Then God Showed Up…

Day Four, Day 4, Fourth Day, The Day After Three… Compassion Bloggers Tanzania

If you are wondering why I’m using all of these different variations of Day 4, it’s for no other reason than I’ve started most of my posts with something like “Day 2 in Tanzania.” I actually like change; change is good, so change often.

Now back to the Day after the 3rd day in Tanzania. We kicked off the day a little early because we had a lot to do prior to catching an early afternoon flight from Mwanza to Arusha. We started off by visiting the African Church Ilemela (AICT) TZ 955.

The AICT Project has been around about 4 years and has 279, and only 9 of which are currently not being sponsored. This center has a library/computer lab that was just recently completed. It was really cool to see and know that this computer lab existed. The Project staff were extremely proud of it and was in the process of building some bookshelves in this new library/computer lab.

We got to hang out with Famous Amos today. Not the cookie guy but 7-year-old Amos who is a student at the AICT Project. Those little Famous Amos Cookies would be good right about now. Speaking of right now, at this moment I’m in a bus with the compassion bloggers in route from the Kilimanjaro airport to the Compassion Local Country Office.

Our journey to Amos’ house consisted of climbing the longest, winding, rocky, hilly, mountain-like trail up to his home. It was like an intense stair climber, elliptical workout. About halfway up the hill, we paused to catch our breath take some pictures of the amazing view.

Once we arrived at the top of the hill, we were welcomed into Amos’ home by his mother Leonia. She was very friendly, gracious and really happy to see us. She stated that we were the first visitors ever to her home from outside of their community. There were 3 other children at the home and the father worked as a day laborer in the community.

As we were talking and hearing Leonia tell her story about a rough season in their lives we witnessed one of those “Then God Showed Up” moments. The phrase “Then God Showed Up” seems to always be preceded by some troubles or a bleak situation… “Then God Showed Up.” I understand the context behind the phrase; however it’s one of those phrases that in my opinion reduces the Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth to a merely situational God. I like to remember the “3GO’s of God”:

• God’s Omniscience- God knows everything.
• God’s Omnipresence- God is everywhere.
• God’s Omnipotence- God is almighty, all-powerful and can do anything.

Then God Showed Up! Not so much, “God was already there!”

God knows everything, God is everywhere and God can do anything, we have to acknowledge that fact. Some situations it may appear too difficult to acknowledge the “3-GO’s.” The harsh reality is no situation is too difficult or too great to recognize that God was already there.

Now let’s get back to Amos’ mother Leonia’s story. She explained how they were having rough times and she decided to start a business with the help of some funding from some ladies in the church. Her business consisted of selling fish and it was started with the equivalent of maybe $20 in the U.S. She would get fish from the people at the lake and then sell them at market.

Once Leonia’s modest business got up and rolling she trusted a local guy in the community to go and sell her fish; unfortunately one day the guy never returned. At this time in her life, her situation appeared bleak and then something happened… many would say “Then God Showed Up!” Leonia says it this way, “I lost my business, my income and I knew God was there and would take care of me.” That’s exactly what God did, the next week she found out that Amos had received a Compassion Sponsor. (insert applause, ahh’s, halleluja’s and amens)

The support that Leonia received for Amos via the Compassion Sponsor was just enough to compensate for her lost business. God continues to bless their family and she now has a little business of selling little buckets of coal in which people use for cooking. I love Leonia’s spirit and I love the fact that she doesn’t embrace the mentality of “Then God Showed Up!” but rather acknowledges that He was already there.

God continues to use Compassion Sponsors to impact the lives of families and children in Tanzania. My question for you is this will you allow God to use you and a modest investment of $38 a month or roughly 5 quarters per day to change the life of a child and their family?

Get out a jar and start putting one quarter in it each day and make a commitment to sponsor a child. I am simply asking you to sponsor a child from Tanzania. LaKendria and I are looking forward to sitting down with our son’s and sponsoring a Tanzanian child as soon as we get home. We have been Skyping with them daily and they are looking forward to us getting home and sharing the details of our experience.

The Tanzanian Office of Compassion has been around since 1999 and to date there have been 60,869 kids sponsored from Tanzania and there are 4,550 4,449 left to be sponsored.  The cool thing about sponsorship is the fact that it doesn’t just change the sponsored kid’s life, it changes the sponsors life. I love how Shaun Groves talks about the beauty of sponsorship when he says this:

“Sponsors learn how to live more simply, so others can simply live.” ~Shaun Groves

If you sponsor a child, let me know… I’d love to give you a shout-out, pray for you and celebrate in advance with you. Blessings…  Remember you don’t have to wait until God shows up to make a move, He’s Already There!

See pics. from today’s visit below.

Compassion Child looking through the window.

Amos sponsor letter tightly kept even with a little water damage.

View from the halfway point up the hill to Amos' house

Amos hanging at the door of his home.

Amos Mother sharing her testimony and accounts of God's goodness.

Nike Is Universal... (This made me chuckle)

Me hanging out with the kids...

Zack, LaKendria, Maggie, Shaun and Thomas walking down the hill from Amos' house.

Share your thoughts on “Then God Showed Up,” the fact that you can sponsor a child for 5 quarters a day and any other thoughts on the above pics.