Africa Again

Little update from Africa

We have been living in the small town of Okakarara in Namibia. Life have been simple but super busy. Most days consist of us doing home visits and outreach ministry.

Each day usually starts with a big bowl of oats and then we visit a few houses and share the gospel. And then come back to the church we are staying at for dinner. Our team cooks for each other and we often have people from the community join us for a evening fire or even dinner. The culture here is so reliant upon one another where neighbors act in the same way that I think that they should. So many strangers will welcome 8 strangers into their home or their yard and allow us to share the Gospel. Sometimes it makes me feel like a Mormon and I’m not sure if the way we are doing ministry looks like what Jesus meant when he told us to be his hands and feet, but God can use anything. Some of the people we visited have never heard of Jesus before and sharing the word is difficult but it’s so worth it. Not because our team doesn’t know the word but because your spirit has to be so aligned in prayer that you share the right things at the right time. Some times even if you prepare a message its not the thing that someone needs to hear so you either share what you have prepared, quickly find something else or just pray that God will use whatever was said anyways.

These past few weeks I’ve truly been learning what it means to slow down and be quiet with God, but also learning what it looks like for Gods will to be made perfect in our weakness. 2 Corinthians says in chapter 12 v 9 that “but he said to me, “my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

It’s such a beautiful reminder that nothing that I can ever do will ever mess up the will of God. He knows every minute of every day when we don’t.

Some days we will sit and wait for hours to go out in the community not knowing what to do, or we feel like we should be doing more but we haven’t been given any instruction so we just have to trust that the work that we do put in will be worth it. I need to not focus on our success based on the human standard but by the measure of Kingdom standards. God can use all things. Who am I to sit here and say that I haven’t made a difference?? If I’m being honest a huge part of me feels like the work and the ministry we are doing here has not been “successful”. But reaching the lost and sharing about Jesus even if it is just a seed is worth the awkwardness to see more souls in heaven. So God still has my yes everyday and if that means we walk to 10 houses or only to 1, I need to be open to sharing and open to receiving what the Lord has because theres nothing that I can do that will ever change someones heart its only by the power of the Holy Spirit that a lost soul can find redemption.

Prayers: There is a lot of alcohol abuse in this area and a lot of teens that have lost their purpose in God, please pray for the youth and our team to be able to reach people and be used by God in whatever capacity as we have one week left here in this community. Prayer for safe travels as we leave for our next community on Friday. And prayers for our teams health as there has been sickness going around.

With compassion, Aspen

The girls in the community braided my hair at bible study :))))