Using the unlikely…

It seems, in God’s Word, that He often uses the unlikely to serve His purposes. It makes sense though- then the Glory isn’t shared… It’s God’s alone. Why would He send a stuttering man named Moses to speak to Pharaoh? Why would He send a young Jewish girl named Esther to marry the king? Why would He send a city girl named Rashel to rural Africa? Because anything that happens there, every day she survives or even flourishes (and I’ve had both)- it will be Him who did it, not her. Now am I comparing myself to these great people of the Bible? Hardly, I know way too much about myself for that. What I am saying is that as I look towards these last 2 months here and back at our last 4, I really have to take a minute to sit back and marvel at what God has done. What He’s taught me, what He’s shown me… I stand amazed.
I have moments of disbelief- I can’t believe I, Rashel Sifford, have lived in “the bush” in Africa for the last 4 months! It’s crazy to think about and so obviously God- God got me to say yes, God got me on the plane, God got me out to Sanyati… and God has had me every step of the way. He had me in the days without power, and then the days without power AND water. He had me when Katy had a shoulders-to-toes rash for no explainable reason on our 2nd day out in Sanyati. He had me when I was so ill from food poisoning that I was practically unconscious for 36 hours. But He has also had me when I was watching some of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen and when I marveled at the gorgeous flowers or the gigantic baobab trees. He had me when I watched on, with pride bursting, as Paige was being interviewed by a team member for his children’s department to see what a child can do in missions. He had me when He showed me what trust really is, what faith really is, taking off years of fearful living and breaking the chains of so much bondage. He had me. 
Its nice to receive compliments, but what is even more warming to the soul is when those compliments are said by people who REALLY know what it took to do it, what the sacrifices were, where the problems lied. The last team here was filled with people who have been in on this Makeover project since the beginning… people who come every year, people who have had a part in the planning and implementing of this makeover from the start. The whole time they were here Ryan and I received dozens of compliments on how well things are going, how well our family has adjusted, how much progress has been made on the hospital. Sometimes when you are working, even for the Lord, your head is down digging into the work and you forget to look up and see how things are going. That’s what that team did for me… lifted my head up to see. God has done some amazing things here both inside of me, in my family and in that hospital. God is good and He has me. 
Rashel