I thought I was going to be bringing God to a country that didn't know who He was, but instead, they showed me who He really is. I thought it would be impossible to see Jesus through the immense poverty and devastating illness, but instead He was all around me, it just took me too long to see it.
He is in the Gogo's that care for every single person around them with unmeasurable kindness. He is in the 12-year-old orphans that carry their younger siblings down the dirt road to get food. He is in Sister Joseph who never thinks about how the children she kisses and hold so close to her are all infected with aids and TB. He is in Lindewee who carries Numvuo's bags because the tumor on her back makes it difficult to walk. He is in Silvie who after being stabbed and having to flee the Congo, and being left by her husband, cares for the sickest children with so much joy and love. He is in the people on the streets who have nothing of their own and cannot walk and yet still exalt His name and smile as we walk by. He is in Bongani who will sit with a bunch of white strangers in the hospital for hours and drive us home at 2 am because he wants to love and serve us, regardless of what it looks like. He is in 14-year-old Nontokozo who has TB and is the care-giver to her dying mom, and yet the first words in every one of her prayers is of how much she loves God. He is in X, whose only desire is for the people of Swaziland to know that they have a God who so desperately loves them. He is in Flo, the nurse who puts up with screaming and crying Americans with more grace than we ever deserved. He is in the widows who have lost all of their loved ones and still dance with joy at church. He is the children who don't have anyone on this earth to care for them besides themselves, but still run up to you with smiles on their faces and throw their arms around you and squeeze with all of their strength. He is in Florence who works all day to pay the $2 it takes to care for her husband Gideon, a man who has been paralyzed and mute for years. He is in Zwelisha, who in between his seizures has become a big brother to little Siyabonga, even though his own family hasn't given him a good example of what love is. He is in 11-year-old Thando, who weighs 33 pounds after 6 surgeries, but will tell me to lie down next to him on his bed and put his hand on my head and pray for me.
And while there were a few days where I doubted it, He is in us. We don't have it all together, we are quick to question Him and put Him into a box, sometimes we stumble and even fall. But God is in us. He has changed us and redeemed us, but even more amazingly, He has used us. In His grace, He managed to use a bunch of dirty, wretched sinners to love His precious children in a country far, far away.
God is everywhere, and He is enough.
