Who am I here to serve?

Here’s a story that I just received from Tamara while in Dar es Salaam.

… , but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I am the LORD.

(Leviticus 19:18)

Each day I ask God to direct my day for His service and glory.  Although I am a missionary in Tanzania, mission service isn’t restricted to Tanzanians only.  Today was a clear reminder to me of that.  God still speaks to us, and He cares about everyone. He loves everyone.

I’m still in Dar es Salaam for a few more days.  I needed to take the new books to the National Library to register the ISBN’s for the publishing department.  I also had some shopping for other missionaries and other departments. 

Driving back, as I went through on particular intersection, something caught my attention.  There were two young white men who looked like tourists talking to two Africans.  They were sort of on a median between the crosswalks on a busy street to the right of the highway, where I was.  I watched them, and as the traffic started moving, I continued driving. 

I felt an impression that these two needed some help.  I thought to myself, they are adults, they can take care of themselves.  They should be fine.  Then the impression continued.  I prayed and asked God to not let me hear my own thoughts or that of the enemy.  I felt the impression that I should help these two guys.  Well, at this point, there was no place to turn around.  I continued to the first place where I could turn back that direction and that was quite a distance and traffic was slow.  I prayed and told God that if He wanted me to help these guys, He would have to help me find them.  They were heading down a side road that I don’t really know. Many minutes had passed.   I made the first right turn off the highway that was possible.  Since the roads don’t all run nicely but in all directions, I was just depending on God.  After driving a distance, the first road to my right seemed like the correct one, so I turned down it.  Many minutes had passed since I had seen them.  I just told God that if He was directing me, He knew it would take me this long, and to help me find them and help them be ok.  I knew that it would be a miracle if I found them.  Sure enough, that was the exact correct road.  At this point, there were several motorcycles and Africans around them.  I didn’t count, but I would say 5-7 maybe.  As I rolled down my passenger window, and I heard one of the white guys saying something about them being bad.  I honked and called out to them.  I asked if they needed some help, and where they were going.  They were getting a bit tense over the Africans.  I told them to just get in my car and I would drive them where they need to go.  They were so happy for the offer.  One of them said, “Oh, that would be great!” 

They got in and started to tell me that they were having some troubles with those guys.  I then noticed that in addition to their tourist clothes, one had an expensive camera around his neck.  I mentioned that it was probably drawing the wrong attention to them.  I asked where they needed to go, and we started that way.  I then asked, are you Christians.  There was a pause, then one said he was brought up Christian, then another pause.  I told them that I am a Christian, and then I explained what had happened.  I told them I had seen them, and what I just mentioned above.  I told them that God had sent me to help them.  One of them said, I have never had an experience with God like that.  I said I have them often.   They were in shock and so appreciative for the ride.  They had a pretty good distance to go, and their data package for some reason wasn’t working so they could not get a Taxify or Uber.  They were on holiday for several weeks in Tanzania.  They had climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, been to Zanzibar, and I don’t know what else.  But today they wanted to go to the Botanical Gardens.  (I didn’t know there were any!)  They then asked how long I had been in Tanzania (since January 2012) and what I do.  I told him I was a missionary and my life is about serving Him and serving others.

They were super appreciative.  As they were getting out, they offered to pay me what they would have a taxi.  I refused payment but told them they could take something.  I gave them a newsletter, a business card and an English message book.  One said, I don’t think I will ever forget this day.  We not only didn’t pay for a taxi, we got gifts!

God loves those young men.  Maybe God used me to answer the prayer of one of those Christian parents.  I hope God will keep those young men safe, and that this experience will really draw their hearts out to Him.  Thank you for making it possible for us to minister to so many different people in so many different ways. 

PS: (Lots of other pamphlets (GLOW TRACTS) and other sharing books also got given out today!)