The other day, I (Katie) was frustrated and Joel asked me what was going on.
I told him, there was a spider in my mixing bowl, a snail in the peanuts we roasted, and a little grub on the cloth covering my rising bread dough. And I wanted to shower but our water pressure has been frustratingly weak. And I was tired because sweet Judah wakes us up a little earlier than I’d like. And do you know what Joel said to me? He said, “sounds like that’s going in the update!” It probably wasn’t what I was ready to hear at the moment, but now I can reflect on that experience and (begrudgingly) put it in the update.
I often think of how far from the “perfect missionary” I am. The perfect missionary would take their cold, trickling shower with joy, just brush the spider off, ignore the grub, and eat the peanuts anyway. (“Perfect missionary” Joel did in fact eat the peanuts. I did not). And when a millipede got in my water bottle, I did not use it for weeks. Life here is a little harder for me than it would be for my fictional perfect missionary. But God called us here, Joel and I. It requires faith, real faith, to believe that I am not a second rate missionary. Simply because I am called, I can be obedient, without worrying about my qualification. And because I have the Holy Spirit in me, I can be God’s tool to use here in Tanzania. Full stop.
God did not give me the perfect missionary skill of loving the creepy crawlies. Or even the adequate missionary skill of tolerating them. But he tells us this: he uses the weak things of the world. That’s me!! And he also says his power is made perfect in my weakness. So, armed with truth, I know and can have faith in this: God will use me, and it will be to his glory. Maybe I am a second rate missionary, but I was never going to be anything other than completely dependent on God’s lavish, stunning grace. That grace is sufficient for me, so I can glory in my weakness and say all the louder: Bwana asifiwe!! (Praise the Lord!) And if you lived here, you’d respond to that with a hearty “Amina!” (Amen!)
Ways to Pray:
Language learning: It has its highs and its lows! We’re making progress and building relationships. But language learning can also be a hard, discouraging thing. Pray for God’s blessing in the language learning process and for us to continue pressing on.
BMB: a believer from a muslim background (BMB) showed up at our pastor’s office this week after spending the past couple of years in different locations since being disowned by her family for following Jesus. Would you pray for wisdom for the elders of our church as they seek to best serve her? And also pray for wisdom in what to do for other BMB’s in this situation now and in the future.
Contextualizing: Please pray that we’d walk in humility and remember we are always culture learners.