Here I AM! A Rather Long Reflection.

Each Tues. morning I've been attending a Bible study with about 25 other women.  Most of them are missionaries and a vast majority have been here for a long time... 10-30 years.  Some were here through the Genocide...left briefly and returned.  The support among the women, both young and older is wonderful.  W'eve been doing the video series "Loving Well" by Beth Moore.
(yes, she is even here, Steff)...and the last session was on Loving "Far".....
This issue is close to all the women's hearts here and we had a tremendous discussion about how to Love Well ( digging deep into the well--into the Lord's love well in order to love those around us well!)  Having the insight and wisdom to know how and who to help is  the question.  One of the most difficult issues, when you are surrounded by people with great needs, is how to best meet those needs.

 Questions arise:  How can I meet even some of these needs?  Is giving handouts really the best thing to do?  What if i get taken advantage of?  What if i get burned?  How do I know who to help?  How do you choose one over another?  Who should i invite to my house and are there some i shouldn't ask into my home?  


By the time I started asking these questions, I had already fallen in love with so many people here in need.  And with those in not as much need, too---for that matter.  But the  reality for me was seeking the Lord's desire for me here.... The 'Here I Am, Lord'--
I'm ready for you to put me to your service here in Rwanda.  What do you want me to do for you?  Every day there are new opportunities to give; children in need of money for school, people in the streets injured or blinded during the Genocide that can no longer work, even people who are working... and working hard, are barely paid.  Our teenagers wouldn't work for their pay.  The construction workers building all these big houses around us...

are paid $8.00 a day!  They start at 6 a.m. and 

               

                                    end at 6 p.m...when it gets dark.  That works out to what?----
          About 67 cents an hour!!!
    Imagine that?

I have learned that the family clans take care of each other here.  There is no welfare or social security... so whichever person in the family has the most means....they take care of the others.  One in a family might pay for a child's school, help repair the family house, buy the food, or whatever the need is.  So, even when one is making some money... THEY aren't the ones the money is spent on.  They are meeting the needs of their family members!  A pastor told us that when people see Rwandans driving their own car they think "OH... they have made it!!  They can give more to church"!   But in reality their extra funds are providing for many around them..family members and friends.  What a picture, huh?  And why don't we in America live like this?  Maybe our need really isn't great enough.  I don't know.. but i'm just thinking about all of these things. What do you think?


What I want to share in this blog is something the Lord is speaking to me about.  We read selections of Psalm 58 last Tues.  In the first part of the chapter...the Lord is not happy with the fasting and the way the people are delighting in approaching God... He isn't happy because even though they seem to be doing the right thing.. they are ignoring the Lord and serving their own interests (vs. 3)  In fact... the Lord says in vs. 4 "on such a day the fast you are keeping is not one that will carry your voices to heaven."

So what then will carry our voices to heaven?   And  this is what scripture says..
Vs. 6-9...
"Rather, is not this the fast I require: to loose the fetters of injustice, to untie the knots of the yoke, and set free those who are oppressed, tearing off every yoke?  Is it not sharing your food with the hungry, taking the homeless poor into your house,  
clothing the naked when you meet them, and never evading a duty to your kinsfolk?"  (Sounds like the family clan concept, doesn't it?)
 "Then your light will break forth like the dawn and new skin will speedily grow over your wound; your righteousness will be your vanguard and the glory of the Lord your rearguard.  Then when you call, the Lord will answer; when you cry to him,

 he will say, 'HERE I AM'."

But wait, i thought i was the one that was supposed to say that to Him.  Is the Lord telling me that the great I AM is waiting for me to call upon Him and He will answer, Here I AM?

He goes on---with the conditions for his listening:  "IF you cease to pervert justice, to point the accusing finger and lay false charges, IF you give of your own food to the hungry, and satisfy the needs of the wretched, THEN light will rise for you out of darkness and dusk will be you like noonday, the Lord will be your guide continually and will satisfy your needs in the bare desert; he will give you strength of limb; you will be like a well-watered garden, (maybe from the LOVE WELL?) like a spring whose waters never fail.  Buildings long in ruins will be restored by your own kindred and you will build on ancient foundations; you will be called the rebuilder of broken walls, (around here there are many walls... broken and ones being rebuilt)-the restorer of houses in ruins."

This is a country under construction---being restored on so many levels and there are many believers helping make that happen... This particular scripture simply comes to life here in Rwanda for me.

 New walled in houses on the left.
New walls being rebuilt from old stones. 

 

This is not a tool shed tucked in-between the walls...
 It is home for the guy taking care of what lies within the 4 walls.
It is an empty lot! 

Restoration for babies left--just left along the road.
These walls of restoration at the children's home are being built to protect and restore children's lives!


From this point on to the end of Psalm 58 the Lord tells us how we are to keep the Sabbath... another topic.. but this chapter ends with "The Lord himself has spoken."   
And indeed He has and still is!


I hope this is making sense to you...it is hard to articulate all the things spinning in my head. The Lord is speaking to me!!!   Last night i went to sleep thinking about the young kids that Bruce and i have just met.  My question to the Lord was " Should we have them for a meal?"  I woke this morning with the Great I Am saying 'Why wouldn't you'?

And now re-reading Psalm 58... why in the world would i even ask the question in the first place???

We do need wisdom and insight as we deal with all the needs here.  The Lord will let us know because when we cry out he says "Here I Am!"  My prayer for the time we are here is that we will continue to be eager to say "Here I am, Lord" as he puts us where we need to be and with the people he wants us to be ministering with and to!

Take time to read Psalm 58 and if you have time... let me know what it says to you?  These are the thoughts that filled me after reading it on Tues.  Let's stay faithful to Him and i pray we will dip into the LOVE WELL so that we can LOVE WELL--no matter where in the world we live.
Keep on loving well!
loving all of you!
margie


By the way..... Bruce and staff just finished the first 5 interviews of students for CMU/Rwanda.  They were extremely impressed  and at least 3 of the 5 will be accepted!  Keep praying for Bruce and the whole staff and school and for the students applying as this new adventure continues to unfold!