Just when I thought I understood what it meant to love your neighbor, I soon found out that it means much more than caring for the person next door, it includes everyone in God’s Kingdom.
The journey that changed my thinking drastically started when a missionary and his wife (Matt & Niki Paschall) shared with our congregation their call from God to do mission work in Senegal. I walked out of the sanctuary that day feeling God tugging at my heart to participate in some way. Now I am just an ordinary person, married with 2 daughters, studying the Bible and trying to live God’s will. I wasn’t a nurse or a pastor, what would I be able to share as a missionary? I had only been attending Eastern Hills Bible Church for a year and a half and I had just recently accepted Christ as my personal savior. Did I really hear the Lord right? He wanted me to go to Africa? Does he realize all my shortcomings? With many questions swarming around in my head I found myself preparing for the journey, taking a week off of work, and attending planning meetings. But God does have a plan for each one of us and I was soon to find out just what it was like to participate in the plan he had for me.
In March 2009, I came with a group of 5 ladies and spent three days in our adopted village of Ndiadiane. The first day we greeted everyone and members of the team shared photos taken in the village during their last visit. Then we gathered around and sat together on mats under a shaded tree to teach the first story about creation and the sin that followed with Eve. I started by telling the story, then the pastors told the story again. We told it different ways and asked questions to make sure the story was being understood. We even acted out the story, which I think was enjoyed by the women. They were actually answering questions and were able to recite the story back.
The next day came quickly and I was excited to get back to the village to see our new friends. The women were also eager to see us and hear more stories from the bible. Anticipating our arrival on the next day, the African women started dancing and singing special songs for each of us on the team. We all forgot the language barriers, and just enjoyed ourselves, getting to know each other. It was an awesome experience that I keep reliving in my mind. A relationship and bond had been formed. We are no longer strangers, but we are friends and neighbors for life. After the dancing and festivities we settled down and another team mate with the pastors taught them about Sarah and the promise God made her that she would have a baby. On the last day we shared the story of Mary, mother of Jesus. They told us that they wanted us to come back every month to share more stories. How exciting it makes me to have them eager for the truth.
As all of this unfolds, I think about my life and how God has prepared me for this moment. I remember how I used to view my childhood, like I was a victim of circumstances, but now I see how God was teaching me valuable lessons and gave me a deep understanding that if I had not lived through those experiences I wouldn’t have the compassion for people in similar situations. You see, I came from a broken home of poverty and followed one hopeless situation after another. Not only did my current situation seem bleak, but my future didn’t look any better. I didn’t know it then, but God had been working in my life many times; I just didn’t recognize it for a long time.
In hind sight these experiences helped me realize that God can take any experience or circumstance and make something good out of it. He has shown me that nothing or no one is hopeless, I am living proof! Even before I knew him, he was working in my life. I can look back and see how he rescued me from my hopeless situation. So as I look at these women, knowing they have been mislead, worshipping idols, living in poverty , practicing polygamy and basically having no hope in sight, I see God working through me to help these women in Africa, by bringing them the gospel . Soon they will have great hope through our awesome God! I can’t wait until I see him shining from within my new neighbors.