First days in the village showed me weakness of independence that I was learning so diligently in the western world. After a while I think that everything there is set up like that a life can be lived without others. As a single woman for many years I was learning to manage things by myself. And although I have often used help of wonderful people with whom God connected me along the way, I have always had an alternative – I could have paid. For help to move my things from one place to another. For fix a toilet. For count an annual tax.
Here are other challenges that I cannot always cope with. Sometimes, because I do not have money, but more often, because such services do not exist. Or, I cannot find the right people in a country which language I do not know well yet and where companies do not advertise on the internet. Here you have to ask. Look for. Rely on others. And in all this difficulties I discover joy of dependence.
This consideration was provoked by a girl who lives in our community. One evening she was carrying water from a well. When she get to my back porch with a full bucket on her head, she asked me for help in taking it off. And then I realized that if the bucket is full, you always need someone to put it on your head and take it off. Later I found out that the last person at the well, if there is nobody to help, takes only this amount of water so that she/he can put the bucket on her/his own head.
Here you always need someone. And I’m sometimes outraged at it because I’ve always been able to do almost everything by myself. And here I have to ask for help. And wait. And depend. And I am grateful to God for this work in me, just teaching me the church, the body of Christ. Because life in the village has become for me everyday preaching about His body from the first letter to Corinthians 12:12-31.
But our life here is, first, about being dependent on Him. In our third day in Pemba, the bank in Poland blocked all my three payment cards. After several attempts to connect with the consultant via the Internet, I had to call to Poland. Once. Second. Third. For 70 PLN. Until finally I heard that my cards are okey and nobody knows the reason why there is a refusal to withdrawal of money. And that I can make a complaint that will be processed within 30 days. Instead, I took the bank cards and once again made a withdrawal attempt, this time praying earlier. The ATM has given the money without any problem. Then and several times later. Living in Pemba often reminds me that I do not depend on the principles of this world, but I depend on God who makes impossible. I am glad about this reminder. Enjoy it too. And seek His glory, which can be revealed in your impossible.