This past Wednesday was just differant.
Do you know what I mean?
Do you ever have one of those "differant" days?
You know, the kind of days when things are just,
I don't know "not normal",
just "differant"?
Every once in a while I have one of those days.
Sometimes they just seem to pass by,
but mostly I think they are "differant"
because something during that day made it memorable.
Wednesday seemed to be a normal day.
I got up,
did my devotions,
household chores,
made some phone calls,
studied my Zulu,
prepared for my discipleship lesson,...
...normal Wednesday things.
Then I did my rounds of picking up the kids for discipleship.
During discipleship, I was amazing as we reviewed,
with what the children were remembering.
It just encourages you to see spiritual growth in children.
We really had a wonderful and productive time.
Don't you just love those times when you meet together with believers
and noone wants to leave, because you all feel like a family?
That is how our group feels about one another.
It is truly a blessing! A small jewel from Heaven.
Oh, I forgot to mention that at the end of the Bible lesson,
a teen boy talked with me about assurance of salvation.
He realized that he was saved, but not growing.
After, discipleship, the whole group walked out to my car.
In a matter of seconds it was full of the first batch of children to take home.
As I got in and started the engine, I noticed a group of people standing around the shop where I was parked.
Normally, that many people are not there.
What a great opportunity!
Being the only "umlungu" (white person) in the area,
people always notice me.
I smile and greet them in Zulu.
This time as they looked at me,
I felt the opportunity to give them some Gospel tracts and John & Romans.
I turned the car (full of kids) off,
opened my trunk,
and got out all of the literature I had.
Wouldn't you know,
it was exactly enough for each of them!
After talking a little in my broken Zulu with them,
I got back in the car to take the waiting children home.
Just as I was getting ready to pull away,
Londiwe reminded me that I promised that teen boy I talked with, a Bible.
Turning the car off again,
I went to the trunk of my car and handed him a new Bible of his very own.
He was happy that he could now read his very own Bible.
Finally, I got back in the car and drove the first batch of kids
down the hill to where they lived.
On the way down the hill,
one of the girls asked me for some tracts.
I told her that I had given them all out.
But then, I remembered that I had a stash of English tracts
in my glove compartment.
I told her I only had English.
She smiled and asked for some.
I gave her and some of the other kids some to hand out.
I really wasn't thinking about what I had just done before taking them home.
I was wondering why she was asking for tracts all of a sudden.
After dropping those kids off, I went back for the rest.
On our way home, we saw people carrying the tracts
that I had just given to the kids.
They were handing them out to their friends and neighbors.
I guess my mind was so busy with what I needed to do
to get the kids home safely.
It wasn't till I got home and had a chance to reflect on the day's events,
that I realized what had happened.
Earlier, when I stopped to give the tracts and John & Romans to the people at the shop and also when I stopped again to give the Bible to the teen boy,
I had forgotten.
What had I forgotten?
I had forgotten that I was being watched.
Watched by who?
A car packed with Zulu children.
They had listened to me teach them during discipleship -
how to grow in the Lord,
how to explain salvation to others,...
Now they were like a captive audience.
They watched me stop everything to reach out to lost souls in need of a Savior.
I wasn't even thinking about them watching.
I had been so focused on reaching out to the people,
that I didn't realize that I was teaching those children by my actions.
Thankfully, my actions were Christ-like.
What a powerful lesson I had learned that day.
God has really used the fact that those kids saw what I was doing
and they wanted to mimic my Christ-liness.
It was not their Bible teacher they wanted to be like,
they were reflecting what I did - reaching out in Christ's love,
because I was reflecting His love to others.
God's love in our lives is so powerful.
I love the passages in John where it talks about God's love being perfected in us.
I John 4:12 "...If we love one another, God dwelleth in us,
and His love is perfected in us."
God's love is perfected in us when we, who are undeserving of God's love,
reach out to others who are also undeserving of our & God's love.
It is God's love working in us that empowers us to love the unlovely.
What are children seeing in your life?
I know this particular event on this "differant"day really made me think.
How about you?
