Stories with African Endings

There have been many ways that our Zeway team has prepared for the Zeway trip. We have had chapters to read out of manuals, lots of trip logistic discussions, vaccinations to get, lots of prayer and team building time. We have our final meeting at the beginning of May before we leave on May 24-June 3rd.

This final meeting will probably be one of the most important ones. We will be discussing and seeking God's truth on how we mentally, spiritually and emotionally prepare for the sights, sounds and smells we will experience in Ethiopia. Poverty in Africa is like no other experienced in the world. And the team is coming from a culture in which prosperity is experienced like no other place in the world.

Which is why the pastor of Grace Covenant Church, Matt Cassidy, could have been prepared and taught last Sunday's sermon specifically to our team. (click here to listen to the sermon)
The sermon series is entitled "Faith to Endure" and we dug deep into Psalm 42.

The introduction to this sermon was that we have values as Americans that are culturally true and not biblically true. In our value system, the ending of our stories always end happily. We don't know how to respond to anything else. In most parts of the world, endings are not happy. The psalmist says in 42:3, "My tears have been my food both day and night". Nothing could be more true for the people of Ethiopia in a literal sense that we can't even comprehend.

Because of our deeply embedded value system, there is a valid fear that when we are faced with a culture like Ethiopia, where orphans are thrown aside, parents die of HIV/AIDS, food and water is no where to be found, and children die of diseases that are easily cured here, we may place a barrier between ourselves and the Lord with the big question "WHY?". "Why do you allow such suffering?", "Why do you not do something?", "Why do I have all that I have?"

Matt Cassidy's spoke directly to how we overpower this fear. In Psalm 42, the psalmist says many times over to himself "Hope in God. Hope in God" . It is believing in this that is the only true emotional and spiritual preparation for the poverty in Zeway.

Our hope in this world is not in a trip to Zeway to love on 48 orphans, our hope is not in the billions of dollars sent in aid, our hope isn't even in teaching men how to fish instead of giving them fish. Our hope is in the Lord. Our hope is in His eternal perspective and His faithfulness in working out all things for good. Our hope is in His return to rule over His kingdom in the way He intended.

So, there may be 3 ways we can return from this trip: 1. bitter and blaming God for the world's suffering. 2. Complacent and with a loss of hope that anything can get better. OR 3. Hoping more fervently and with more conviction that only in Christ's return will the wrongs in this world be righted.

Please pray for us that we would return with even more Hope in the Lord. Please pray that we can share this Hope with the Ethiopians. Please pray that we can communicate this Hope when we return to Austin.

That is an exciting prayer to pray!