God is sooooooo amazing! He has blown me away!

Our last night of packing, before we boarded the plane for Zimbabwe, we never slept. We were throwing things in boxes right up until the end. It was insane. We had a little extra room at the end, but I couldn’t think of anything else to pack and, quite frankly, we had run out of time. We needed to head out towards the airport. So, off we went…… skip forward to week 1 in Harare. Still struggling to adjust to life in Zim, I occasionally would have pangs of sadness for random items that were left back home. Over the next 2 weeks, I beat myself up about what I should have brought… what I could have grabbed at the last minute. It was very frustrating. As time passed two things happened- 1) God led me to accept reality about where I was and what I had with me… sure, I “should have”, but I didn’t and that’s ok. 2) Secondly, God kept “gifting” me with little surprise things in the most random ways. For example, I have a blanket at home that is my favorite… it’s soft and warm, I love it. After arriving here, I was bummed at the prospect of no special blanket for 6 mos… esp. since it is winter here. Then we started going through a box of supplies we had sent on ahead with another team and in it was a ….(wait for it!)… a blanket!!!!... fleece!!!!... soft and warm and such a surprise! It felt like God handed it right to me! Every night when I go to sleep I feel like God is giving me a hug! :o) It’s been awesome! That’s just 1 example of what has happened a dozen times! It has been so sweet to get a reminder from God that He’s here and He sees me. It has been so refreshing to my heart.
Skip ahead to about 2 weeks ago. We had some communication issues and weren’t able to get a message out to the first team in time for them to bring us some items from the States. I have to say, I was disappointed. In my head, somehow, the teams bringing us supplies from home had become my saving grace for living in Zimbabwe for 6 months. But in the disappointment, I knew it was God. He was, as He always does, finding something that I was depending on- instead of Him- and dissolving it. Though the feeling is not always a pleasant one, it is a sure-fire way to get my hands firmly on Him and off the things of this world. I knew God saw that, in my heart, I was depending on the teams for supplies, not Him. After a heart check, I was better able to see who I should be relying on. When the team was packing up to go, one of the team members brought us a bag of candy he had leftover. Normally that wouldn’t have floored me, but candy was one of the things that we needed. I had been getting very concerned that we weren’t going to be able to give out candy at the kid's bible study last week like I was advised to. When I saw the bag of candy, I knew it was God saying “Stop worrying, I’ve got this!”. I was so thrilled and in awe of God- to see my heart and bless me in such a way.
Well, that brings us up to tonight… when God has absolutely blown me away! Tuesday last week (keeping in mind they flew out on Friday) I sent the second team a small list of things we needed pretty asap. I took a lot of stuff off our previous list and just was asking for the “must-haves”. I emailed their team leader and to be honest, knew it was a long shot because it was such short notice. When they arrived tonight they had 5 tubs/suitcases full of stuff for us and for ministry here. Now, I asked them for rather small items, so I was puzzled. She explained she had put our requests on facebook and their church body flooded them with stuff to bring to us (both on our list and not). I was floored! (But wait, it gets better!) It was like Christmas- tons of tools Ryan had been needing, cool food for the kids, etc. I even sang a few Christmas carols! Haha! After we started to unpack the boxes is when I was floored… the stuff that was sent to us was almost EVERYTHING from that first longer list that I didn’t send them. There were also several items there that only God knew that I wanted… for example, the other day I thought “Man, I really miss gum. I wish I had a pack of gum from back home”… I now have a pack of Trident. I thought “I wish I would have brought the plastic container you put wipes in. It would have really helped with potty-training!”… I now have 3. I thought “Man, what a bummer for my kids to not get applesauce for 6 months.”… I now have some. I thought “Gosh, we are running out of travel snacks for the kids- Hope what we have can last till our home church’s team comes. Maybe they can bring us some”… I now have 2 packages of them. I thought “Man, I wish I could get travel wipes here”… I now have some. I had been warned when I got here to always use a purse with a zipper (which I didn’t bring) and had been considering buying one, but hated to spend our money here on a new purse for me… I now have a zipper purse sitting on my dresser!!! Can you believe it!!! Things I hadn’t even told Ryan that I wanted are now in my home! This is crazy! God is so big and so huge to orchestrate this, but yet so detailed and intimate to know my heart’s desire AND He loves me enough to provide it! WOW! What an awesome and wonderful God we serve! I have been blown away by how much He loves me and how sweetly He cares for me. Praise Him!


Rashel