Day two...P-A-I-N-T-I-N-G... !?!

So here we were in Africa after taking pills to prevent Malaria and shots to prevent Hepatitis..after traveling on four airplanes and two buses and sitting for more than fourteen hours in airport layovers and after day one bringing hundreds of people to Christ, and day two's agenda was : PAINTING...ugh right? Wrong! The most amazing thing about this trip was that 27 people worked together in unity...seriously, no matter what the task everyone had a true servant attitude.

Now everyone got a turn to paint at a different time. While one team painted, another went into the villages...day two for me was painting. I am allergic to Latex so I was put on the other side of the compound completely by myself to do all of the brown trim. As the rest of the team painted with cream and green, the plan was that we would eventually swap places and finish all of the buildings at Esther's House.

We were given all of our supplies and sent into different directions and so it began...At first I felt a bit left out, I could hear my friends joking and laughing together. It would have been easy to feel sorry for myself, but I got my ipod and began. I randomly shuffled worship songs and focused my attention on doing the very best job that I could. After all I was serving the Lord whether I painted very straight brown trim on all of the buildings at Esther's House or whether I was leading someone to Christ. These buildings housed precious little ones who now knew the Lord and had food clothing and shelter. They were well loved and cared for, and now their home was getting a beautiful fresh coat of paint.

The dust in Malawi truly has to be experienced to be understood...it is everywhere! All you have to do is breathe and a swirl of the thick brown dust moves in circles above you. Needless to say we had to scrub each section that we would be painting before we began ( a bit back breaking) but as I scrubbed I thought of how Jesus had scrubbed me clean and how he had lovingly covered me with  His purity...how God now saw me as fresh and new because of His shed blood on the cross.

A cool breeze came from nowhere and refreshed me as my worship swelled in my heart, I was filling up all of the places which had been emptied the day before (I didn't know that I needed it, but God certainly did). Instead of feeling sorry for myself, disconnected or alone, I felt loved, cared for and filled to over flowing by the holy Spirit. I could feel the peaceful smile coming across my face and the tensions of the day melting away...I wanted to stand with my arms raised high, beautiful African mountains in the background,  and praise my God at the top of my lungs...I wanted to stand on the top of those mountains and shout out His marvelous name...I was blessed and I was thankful.

After painting we showered and went to dinner. It was so encouraging to hear every one's stories about the day, but most encouraging of all was that the Lord drew near to me and captivated me with His love. I heard Him nudge me towards His word with a calm warm voice. I was complete in His companionship and ready to go out the next day and share about His love.

God alone knew exactly which hearts would be ready to receive Him...which souls had lost all hope, had no peace, no joy...He would guide me and show me what I needed to know to do His work, and I was filled and rested and ready to go for Him.

Funny thing was that each day when I spent time reading in the bible, God took me to Isaiah 6:8, "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? And I said, Here am I. Send Me!"


Every day He asked me...Every day I answered the same way, "I will go, send me!"
I had come to Africa, I had gone wherever He had asked me to go...I was ready to go wherever He directed me..."Send Me!" my heart shouted, "Send me!"