Moshi, Tanzania
This missions trip exceeded my expectations to the point where my life has been changed forever. From the moment I stepped on Tanzanian soil I knew this was going to be an experience I would never forget. From the endless fields of sunflowers to the tops of Mt. Kilimanjaro, I fell in love with Tanzania’s scenery. No matter how much poverty or brokenness I saw on the streets, I knew that God found this place and the people beautiful so I saw it to be beautiful. The kids we spent time with exemplified true joy and love. Even when they had no shoes on the dirt and one pair of pants, they smiled more then the kids I see here in America with 20 pairs of shoes. They would all fight to hold our hands and jump into our arms to feel a welcoming embrace. We loved them and played games with them, and even saved a few of their lives. We walked through the streets and shops of Moshi and prayed for people who God led us to. We shared God’s love and poured that love over everyone who we prayed for. In those moments I saw hope glimmer in their eyes and even my team members. Some days were harder and discouraging on our hearts but those days reminded us that the devil will do anything to keep us from doing God’s will. It was a spiritual warfare from the beginning but God will always be victorious and on this trip He definitely was and is victorious. Now I’m not saying all of this because I have gone all the way to Africa and now think that I am more perfect or a better Christian. I am sharing this because this is God’s work, not mine. He deserves all the glory from this trip and I am just a disciple sharing the good news. It doesn’t matter where God has called you, God will do big things through you no matter where He calls you. God called me to Tanzania and I obeyed and went. I hope that wherever God calls you to go that you will go and share the good news because He will bless you if you do. He has surely blessed me…
Matthew 28:18-20
The Great Commission
18 Then Jesus came to them and said,“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
1 Corinthians 13
13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge,and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhoodbehind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
