Through

"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you: and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you..." Isaiah 43:2 

Through is one of those fickle English words that have more than one meaning. Isaiah is telling us we are going to go from one thing to another thing but we can count on God's promise to be with us. 

Fourteen days after I left my home in Dallas, my time here in Tanzania is through. Tomorrow I will board a plane and go from one thing to another thing knowing God has been with me and He will continue to see me through though I'm through! 

Over the last two weeks with the very long long long drive from one end of Tanzania to the other, my world has felt very large. But today, I was reminded once again how small a world I live in and just how big is the God I serve. 

"The accumulated sorrows of your exile will dissipate. I, your God, will get rid of them for you. You've carried those burdens long enough...I'll heal the maimed; I'll bring home the homeless....you'll be famous and honored all over the world. You'll see it with your own eyes - ALL those painful partings turned to reunions!" God's promise. Zephaniah 3:18-20 The Message 

Two friends I met in China a few years back came to visit me. No, they were not Chinese, they are Tanzanians that were studying in China at the time of our meeting. They were a long way from home and their eventual return seemed very far away. They were excited to meet someone who had actually been to their country and they both said, "Hope to see you in Africa one day", probably never thinking this would happen. But happen it did! 

I love reunions like today. I know one day we will all meet again. You will meet the orphans of Russia I have watched grow into young men and women. You will greet the Chinese university students who heard the Gospel and claimed Christ as Savior. You will embrace those who were lepers in this world. You will talk of the wonders of our King with those who because of an earthly disability couldn't speak. 

And you will dance like King David with the thousands of Africans from Ghana in the West to the Kenyan and Tanzanians in the East. 

We will sing with the nations, the praises worthy of our King! We will not be in a foreign land (see Psalm 137:4) we will finally be HOME!! 

Humming already 

Coughing up a smile!