Last month, I wrote about the experience Sheri Greger and I had on our trip to North Carolina with the high school students. At first, our experience was uncomfortable, but in the end, it was a blessing. God was always actively present to reveal something new to us. God was actively present with the delegation that visited Tanzania last month. Those moments of interaction with the communities revealed something new to us about the Kingdom of God.
Before the trip to Tanzania, I was nervous. Not about the moments we were going to experience with the communities, but about the 13-hour flights. So many hours in the air. The good thing was that on the long flights to and from the country, the seat next to me was empty the whole time. Thank God! I had more room to move around! My wife, who was visiting Tanzania for the third time, had warned me about this. The hardest part of the trip is the flying, but the moments with the people make up for everything.
I believed my wife and saw it for myself. There are two things I would like to share with you about my experience in Tanzania. The first is about hospitality. Many of them don’t have three meals a day; some wake up and go to sleep without eating at all. Yet their hospitality is immense. Every community we visited welcomed us with tea. What we learned was that the tea was accompanied by a full meal! I honestly felt guilty, and I imagine everyone in the delegation did too. But someone from the community reminded us that it would be a great offense not to eat the food they had so painstakingly prepared for our group. Well, even though we had all eaten an hour earlier, we still had to enjoy the delicious tea! If you are ever part of a delegation visiting Tanzania, remember this: Breakfast-Tea-Lunch-Tea-Dinner (or more) – at least five meals a day!
The second thing we noticed was their faithfulness to Jesus. The scarcity of water, food, their housing, and their limited access to electricity and healthcare are not distractions. The daily struggles they face are not a reason to take their eyes off Jesus. Seeing their great faithfulness to Jesus reminded me of the episode of Jesus walking on water. Jesus invites Peter to do the same. Peter was doing very well, until Peter “saw the strong wind and was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, ‘Lord, save me!’ Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, ‘man of little faith, why did you doubt?’” (Matthew 14:30-31)
We all experience episodes in our lives that can lead us to take our eyes off Jesus. Many storms and distractions appear on our journey without warning: the sudden loss of a loved one, the diagnosis of a chronic illness, the loss of a job, uncertainty about the physical and emotional well-being of ourselves and our family. This is all chaos for us, but in the midst of that chaos, Jesus walks with us to extend a hand and strengthen us. Jesus is also with us when we joyfully walk on water, when we rejoice in our children’s successes, when we rejoice in the birth of a son, grandson, or nephew, when we have successful surgery, when we have good results in medical treatments, when we get a job or a new job, when we received a promotion.
Brothers and sisters, many of us experienced some of these moments this past summer. Wherever you were, Jesus was with you the whole time. John 14:18 says, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” As we close one door and open the door to a new season, I pray that each of us may feel the holy presence of Jesus, who promised never to leave us alone, wherever we are in our lives.
Pastor Edwin
(reprinted from the September 2026 newsletter)
