Sunday – He Is Worthy of All Praise!

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Last day in Burundi; last chance to worship with our dear friends at Life Center, and we certainly did worship!  Praise and worship went on for a mere two hours; standard.  Worship here is CELEBRATION!  Joyful worship, praising God for Who He is and all His attributes, with great thanksgiving!

Then Apollinaire, the incredible worship leader, introduced their newest member to the family, their little recently born son, number 3, his wife and mother-in-law.  It was to be a baby dedication, but Apollinaire first started sharing his admiration and thankfulness for his lovely wife.  His tribute to her went on for some time, and then he started singing to her…….with her joining in with him.  (Found out that this was the song they sang to one another at their wedding!).  It was a sweet, poignant moment.  As he talked about the precious gift of marriage and how blessed he was, Pastor Mark felt the Lord prompting him not to share the message he had prepared, but rather to have a time of prayer for marriages and families.  He knew of many marriages that were hurting, some on the verge of divorce, some that were good, but wished to be better.  He asked all married couples to come to the front of the church for prayer.  Since their congregation is 1,000+, this meant a lot of people.  As he began to pray, he called out to God for healing in marriages, families, united homes.  He prayed for strained relationships, repentance and forgiveness, mutual respect and support, looking to Jesus as the center of their lives and families.  This was no “quick little prayer.”  It was a call to examination and commitment, and it was obvious that there were many couples “doing business” with the Lord in this prayerful moment.  There was also prayer for those not yet married and desiring to be, that God would bring His person into their life, along with comfort for widows and all those alone.  It was a powerful, piercing time that visibly affected everyone in the congregation.  We admired Pastor Mark for being sensitive to God’s leading to focus on what He wanted to happen in this service rather than insisting on delivering his “prepared message.”  It was a truly memorable time and obviously Spirit led.

Back to the hotel, lunch, and then the job of packing up loads of dirty laundry, mixed with all the lovely items we had purchased from the Homecare ladies and other remembrances purchased during our time.  Bags bulging, passports in hand, we head to the airport to await our flight.  A big prayer item for this trip was for ALL the flights to go as scheduled (there have ben some real challenges on this route at times with cancellations, etc.).  God blessed us with each flight going as planned; thank you, Jesus!  After sharing our last goodbye hugs and thanks with Peace, Phoebe and Mandy, we checked in and waited to board.  At last, we rolled down the runway and began the long journey home.

We would have a brief stop in Nairobi for passengers to get off and new ones to board, then off to Brussels.  From there to Chicago, and then on to Houston (Jenna left us in Chicago to go straight into Austin, so we bid her farewell there).  Long, long legs, little rest, but we’re heading home!  Finally, successful return to good old Texas!  Our Lafayette portion of the team would go on to Lafayette from here.  The rest of us, tired but happy, gathered our bags and headed to our homes.  Unfortunately, there were delays for the La. Group, and they didn’t get home until much later that night, but they did at last arrive safely home.

Reflections:

In the materials we discuss at the end of our teams, we talk about how to process the mission trip experience, some things to expect when you get back home, how to begin to process what God had done personally in each of our lives and how He stretches and challenges us through the experience.  We have some good thought questions that we ask all team members to ponder; not short answer questions or fill in the blank, but really thought questions.  How did we see God at work?  What did we learn about ourselves, those we visited, cultures, views on suffering and poverty…….not “fluff stuff.”  These we leave for continuing prayer and consideration.  They help to unpack the mission experience once you are home unpacking your bags.

God has layers of purposes in inviting us to join Him on mission.  We’ll be discovering the impact of that for years, but one thing we know.  We are different as a result!  We see things with a new lens; we view the world and our own surroundings differently, and that is a good thing.

One suggestion in preparing for how you will share your mission experience with others is to choose 3 descriptions words/phrases to describe your experience.  More than just “great, wonderful, awesome.”  Something that gives insight to the experience.

I’ve been pondering my 3 words.  What comes to mind are these:

·      Encouraging – to hear the “before and after” testimonies of the women and how God has worked in their lives through their training and seeing how well recent graduates continue to be doing.

·      Surprising – to see the stunning beauty of the rural countryside in contrast to the dusty, bustling capital city that does not enjoy the lush green of tea fields, flowers, and trees that fill the countryside. We’d never had the chance to see and enjoy the rare beauty to be found outside the city, and it was divine.

·      Personally impacting – Each testimony heard spoke to me and to all of us, whether coming from one of the women, leaders, or one of our own team.  The personal prayers, time of prayer for marriages and families…..all these touched hearts and souls in deeply personal ways.  Our relationships with the “family” at Homecare grow deeper.  It is truly a very personal experience.

And that’s why Tirzah exists, to join together those who have God’s heart for women, children, families, and the major challenges they face here and all over the world and together, to follow God’s lead in addressing them.

Thank you, Lord, for allowing us to join hands with You and amazing believers, like Peace, to serve together to bring about your purposes.  It is a joy, a privilege, and we are forever grateful!

He is inviting us all to take part, and we would love to have you join hands with us and everyone in the Tirzah network so that, as His Body, we can do what He has called us to do, to go into all the world, making disciples, sharing His love and hope, building one another up in His love, so that when we are in eternity together with Jesus, we can together say, “Holy, Holy, Holy…..Worthy is the Lamb!!  Hallelujah!”