My Africa Dance - Part 1
God shows His undeniable faithfulness. He brought to my mind my time in Mozambique. How months before, I had walked through that crazy fog of trying to listen and discern His voice, on my knees and on my face weeping before Him almost every day, sometimes multiple times a day. And how crazy the journey to actually get there was, and how He walked through every step and every moment of the journey with me, holding my hand.
And how he made me brave.
A few months before I left, I just KNEW that I was going to step off that airplane in Africa and fall right into His arms. He was going to catch me. And that happened quite literally. QUITE LITERALLY. I won't ever forget it. I made it through the flights and airports and baggage claim and the ride to the mission base, and then went to the gazebo where they said a meeting was going on.
I have no idea why I went, because I was so tired from the trip, and I hadn't even unpacked anything or got my bed ready to sleep in. It was so late at night, and I went to that meeting. I was pulled to that meeting by God. He wanted to catch me.
I stood outside the gazebo watching, wondering what on earth am I doing here? It was a mess. They were all excited. Praying, laughing, rolling on the floor, which I had done myself in the past at times, but now I didn't know what I was doing here in a foreign country all by myself, and I was scared for my heart. I had no idea why God had called me to be here in Mozambique at this time. I had no clue what the next few months would hold, or after. And I was terrified. I didn't want to keep doing things and going places by myself.
I had stepped out with a trembling heart, and my heart was still trembling.
And then it happened. As I was falling, He caught me.
As I stood in the dark watching all that madness going on inside the gazebo, I was summoned to step in. I didn't want to.
I stepped in. As soon as I stepped into that gazebo, a small, older woman grabbed me and put her hands on my head and began to pray. I doubled over and began to weep. She held me so close, she was literally holding me up. I would have been falling on the ground, but she was holding me up. She was catching me. She held me so tight as I was weeping into her shoulder for a long, long time. All the while she was speaking over me,
"It wasn't you that got you here. I pulled you here. I was on the plane with you, I've been with you the whole time. I was at the airport with you. I've got you, I've got you, I've got you....."
As all this was going on, something strange was happening in my heart. I knew that he was catching me. I knew that I had fallen off the plane, literally THAT NIGHT, and LANDED IN PAPA'S ARMS.
As I cried she kept singing "I've got you, I've got you, I've got you...."
I don't even know how or when it ended, but all I know is that I LANDED IN PAPA GOD'S ARMS.
I had mascara running down and smeared ALL over my face.
And from that first night on, until I stepped onto the plane to leave, HE WAS WITH ME. HE WAS NEAR ME AND HE NEVER LEFT MY SIDE.
(title quote by Michele Perry)
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