Foxes and Birds

One of my main responsibilities here in Swaziland is to go into the community around Hawane CLC to meet the people and map out the land. I am so excited about the prospect of what this work can do to bring spiritual and physical hope to the people of Hawane. It is hard to help people when you do not know their needs, but as we go from homestead to homestead we will be able to see the specific needs of the people. We can meet their physical needs and help them focus on their spiritual needs and the One who can fulfill all their needs. What an honor that God chooses us to be a part of His work!!

One day, just over a week ago, we were visiting an old sick gogo. This gogo was too weak to get out of bed in order to come outside to visit with us, so we entered into her home. As I sat there, I looked around me at the inside of the simple mud and stick home. Through the door to my left, in the only other room in the home, was her grandson doing his school work in the kitchen. There was a wood burning stove that was warming the house and filling it with smoke, a sink with dirty dishes, and some small cabinets. In the room in which we were sitting, there were three beds, one for the gogo and one each for two of her grandsons that stayed in that home with her. In the corner were bags of clothes and blankets. There was one shelf unit, no dressers, no closet. The only window to the room was boarded up, and the walls, ceilings, and even mattresses were black from a previous fire. There was no electricity, no running water, no toilet. I couldn’t help but feel compassion for the gogo and her family; they were living a hard life.

As I looked around though, I could see the simple beauty in the home structure. I looked at the walls around me and the ceiling above me and thought “I could live in a mud and stick hut.” Throughout the past week, I have dwelt on that thought. I would want to have the kitchen in a separate structure like many Swazis do, and I would probably have to construct myself some sort of storage unit for the blankets and winter clothes. I have thought about having to fetch water and boil it to make sure it was clean, growing my own vegetable garden, having to kill and clean a chicken, digging a toilet, and how I would rig a bit of a shower for myself to feel clean. To be honest, the more I think about it, the more appealing it is to me. Not to say that it would be easy by any means and it would definitely have to be a calling from God, but I know that if He called me to it, I could do it.

Living in the US, we have access to almost anything we could want. Most of us have a source of income, running water, electricity, heat, either a fan or air conditioning, and enough food. We sometimes forget what a blessing the simple things that we take for granted are. Worst yet, sometimes we worry too much about the things that we “need” that we don’t have. Often these are the snares that keep us from following God with our everything.

Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." (Matthew 8:19-20) God may never ask you to move to Africa to live in a mud and stick hut, He may never even ask you to leave the US, but He is asking you to follow Him with everything in you, leaving all else behind. Don’t let the things of this world get in your way, keeping you from experiencing the great blessings that God has ready to pour out over you. This is my goal.