Watching how a child’s attitude can change, by simply letting him know that he is loved. Asking him to be my friend, his face lights up. He feels loved, wanted, important to someone, and this makes him smile, have joy, love back. When before he knew this, he acted bitter, hard, like he was trying to be mean to everyone around… even the little boys on the plane, not orphans – yet longing to be loved. They ended up sitting in my lap, and playing with me, hugging, I even got a kiss on the cheek! Ha ha.
I think I (sorry boys) started my female monthly troubles about the moment our plane hit the ground in Ethiopia. So with this lovely aching in my back, stomach, and knees, the fact that I got very little sleep in the past 3 some hours, the insanely long line that took us about 2 hours to get through to receive our visas to enter the country, plus the hauling of all our luggage, it was refreshing that God had reminded me on the plane as I read in 2 Cor. 6 particularly verses 4 through 10 that it is not easy to do His will and His work that He calls me to.
“As servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.”
As a servant of God, who will face hardships, troubles, distresses, even beatings imprisonment, riots, hard work, sleepless nights, and hunger, I should have endurance through these and fight for purity, understanding, patience, kindness in the Holy Spirit, and sincere love. This passage is encouraging because it shows that it is okay for me to face all this, because I have God on my side, and He says that these things will happen! Even the smell, the moment you step into the Ethiopian airport, just smells dirty, like sweat, and spices foreign to my nose. The people themselves smell… similar to the homeless in Nashville, but you don’t even mind when you think of Gods great love for this un-reached people!
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