one of my team members, challenged each of us early in the week to live in the moment and fully embrace each experience of this trip.  He told us to just "eat the peach" and not think about the next thing on the to-do list or what was happening back at home, but to truly "taste and see that the Lord is good".  Man, that is hard for me, but so rewarding to slow down and appreciate God's creation.  I am continuing to challenge myself with this now that I am home and the pace is much more hurried and hectic.  I challenge you to do the same... stop and smell the roses, slow down, breathe deep, be still, eat the peach.

Meet My Team

I am amazed at how God continuously blesses me with the opportunity to be a part of some amazing teams and communities of believers.  The Tanzania Team was no exception.  Throughout this experience you get really close to people really fast.  I have found that the more open and vulnerable I am willing to be, the more I get out of being a part of a group with a common purpose.  We laughed (LOTS), talked (okay, I asked 1 gajillion questions and my teammates graciously answered), cried, encouraged, and prayed our way through this experience.  I would love to introduce you to my amazing team (From left to right):

Fred Miller: Trip Co-leader, Medical Clinic Logistics, Tippy Tap Engineer
Jordan Robbins: Fellow bootleg pharmacist
Amanda DeMauro: Eye Clinic Assistant
Mari Beth Poor: Trip Leader, Pastoral Training Leader, Blogger Extraordinaire
Me: Bootleg Pharmacist, Child Hugger
Beth Shires: Medical Clinic Vitals
Zach Whiting: Medical Clinic Floater/Helper/Murse, Team Medic, Thigh Purse Wearer
Clayton Davie: Medical Clinic Trainer for 5 Village Trainees, World Traveler who kept us all from ending up in Thailand with no luggage
Victoria Brake: Eye Clinic Assistant, Roomie
Danny Rausch: Medical Clinic Vitals, Videographer, Worship Leader

I have much love and respect for each of these new friends and I am excited to see how God will continue to use our experience to stretch, challenge, and change us.

I Left My Heart In Africa

On May 20th I met my nine teammates at the Birmingham airport at 5:00 a.m. to set out on an adventure that would change my life.  If you know me, then you know that I am a verbal processor.  I need to talk through things to process them, so I decided to resuscitate my blog in order to do this.  I would love for you to join me as I unpack everything I saw, experienced, felt, and learned over the past 12 days.  I will do my best to remember everything so I can give you a small peek into what God has done in and through my team through this incredible experience.  Thank you all for your prayers and support.  I took a little peace of each of you to Africa with me.  I hope I was able to love the people of Tanzania half as well as I have been loved in my life by each of you!