Strength

Today was another busy day at Yesu Anaweza. George continued on in James this morning. He spoke about how the Bible defines true religion and discussed the importance of listening, understanding and practicing. James was a humble leader who wrote to the church, first in love and then began his teaching. Many preachers here are either teaching prosperity messages or fire and brimstone messages. George encouraged the congregation to dig into the Word themselves, instead of only relying on listening to preachers on Sunday, and then listen, understand and practice. Later in the discipleship class, they looked more closely at the chapter and discussed what it means to be slow to anger and quick to listen.

During our time, the ladies and I discussed strength. Specifically, how to find it when we are going through hard times and have no hope. We all have been there. Crying our eyes out, not knowing what to do, and all hope lost. We looked at verses about strength and came to the conclusion that it is the Lord who provides us with strength. He gives us a new strength, he commands us to not be afraid for He is with us, He holds us up in His victorious right hand and He always provides a way. Knowing this is good, but how do we apply it? We have to re-train our minds. As George spoke about earlier, we have to practice what we know In this case, in those moments of despair, remember the truth that we can be strong, even when we feel weak. Not by our strength, but God's.

As we went around going through these verses, I sensed there were some needs in our group. Some people were hurting and had lost hope. I stopped the lesson and opened it up for prayer. Three ladies shared heartbreaking stories about their hopeless situations. As a group, we surrounded each one (one at a time), laid hands on them and prayed. It was a very emotional time and nearly all of us were crying. As they told us their prayer needs, I could feel what they were feeling and my heart broke for them. It was sad, but hopeful at the same time. I think it bonded us as sisters in Christ.

Pastor Zac returns this week so George will have a much needed break. While he loves to teach (and is good at it), it is tiring doing it every week. Next week we'll be in Kenya, but after we get back, I am excited for the church to meet my Mom and Al.