Christ is Our Hope.

Something has been stirring in my heart since my transition from Mozambique to the United States. It is one of those vulnerable topics that there are many opinions about. I want to share a bit of what I have been processing, not to push my opinion or to bash on society, but to share a very real perspective many face. 

I want to talk about Poverty. 

I realize it is Christmas time and that there are more joyous topics I could address. However, it is the revelation of Christmas that is prompting me to dig into this. Jesus being born is the most humbling and selfless act of love. God, who is almighty and perfect, chose to become needy and dependant in hopes of loving this broken world. It doesn’t make sense. In the month of December I have seen the extremes. On one side, a village in Mozambique. People are suffering because of a lack of wholeness. Poverty. Physical and Spiritual poverty. I man outside his home with a toe that is half gone from infection and He is literally skin and bones. I have never witnessed such a body. He was a grown man and his leg was probably skinnier then my own arm. A witch doctor told him he must have stepped on a dead snake and sold him something to “heal him”. He was told if he gets rid of it He will die. Obviously those things are not true and are oppressing this man. We prayed with him and shared with him. We sat in the dirt with him. It was overwhelming. Jesus was the only hope. Things were very black and white. 

Living in Pemba I faced needs every day. Children asking for money and water and food. At times you could give, but 2 children suddenly turned into 15 and your water bottle would only go so far and could even cause a fight. It was reality. Sometimes I would try to explain that I actually don’t have any money. I emptied my bank account once again just to be in Mozambique. But still I know the small backpack of cloths I brought with me is probably more clothes then they have ever had. So it becomes normal. You are overwhelmed at times, but to focus on the hurt will not help. We focus on Jesus, the hope of Glory. We share testimonies every week of blind eyes open, God healing aids and infections, hundreds of salvations and people getting delivered. We focus on the revival and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. 

Coming to America after Mozambique was the greatest culture shock I have ever experienced. Everything is in your face. The choices are overwhelming, the homes, the foods, endless media that is screaming from all directions, the materialism and the money. It is so intense. I cannot imagine the shock of growing up in a 3^rd world nation and then coming to the western world for the first time. I grew up here and I still felt myself shutting down. I felt overwhelmed. Then something that surprised me more was how many here would want to talk about the poverty in Pemba. I thought that people would be as excited about what God was doing in Africa as I was. The revival, the healings, the church plants, the glory!!!! But mostly conversations lead to the poverty. This caused something in me to realize the great intensity of the poverty I had actually witnessed and made me dwell more on my questions and my own hurt more then what God had done and what He was doing. I started to feel the weight of the negative mindset in which so enslaves my own culture and feel sick to my stomach because of the materialism and discontent. I started feeling guilty because of the society I grew up in, which I knew was not of God. I started to feel confusion and frustration. As I talked to Jesus about all these things, I felt so broken for both cultures. Poverty is real, and I do not believe it is at all the heart of God, but a result of man. Many people think maybe money is the answer. If a place like the US just went into these places and “fixed” them, maybe the world would be a better place. There are amazing things about American culture, but our culture is not the answer.

Baptisms!!

Here is the thing. The bakers are a beautiful example of what it looks like to meet a nation with the love of God.  They went to Mozambique like children. They had to learn the language, the culture and God’s heart for the nation. Mozambican culture is so beautiful. The vibrancy and the joy and the love!! Changing Mozambique to be like America is defiantly not the answer. America is so broken. Mozambique is so broken. But God came in a child. He learned the language and the culture of this world but lived a faultless life of love in hopes to gain relationship with the broken. He wanted to offer hope, and new life. He gave up everything to love us into freedom. And here is where I felt so broken, I thought about my own life, and thought about how at times I focus so greatly on my faults and my struggles and not on who God is and His truth in my life. That puts me in the same boat as those who only focus on the poverty, not the glory. But Jesus still came for me. Jesus came for Mozambique. Jesus came for America. So for me, this is a bit of a wakeup call. Jesus is the answer to poverty. He is the answer to the broken poverty rapped in rags in Pemba. He is the answer to the poverty in America, both the real poverty of homeless and struggling families and the empty lives of those who face spiritual poverty and have filled their lives with material things. Jesus is the only hope for Hollywood. Jesus is the only hope for those living in the garbage dumps of Africa. Now, of course, money and recourses do help. Iris Global is an amazing example of how meeting needs can be a wonderful way of showing God’s love. So, if you have been encouraged by hearing about what Iris Global is doing, I encourage you to go to their website and see how you can be involved. But at the end of the day we all need Jesus. 

 

Village raising their hands to receive Jesus!!!

The Gospel is simple. In Mozambique it was easier to see that. It was obvious that Jesus was the answer and many realized that and gave their lives to Him. Here in the States I feel we make the gospel complicated because we have allowed our lives to become complicated. Even for myself, coming here I have allowed things to feel complicated. I had forgotten the truth of Christmas. I still feel pretty raw and still have questions. But I am focusing more intentionally on Jesus and trusting in Him rather than in my own ability to figure things out. As the year comes to a close I want to meditate on the amazing things God has done and what He wants to do. I hope you will do the same. Jesus is our hope.