The power of the connection

Zach teaching the kids about their identity in Christ

Mom climbing trees and termite mounds with kids

Me teaching the glorious art of funny face making....at least Gloria got the idea...Elijah, not so much

Part of our crew in the dugout canoe

Ahh, Saturday at the Village.  Started with a nice 6 mile run with my momma (well, the first 2 were with her and then I decided to let her run at her “more leisurely” pace as I went on ahead).  Then breakfast, then a trip to the Nile and across on dugout canoes!  Thankfully we saw no crocodile eyes as we were just about even with the waters edge.   I did get a chance to help out the local canoe “driver” on the way back across as he apparently underestimated the trajectory with the current and we were significantly downstream from our landing. After several grunts of a reply, I decided that he was indeed saying that I could help with the extra oar, so I handed over the bailing of water out of the canoe (a necessary requirement on the trip if you don’t want to end up swimming) to my mother and got to rowing.  I rowed for a good solid minute and it made me very impressed with the “professional” canoe driver as I realized how hard it was!

How increasingly I’m loving it here! Day by day, it keeps getting better and better especially with the uncharacteristically rough start to my time here.  In reflecting and praying, I realized how key relationship formation is for both myself and the kids.  Without a relationship to connect us, our interactions were, although fun and playful, more superficial and distant.  I realized it left me feeling empty and almost purposeless.   As the days here progress, so does the depth of our relationships and the power of our connections, and the “purposelessness” fades dramatically.  After our class yesterday in which Zach taught about our identity in Christ, the power we have to shine His Glory through us, and then the time we had afterwords to pray for a few kids individually who were in pain and  who were healed when we prayed, the connections with those kids in particular increased exponentially.  And I realized anew how powerful the connection together with our Lord is!

The Lord then said to me, “Tanya, this is no different from your individual relationship with me”.   He is continually seeking and pursuing a deeper relationship with us, and when we simply respond to that in prayer and communication with Him, the power of our connection increases, He gives us revelation and insight, and any sense of purposelessness dramatically fades away. And when we seek the purpose and not the experience (a phrase coined by my amazingly wise husband), we are never disappointed and are far less likely to pulled off course by the whispers of the enemy.

Thanks Jesus for such a great reminder of how powerful Your Love is!  And thanks for reminding us of how we come alive when we are connected to You!  For apart from You, when can do nothing!