Thoughts On the Word of Life, Death, and Putting All Into His Hand

Every day after school a woman named Maria comes into my classroom to clean. I've really enjoyed getting to know her. Usually I'm grading or closing up the classroom -- and so while we are both doing our jobs, we get to chat for a bit.

The first day we met I had asked Maria about her village. She was telling me about the church in her village. I had asked her specifically about the Bible situation. She told me there were just a few Bibles circulating through the village. She said she was very blessed to have her own, but most of the people had to take turns with them, and not all of the people even knew how to read.

My heart sank. . . The way that Christianity has been spreading through the villages is very encouraging in some ways -- but in other ways it is very discouraging. Many of the villages have combined aspects of the traditional Chewa religion with parts of Christianity. So some of the villages that claim to be Christian are still involved with witchcraft and superstition, not understanding the true essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So, when I hear stories about not enough Bibles going around, it makes me feel sick. . . How are people to get understanding unless they are continually being fed by the Word?

I had told her several weeks ago that I wanted to get my hands on some Bibles for the village. Since then we hadn't really run into each other, and Christmas break came up. It had been a while since we'd talked. Yesterday she was heating water in the teacher lounge, and we started talking about the Bibles again. She lit up when I asked her if she'd be willing to go get them with me sometime next week. . . and then told me something that I'm still having a hard time swallowing.

Maria told me that she had mentioned to one of her friends at the village the possibility of more Bibles coming. She said that her friend had just passed away, but she had been really excited. Maria knew she would have been happy to have seen the Bibles! I hadn't even thought of a death occuring in the time period it would take me to find the Bibles. The only thing that brings me comfort is that as her friend waited for the Word of God she was granted her hope in the fullest sense in that she gets to meet face-to-face with the Jesus, the Word of God.

Life is so short. . . Back in December the chief of the village (where we work with the children) passed away. A couple of weeks after that, one of my students wept and wept on my shoulders because her cousin had died from a type of flu that couldn't be treated. After break, another one of my students asked me to pray because her 2-yr-old cousin had died on Christmas Day. Maria's friend, walking on the side of the road and getting hit by an oncoming vehicle. . . Pictures of Haiti's quake and Ethiopian Airlines plane crash flash on my computer screen.

Conviction. He tells me my life is but a vapor! What am I doing with every moment of my time. . . that time which is a gift from Him meant to be spent for Him? What am I holding on to? Am I living first and foremost for Christ, seeking to glorify Him and honor Him in everything during every second? Am I seeing people as dying people and loving them like dying people? Christ snatched me out of the fires of hell. . . So I have to ask myself if knowing this is not even enough to make me love Him so much more and tell everyone that I encounter that they too can be snatched out and saved?

I stumbled upon some more Spurgeon, reminding me to resign all to Christ:

"...Let us learn to set loose by our dearest friends that we have on earth. Let us love them—love them we may, love them we should—but let us always learn to love them as dying things. Oh, build not your nest on any of these trees for they are all marked for the axe. 'Set not your affections on things on earth,' for the things of earth must leave you and then what will you do when your joy is emptied and the golden bowl which held your mirth shall be dashed to pieces?
Love first and foremost Christ. And when you love others, still love them not as though they were immortal. Love not clay as though it were undying—love not dust as though it were eternal. So hold your friend that you shall not wonder when he vanishes from you. So view the partakers of your life that you will not be amazed when they glide into the land of spirits. See you the disease of mortality on every cheek and write not Eternal upon the creature of an hour.
Take care that you put all your dear ones into God’s hand. You have put your soul there, put them there. You can trust Him for temporals for yourself, trust your jewels with Him. Feel that they are not your own, but that they are God’s loans to you—loans which may be recalled at any moment—precious benisons of Heaven of which you are but a tenant at will. Your possessions are never so safe as when you are willing to resign them and you are never so rich as when you put all you have into the hand of God."

Fight for us and with us, O God, that we may love Christ first and foremost and put all we have into Your hand! The fight sometimes seems so hard but You are our strength, the One fighting for us!

The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.
Exodus 14:14

The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation;
this is my God, and I will praise him,
my father's God, and I will exalt him.
The LORD is a man of war;
the LORD is his name.
Exodus 15:2-3

The second semester is in full swing at the academy! It already seems so different than last semester.

*I now have one semester of teaching under my belt, and I am clued in on some mistakes that, by God's grace, I am not going to make again.
*Some of the students moved away at the end of last semester, but God brought us some more.
*I'm involved in more afternoon activities which is a blessing as there are more opportunities to get to know the kids on a different and more personal level.

I have finished grading the day's assignments, and I am enjoying a quiet evening at home.
All I can hear is the sound of the rain. . . and I love it.
Just last night I was thinking about this passage in Isaiah 27:2-3:
"A pleasant vineyard, sing of it!
I, the LORD, am its keeper;
every moment I water it. . . "

I guess, as I hear the rain I'm not only reminded of God watering the earth, but I am also thinking about something I read recently by Spurgeon in a sermon on the passage I mentioned above:

"He chose us. He bought us. He delights in us. He put His very Glory in pawn concerning us and we may, therefore, be sure beyond all doubt that he will water us to the end. Does He water us every moment? Then let His praise continually be in our mouths. Does He thus care for us? Let us, then, watch for the advance of His cause, the extension of His kingdom, the good of His people. He who is thus watered should water others! If the Lord puts within us a well of Living Water through His Divine watering, then let us give forth to others rivers of Living Water! Yet let not this be our first thought, but rather let us go away crying, 'Lord, make my soul as a watered garden! Saturate my fleece! Fill my vessel to the brim and keep it full forever! Fulfill this Word unto Your servant, upon which You have caused me to hope, and water me every moment, even me.'"

Chanting from the nearest mosque now echoes amidst the noise of the rain. . . and how this makes me more fervently pray that as God so graciously waters my soul, I would "give forth to others rivers of Living Water" -- rivers of Jesus. May all those who don't know Him, know Him -- the All-Satisfying Living Water, the Friend of Tax Collectors and Sinners, the Savior of the World. . .

On this note, please pray for my students, that the Holy Spirit would work mightily in their hearts and turn their eyes to Jesus.
Continue to pray for the village, as well, that God would continue watering the souls of my friends there. Because of the heavy rains we haven't been able to drive the car through the dirt roads for a few weeks. Pray that we would be able to access the village for Bible lessons with the children, soon!
Pray for the college students at ABC, that God would place within their hearts a burden to go into the villages and penetrate them with the true gospel of Jesus Christ. For "whoever drinks of the water that [He] will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that [He] will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:14)
Pray that God would water us every moment, even us. . .
Pray that the glory of God will be made known more and more throughout the earth!

My Citizenship is in Heaven

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
Philippians 3:20-21

If there were one thing I could change on my passport it actually wouldn't be the photo, even though I wish I would have been allowed to smile. :)
I wish it would say somewhere -- and preferably in large, bold letters -- that Katie Dinwiddie is a citizen of Heaven. Anywhere else I am a stranger.

Malawi has been a good reminder that I am indeed a stranger.

One step into a village or market and it's just as if the circus has come to town.
The other week ago my housemate and I were driving our gardener to his hut. When we arrived to his village, a ton of children surrounded our car all saying, "Azungu, azungu, azungu!" (Translation: White people, white people, white people!) They followed us all the way to the hut, repeating this again and again. At some point I decided to have a little fun, and when another "Azungu" came out of their mouths I jerked around, laughed, pointed at myself, and said "Mzungu" (singular form). They laughed and laughed. I'm not sure if it's because they weren't expecting it, or if it's because I sounded funny when I said something in Chichewa. . . or, maybe they were laughing at me for the same reason my "Malawian mother" was -- and I never found out why.

Some of the kids asked one of my friends here if they could see her belly, thinking that since "Azungu" are so pale, they would be able to see our intestines through our skin. :)

And then there was the day I pulled into the petrol station and handed the worker kwacha (Malawi currency) to fill the car and he looks at me like I'm crazy -- "We're out of petrol. I can't fill your car." I guess petrol shortages sometimes happen here? I didn't know. . . and I still don't understand why there are so many different reasons people give when I ask why there is no petrol! Did the president really use it all to fuel his private jet like the newspapers said, or is there a more believable explanation?

And then there was the time while I was teaching math that I discovered that California's thunder is indeed fake. As real thunder cracked the African sky I was a stranger to that, too. My students laughed and laughed at the look on my face while I tried to process what I was hearing: "Miss Dinwiddie, we're not getting attacked. You must be one of those teachers from San Diego. This is just thunder." It was. . . and it was a great opportunity to talk about how even if we were under attack we still would have hope in Jesus, our Righteousness!

Oh, I have more -- you'd better believe it. . . but I think you get the picture.

I'm a stranger. And, since school is out for holidays and I have had a lot of time to spend thinking about it, I've felt a wave of homesickness.

But this is a good wake-up call! These are feelings that should be familiar to me living on earth as a citizen of heaven. People not understanding me and laughing at me -- not necessarily because of culture, but rather because God hasn't chosen yet to shine in their hearts to give the light of the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 4:6) -- so yes, I do seem foolish to them. My lack of understanding -- not necessarily in cultural matters, but spiritual things: now I see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known (1 Cor 13:12). Homesickness -- longing to be with my Heavenly Father in the new Jerusalem. . . .

And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." (Revelation 21:2-4)

Lord, because of Jesus I'm a citizen of heaven, so help me to seek the things that are above, where he is. Help me to set my mind on things that are above, and not on things that are on earth. (Colossians 3:1-2)

Stevie

Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises! Psalm 98:4

We were jumping rope with the kids at Chitipi Orphanage, and my little friend Stevie turned the jump rope into a mic. He's gonna make a sweet Christian rapper someday! Check it out:



Please pray for the children at Chitipi, that Jesus Christ would be their everything and utterly satisfy them with his beauty and love!

Glimpses of a Weekend in Nkhoma

"I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth."
Psalm 121:1-2


The LORD, the One who made heaven and earth - who placed the stars in the heavens, who put the clouds in the sky, who created the land we step on, who breathed into man the breath of life - is the mighty, powerful, faithful, and compassionate One who attends to the needs of His own.

This mighty LORD, the God who made heaven and earth, the Holy one, provided a way for sinners to have sweet communion with Him through the gift of His, precious, perfect Son, Jesus Christ.

I lift my eyes to the hills, and am reminded of the Maker of those hills. All the help I need is given to me by Him through the person of His Son Jesus Christ, Savior and Friend of Sinners. . .

This weekend some of the ABCCA teachers went camping with the high school students in Nkhoma, a little less than an hour's drive from the academy. We enjoyed spending the weekend in the middle of the hills, surrounded by His creation.

We hiked up His mountains. . .

Met friends. . . .

Were reminded that He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. . .

Enjoyed being satisfied in Him and all that He is for us in Christ Jesus. . .

"Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.
Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your judgements are like the great deep; man and beast you save, O LORD. "

"How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light." Psalm 36:5-9

Thank You, Lord, for Your Word.

The unfolding of your words gives light;
it imparts understanding to the simple.
Psalm 119:130

Thankful
for the Word of God.

I was so humbled to learn that the village we have been teaching in has only four Bibles.
My heart broke. . . Four Bibles for the entire village. At this point I don't know how many people live in the village, but I do know that we have had around seventy children participating in Saturday Bible lessons. Four Bibles for more than seventy people!

The solution seemed so easy. The village just needed some more Bibles! Then the people could feed their hungry souls and fill themselves with every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. It seemed like a good plan to me. . . until I realized that the majority of the village is illiterate.

This has been so hard to swallow as I think about all the times that I'm constantly being convicted and exhorted and strengthened and encouraged and comforted by the Word of God. We are told that it is pure, it convicts, it sustains, it remains, and hearing comes through it. . .

"The words of the LORD are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times." (Psalm 12:6)

"The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12)

"And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD." (Deuteronomy 8:3)

"The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever." (Isaiah 40:8)

"So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." (Romans 10:17)

Pray
that we would love God's Word more and more and never take it for granted.
for those who don't have Bibles and/or who don't know how to read.
for arrangements being made for those in the village to attend reading lessons.
that God would be exalted above the heavens, and that His glory would be over all the earth!

-----

A puritan prayer from the Valley of Vision:

O God of Truth,
I thank thee for the holy Scriptures,
their precepts, promises, directions, light.
In them may I learn more of Christ,
be enabled to retain his truth
and have grace to follow it.
Help me to lift up the gates of my soul that he may come in
and show me himself when I search the Scriptures,
for I have no lines to fathom its depths,
no wings to soar to its heights.
By his aid may I be enabled to explore all its truths,
love them with all my heart,
embrace them with all my power,
engraft them into my life.
Bless to my soul all grains of truth garnered from thy Word;
may they take deep root,
be refreshed by heavenly dew,
be ripened by heavenly rays,
be harvested to my joy and thy praise.
Help me to gain profit by what I read,
as treasure beyond all treasure,
a fountain which can replenish my dry heart,
its waters flowing through me as a perennial river
on-drawn by the Holy Spirit.
Enable me to distil from its pages faithful prayer
that grasps the arm of thy omnipotence,
achieves wonders, obtains blessings,
and draws down streams of mercy.
From it show me how my words have often been unfaithful to thee,
injurious to my fellow-men,
empty of grace, full of folly,
dishonouring to my calling.
Then write thy own words upon my heart and inscribe them on my lips;
So shall all glory be to thee in my reading of thy Word!

-----
Mom, forgive me for all the fights I had with you when you wanted me to read more in grade school. Thanks for not letting me win. Now I've seen firsthand why you always said reading was a privilege. I'll tell my kids the same thing, too, someday.

"And I Will Give You a New Heart"

Ezekiel 36:25-27
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Hallelujah for the power of God that saves sinners - the power found in the gospel of Jesus Christ!!!
Yesterday God gave me the opportunity to meet some of the people living in one of the villages just a half hour by car from the academy. The chief of this particular village accepted Jesus Christ as His Lord and Savior very recently!
When passing through villages in Malawi it is very common to see gule wamkulu. These are people who perform ritualistic dances that are associated with the religion from the traditional Chewa tribe. They wander about in scary masks and animal skins and/or lots of rags. I haven't tried to take any pictures of them because I hear they may get quite angry. If you google "gule wamkulu" I'm sure you could find some pictures online though.
The chief of the village who just recently came to Christ told the gule wamkulu that this practice would no longer be accepted in the village! And now there is a church in the same place where the gule wamkulu used to perform the ritualistic dances! I love to see the way that God changes peoples' hearts! I love to see how He can transform a whole people group and give them new hearts - hearts of flesh that beat for His glory!!
The people are very new believers and have very many questions. Polygamy is very common in the villages, and this was last week's big Sunday morning topic. If they are Christians, would they need to give up polygamy? And if they did, how would the women be able to take care of the children?
They also want their children to know about Jesus and said they would love for people to come teach their children about the truths of the Bible! Two of the academy teachers, I, and two of the Chichewa-speaking college students from ABC will now, Lord willing, go to their village each Saturday to teach the children more and more about the salvation we have in Christ Jesus!
We met with these precious children yesterday! There were over fifty who greeted us when we arrived. Many of them have never seen an American, so some of them were very scared of us! Others just stared at us with wide eyes. And one little boy plopped himself right into my lap. :) We sang, listened to a Bible story, went through the wonderful message of the gospel. . . Many of the mothers stayed to sing and listen, too!
I am so thankful to God for this opportunity! I thank Him for letting me witness His amazing work and unstoppable power from the gospel of Jesus Christ being displayed in this village! Please pray that God's name would be glorified in this village, in our lessons with the children, in us!
I cannot stop thinking about all the small villages. . . not just in Malawi, but in all of Africa, and all over the world! ALL the villages that need Jesus -some of which have never even heard the name which is above every name! Pray that God would display His power and glory throughout the whole earth!