I love Africa. I love the fact that red dirt covers everything. I love the bad smells and dirty feet. I love hearing the word “Mzungu!” I love the warm hugs and big smiles. This place is tragically beautiful. Trash is everywhere, and so is potential. What these people need is to be taught Scripture. They need truth spoken into their lives. Many of them know of Jesus, but many don’t know much more than His name. I long for them to know His love, His truth, His grace, His forgiveness, and His acceptance. I hope to introduce someone to the freedom that is Christ.
Since we’ve been here, we’ve been busy. I love that we are meeting so many people, touching so many lives, and loving like Christ. But it’s a struggle. It’s so easy to accept the fact that we have so much to do and not worry about anything else. It’s easy to slack off on quiet time with God. It’s easy to not intentionally love each team mate daily. It’s easy to get into a routine at the church services- to dance around and tune out all that’s happening instead of truly worshipping our Creator. A few nights ago, God gave us a lesson on this.
It was at an evening service, and the Mzungu worship team was on stage leading in praise. Here, they have the music very loud. It’s important to be heard. However, the guitar would not plug into the amplifier this time. So we continued on with acoustic worship with the guitar, a box drum, and microphones (still just as loud as usual.) As we were finishing the last few lines of the song “Oceans,” the power went out. I looked over at my team mate and best friend, Ashley, who was on the guitar. No words were needed, we would worship in the dark. So the group took the drum and guitar into the congregation and led worship with nothing but acoustic instruments and our voices.
“I’m coming back to the heart of worship, and it’s all about you, Jesus.”
I looked up and saw the stars from Africa for the first time. And it was just me and God there. I was in awe, and He was incredible. We worshipped outside, with no power, no loud noise, no distractions. We simply sang to the One who has given us so many reasons to love Him. It was the first time I was able to “be still,” and I’m so thankful the power cut off. I thought about it later, and I truly think God was more glorified through the personal worship than He was by the loud, worship “show.” It’s interesting how able He is to be glorified in all situations.
That moment was special. I’m thankful for God and how special He is!
