"We know that Americans pity Africans," he told me.  "But sometimes I think Africans pity Americans."

"How so?"  I asked him.

"Americans seem to expect that everything will be provided for them.  For us," he said, "this ear of corn is a gift from God.  This evening's rain is a shower of mercy upon us.  This healthy breath is life-giving.  And maybe tomorrow we will not have such things,

but our hearts are so full from God's provision
."

Excerpt from "Hope in the Dark" by

Jena
Lee

As I make my final preparations for my time in

Africa
, I am becoming more and more eager to finally be on the mission field.  I am certainly looking forward to seeing how God will use my team to make an impact in the lives of a people group on the other side of the world - but I am also looking forward to how these people will make an impact on me.  My team will spend the majority of its time ministering in a place where orphans need love, young people need encouragement, sick people need healing, poor people need hope, and elderly people need rest.  On our own strength, this task is daunting, but we go in the strength of our God -
our provider.  

My prayer is that as I leave behind the comforts and blessings of America, I will perhaps catch a glimpse of God's provision to his people, and even come to see in myself a heart that recognizes God's good gifts, a heart that is filled with quiet contentment, a heart that depends on God's provision, and most of all a
grateful heart.

"Do not put your trust in princes,

       in mortal men, who cannot save.

 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;

       on that very day their plans come to nothing.

 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,

       whose hope is in the Lord his God,

 the Maker of heaven and earth,

       the sea, and everything in them—

       the Lord, who remains faithful forever.

 He upholds the cause of the oppressed

       and gives food to the hungry.

       The Lord sets prisoners free,

 the Lord gives sight to the blind,

       the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down,

       the Lord loves the righteous.

 The Lord watches over the alien

       and sustains the fatherless and the widow"

Psalm 146:3-9

"Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?'

      And I said,
'Here am

I.
Send me!'
"

Isaiah 6:8