Cottonwood sent a group to Zanzibar recently to visit our missionaries there, distribute mosquito nets, and to connect with the Zanzibari people. Belinda Koestle shared a little snipet from the trip which was so meaningful, I asked permission to share it on the blog. Below is an entry taken from her journal on while she was in Zanzibar.
When we were getting ready for this trip,Dave gave us some insight into making this trip as meaningful and pleasant as possible. Besides stressing the value of being flexible, he wanted to prepare us for all the very noticeable differences we would experience while we were here, compared to life in the United States. He encouraged us to see this difference not as bad or wrong – but to view it for what it really is – it is just different. I wanted to be a model team member so I decided I would be very intentional on this trip to be very flexible and embrace different – even enjoy the differences. I wanted God to reveal more about himself to me in the differences. So, as we were flying in, I thought about God and his creation. He created the seasons, 4 very different seasons. He created diverse terrain. Mountains like Mount Killamenjara, which we flew beside, talk about seeing God’s majesty on display. God created the rain forest, the desert, even land below sea level that cities have been built on. All of this is God’s doing. If God delights in different – I should too! I was ready to go out and soak in all the differences in the Zanzibar culture yesterday while distributing mesquite nets. So Dave really caught me off guard yesterday while at the village he asked me if I saw any similarities between village life in Zanzibar and my life in Stephenville, TX, USA. My first thought before I answered him was “Is this a trick question?” Wasn’t he suppose to ask me about the differences I had so boldly noticed and accepted as just different, not bad or wrong – just different? I could have given him 25 examples just off the top of my head if he had just asked me that question. But God knew that I was missing seeing Him by not looking at what I needed to be focused on. So Dave did ask me the correct question and I thought about Psalm 139:13-16. This passage is David expressing who God is for him, but these words are true for every single person whether we know it as truth or not.
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”
No matter where you live, what you look like, what you have, or who you know, God’s character goes into the creation of every person, and he desires to have a personal relationship with each and every one of us. So those of us who have experienced that relationship – how can we not share and desire that for all people? Yesterday, I saw men working to provide for their families, I saw mother’s caring for their babies. I saw children playing in the school yard. The people here feel the pain from a pulled tooth and want relief from that pain just like I do. I saw women washing clothes, cooking a family meal and cleaning house. We talked to a man whose face lit up with joy when he talked to us about his children and his desire to have a total of 13 kids. He joked with Dave about only having 3 kids. Yes, the people here even have a sense of humor, and you don’t have to understand their language to enjoy their laughter. I see an island full of people who need a savior and I see Jesus dying on the cross, being buried and rising on the 3rd day to be their savior. I see a people God loves and longs to walk with. Each person is fearfully and wonderfully made by God, he knew each one of us before we were born, whether we live in the United States, Zanzibar, China or anywhere else in the world. We are all created by God and we’re really not so different after all.
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