What to Expect When You’re Not Expecting

Funny thing is – we are all now saying, “This is definitely not what I
expected.”
We got to Tanzania to be surprisingly blessed yet again with roofs to
be put over our heads.

 – Non-Expectation Expectation Blown –
We soon realized that there are not translators here. Nobody speaks
English – with the exception of Pastor Adam (who sort of speaks
English.)

 – Non-Expectation Expectation Blown –
We’ve also come to find that our ministry is simply speaking at church
services and crusades and then spending time with the Lord and our
team most of the day.

 – Non-Expectation Expectation Blown –
Refugee camps? Prisons? Yep. No where near any of those.

 – Non-Expectation Expectation Blown.
BUT
Our team is being much more real with each other. – We have cucumbers
every meal. – We are spending so much time with the Lord in every
aspect. – We saw giraffes, zebras, gazelles, impalas, and monkeys on
the bus ride here. – We are lettig the Lord truly speak through us, to
congregations and to each other. – I SAW that vision of the crops on
the bus ride through Tanzania – I cried in amazement and hit Kelly
about 6 times until I could get the words out. Very confused she was.
–

ALL : Non-Expectations Expectations Blown

Yesterday, as I was sitting have time with the Lord I felt myself
getting extremely frustrated – frustrated that we have no way of
communication with these people, that I thought this was not ministry
we should be doing – just frustrated.
But I found this –
“Now this is what the Lord Almighty says, “Give careful though to your
ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but
never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on
clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse
with holes in it.” This is what the Lord almighty says, “Give careful
thought to your ways. Go up into the mountain and bring down timber
and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored.
” says the Lord. “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be
little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” Declares the Lord
Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of
you is busy with his own house.”
– Haggai 1:5-9

Even though we came to Tanzania “not expecting” anything, my
expectation were not met. In these verses God says, “You expected
much, but see ts turned out to be little. ” and ” What you brought
home, I blew away.” But he continues to explain that it is because we
are so busy building our own house with our own expectation that
sometimes He needs to strip us of all of that to get us to see that
His house is in ruins – even when you’re on a mission trip in Africa.
If we really weren’t expecting anything for Tanzania, we’d be content
in whatever the Lord put before us – but because that isn’t true –
people, like me, get frustrated with the circumstances and situation
I’m put in where I feel like I’m wasting my time. You don’t have to be
sitting in a Swahili only speaking church in Tanzania to feel that
frustration with where you are and that frustration that you could be
doing something so much better than what He’s layed before you. But in
Haggai, God basically says,
“Hey! Unjustly frustrated humans! You’re so busy setting all these
expectations that you can’t even see that you’re building your own
house while watching mine fall.”

Sometimes God takes our expectations – that we say we don’t have – and
rips them from us to shwo us the real meaning of harvest. Sometimes
you are given hours and hours of God time while on a mission tripin
Tanzania that you don’t understand, but He does it to get you to stop
building your own house and remember His. Sometimes, even when you say
you’re not expecting anything, you need to be real with the Lord and
actually give up the expectations you are unrightfully holding.

6 days until we leave Tanzania.
11 days until we are all in our home states.
Crazy.

Love you guys. Miss you all. See you so soon.