How Missions Changed My View of Community!

I have always thought of community as the neighborhood or town that I live in.  After spending a few weeks in Kenya I am reevaluating how I view community.  In Kenya a lot of the people are very helpful and I noticed that even though they did not have a lot of material things to offer they helped each other out in other ways.  I like so many have fallen in the trap of technology as being connected.  We are replacing our interactions with real people by devices like computers and smartphones.  Its easy to be isolated and it seems more and more we are relying on intermediary things to replace direct contact.  I myself have started to rethink how I interact with others.  It is not always comfortable but I am seeing the real value in being directly involved in investing  in time spent getting out in to the community making phone calls and even inviting people over or out for a cup of coffee.  While in Kenya I enjoyed the openess of the people so much and I realized that sense of belonging is what I have been searching for.  I hope to bring the friendleness of these people in to my own life more in the days ahead.

Teresa Zandstra
www.burningtruthafrica.com

Finding Happiness in the day to day living

This last month when I was in Kenya I noticed in that a lot of the ladies had a joy and happiness.  Sometimes I find it hard to be happy doing all the mundane tasks of raising a family, cooking, cleaning,  running errands.  My focus has been on how to get out of doing these things so that I can do the things I see others enjoying,  After Africa I am reevaluating my focus and attention on what is really  important in life and seeing that there is so much joy to be found in teaching my kids to cook, clean and help out around the house.  Learning that by choosing to be a mother and focus on my family I am not less than others but seeing these everyday things as ministry.  I have never really thought that raising a family and doing houssework was a ministry but I am coming to learning that everything we do following the leading of the Holy Spirit in us is ministry.

We look for rewards so many times and recognition and I am realizing that those do not always come in the natural in a way that we would recognize and by not placing importance and value on the little day to day tasks we miss so many things God is trying to teach us and change in us.

My First Blog Post

I had the idea to start writing some time back and came up with the title My New Perspective On Life.  I would like this blog to be about how I have viewed the world around me and my life and how those views are changing.

I had my first international travel experience this year to Kenya East Africa.  It was exciting to move out of the bounds of the US.  Scary to not understand the language, culture and customs of another country.  I had seen so many pictures and heard what some people live like in third world countries but to experience it first hand was life changing.  I found that there are a lot of children that do not have much but who are so inventive, exploratory and inquisitive.  If we are willing to invest in these children they can  become the leaders of tomorrow and things will change in these places.   I am thinking about how I can be a benefit to these children.