Team 2 headed up the mountain.....

 What an amazing day!!!

Team 2 headed North up the mountainside. My daughter, Lauren, has always said she would like to be baptized in Africa. She has been waiting for that day.

Well....her day finally came. They traveled North up the mountainside to the most beautiful location with a waterfall that ended in a perfect pool of water. 

Lauren and also Evan from the team wanted to be baptized. She said they all gathered and prayed a prayer so powerful that it got them all choked up. My hubby, who has had training in a Pastoral school, as well as our amazing guide, Bissy, who is studying to be a Pastor, had the awesome opportunity of baptising Lauren and Evan. For Shane, it was the most unbelievable experience of his life to baptize his oldest daughter in the middle of Africa underneath a beautiful waterfall. 

Evan has grown spiritually on this trip and what an amazing way to declare it. God is doing amazing things in him. 

This will be a day that these four will never forget. 

 As the day moved on, they headed further up the mountain.  They first spotted the young boy below with no shoes and he was wearing rags. I bet he never expected to be stopped by a van full of people and handed a new pair of shoes on the side of the road :)  I just love the thought of that because you never know a person's situation or their prayers. This young boy could have a Momma who had been crying out to God that very day for help....and then in walks her son with some new shoes on his fee. It is so neat to be used by God in a moment and you may never know the full impact that the one gesture of kindness could have on someone. God provides needs and He uses me and you to do it :)

 What does it mean to carry someone else's burdens? Well our team found that out in the most literal and humbling way.

These women are found walking miles and miles down the mountainside carrying Eucalyptus branches that they have bundled in order to sell for about what would equal $3 us dollars. These bundles of heavy wood are almost too much to even comprehend. Team 2 found some of these women and asked if they could help "carry their burden". Below is a mother with a baby, trying to carry the baby and the bundle of wood. Can you imagine how her prayer was answered in that moment that Shane found her resting for a moment and walked up to her. 

The team took the bundles from some of these women and put them on top of the vans. 

They then sat them down and told them to rest and gave them a bible. 

The whole team then began to wash each woman's feet. Most of these women don't even have shoes and I can't imagine how humbling and beautiful it was to have their feet washed.

 There is something very moving about someone else washing the dirt away in an act of kindness, just as God does with us in our own lives.

Many of these women are older and it is unfathomable how they do such hard manual labor. 

The team took their own boxed lunches and passed them out to the village children who had gathered. 

 One by one the women came.

 One by one, they received their blessings.

And then in the end after their feet were cleaned....they were given a new pair of shoes. 

I can't imagine a better day for our team. What beautiful examples of Love poured out in every single way for those on our team....and for those that they blessed.

So the next time you see someone walking the road alone....carrying their burden that is too much for them to bear....

 You don't have to be in Africa to take a minute.... and stop to help them carry their burden... however that may be.

The smallest act of kindness could be the very answer to a prayer they could have prayed that very morning in a desperate attempt to cry out to God during their sorrow. And then what do you know.....the very day they pray that solitary, lonely prayer.......

THERE YOU ARE......


Numbers 11:17
I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone.