Desperate For God... Africa, part 3

First, Naomi, you left me a comment on my last post and I so want to talk to you, but I don't know how to get in touch with you...  Somehow I missed your blog going private, so if you read this, can you e-mail me from my profile so I can have your e-mail address and get an invitation to your blog...  I miss following along!

So back to Africa...  The Sunday morning before I left for Africa, a sweet prayer warrior friend came to me at church and asked if she could pray with me... This friend has the most tender heart and she has been such a HUGE encouragement to me through our adoption and my trips to Africa.  She is so faithful to pray for us and always listens to all of the details of my stories, I don't think she knows what a gift that is...

So on this Sunday morning, she sat and prayed with me and she prayed for boldness...  I know she prayed for other things, but it was that word, 'boldness', that echoed in my heart throughout the trip...

On the plane over, I was reading one of the best books I've read in a long time, Radical...  Taking Back Your Faith From The American Culture, by David Platt (I HIGHLY recommend this book).  One of the thoughts that grabbed my heart was how in our culture, we are so self-sufficient, that we aren't really desperate for God.  So I prayed, "Lord, while I'm in Africa, make me desperate for You."  (Be careful what you pray for!)

The first day we arrived in Swaziland, we were roaming around waiting for our orientation meeting to begin and one of the leaders from Heart For Africa came to me and said, "I hope this is just a reminder, but you know you're a team leader right?"  I had absolutely no idea...  I was completely unprepared and being in such a different culture where so many things can offend, I was terrified...  But God reminded me of my friend's sweet prayer and I knew that He had gone before me!  And clearly God was answering my own prayer to 'make me desperate!'

But He wasn't done yet...  On our last day in the community, the Pastor sat down with me to discuss how our afternoon worship and celebration would go and he said, "I would like for you to bring the word to us."  Surely there was someone else in the room that he was talking too...  What could I possibly have to say to people who live such different lives...  How could I possibly talk about a passage that I hadn't spent hours studying for (not to mention that I didn't know what verse I was supposed to speak about)?  Desperate for God was going to a whole new place...  And once again, my friend's sweet prayer echoed in my heart...  Be bold!

And God was faithful...  As I prayed, God clearly led me to a verse.  So then I tried to think through what I might say, but my thoughts were overwhelmed and confused, I couldn't think straight for anything.  So I prayed, "Fine... I'm not going to think this through, You're just going to have to make the words come out of my mouth."  And He did!  When I finished, I basically had no idea of what I had said!

But there was still one more lesson left to come about being desperate...  On our last day of service, we went to a hospital to distribute blankets and beanies to the school children in the community and to pray with the families in the children's ward of the hospital. 

It was my first trip to a hospital in a 3rd world country...  It was shocking...  heartbreaking... beyond description...  But it was here that I really understood the phrase, "desperate for God."

As we went into the ward, we took blankets to each family and offered to pray with them...  Even though most probably didn't understand our words, they all understood our touch and the act of praying.  It was a sweet but sad time...

As we finished our rounds of the children's ward, we headed back out into the main ward and were taken aback when we heard a man yelling...  As we drew closer and closer, I became more and more afraid that somehow one of the local witchdoctors had come in and that something terrible was happening...  So I prayed, "Lord, if this is a bad thing, please make it stop."  But then we begin to hear the word 'Jesu' 'Jesu' 'Jesu'...  And then we knew, this man was calling on the name of Jesus...

As we entered back into the main ward, we found this man and another, praying over a child who was probably near death...  The child had a feeding tube and his breathing was so shallow...  And these two men called out to God in a way that I have NEVER heard before...  They called on Him for life...for healing...they prayed with a faith that is far beyond where I pray...  These men were truly DESPERATE for God and my needs all of a sudden seemed so small...  I really have no idea what it means to be desperate for God...

And perhaps that's the blessing of a third world country...  Maybe that's why, when I'm there, I feel closer to Him than ever...  Maybe that's why it's so hard for me to leave and why I'm so ready to return...  God's presence is almost tangible there and I have to wonder if it's because the people there are so desperate for Him. 

I've thought about praying that God would make me truly desperate for Him, but I admit, I'm afraid to pray that prayer...  Maybe I don't want that enough for my life...  Maybe I'm afraid He'll really answer it...  Maybe I'm afraid of what that answer would like...  But for now, my prayer is that He will fill me with a longing for Him that is far greater than my desire for comfort and ease in this lifetime...  Maybe then I'll be ready for whatever it takes to make me truly desperate for God.