Help Me To Be A Blessing

When my alarm clock went off, I had a full day ahead of me. Since I knew what lay ahead, I began my day by bringing each item on my schedule to the Lord.

God, first, I am doing language study this morning. Today, help me to be a blessing to my instructor. 

When we take our coffee/tea break at 10:00 this morning, please help me to find someone to talk to, and help me to be a blessing to them. 

After language school, I am going to my weekly Bible study, and I pray that you will help me to be a blessing to someone there. 

After Bible study, I have a skype date with my sister, and I ask that you will help me to be a blessing to her today. 

In the evening, I am preparing an American meal for my host family, so please help me to be a blessing to them today. 

With that, I rolled out of bed and got ready for the day. 

Seventeen hours later when my head hit the pillow again, I finished the day in the same way I started it, only this time I remembered my prayer from the morning, and I celebrated how God had literally answered each request. 

During language school that day, I payed my instructor for the first month of classes. As I handed him the money, I told him, "With this money, I want to thank you for your instruction. Thank you for teaching me both language and culture. You have blessed me, and so know I want to bless you and your family. Consider this money a gift from me, but also from the Lord." 

During my coffee break, I met a lady that I had never met before and got to talk to her a little bit in French, explaining what I am doing here and how I want to serve the Lord. 

At Bible study, when we broke up into small groups to pray, I was in a group with a woman who was very concerned about her young daughter, who is struggling with anxiety that keeps her awake at night. Having been through that exact situation as a family with my little sister, I was able to relate to this woman, encourage her, give testimony to how God has delivered my sister, and then pray for her. 

When I talked with my sister on skype, she was going through a rough time with lots of tears. I shared with her that moving to Africa has been the hardest thing I have ever done, and there have been many a tear, but I am also closer to Jesus than ever before. That's what makes struggles worth it. We are forced to our knees and pushed closer towards the heart of God, and for that, every tear is a precious gem. Every struggle is a better than a million lotteries. 

I also got to share with her all my funny stories from life in Africa, and I think the laughter was just as valuable as the spiritual advice. 

Finally, I ended the day with a full-blown American meal for my host family. They have been so generous to always prepare meals for me, and I wanted to return the favor. What was on the menu? you ask. Well, when your kitchen doesn't have an oven or a microwave and your grocery store doesn't have half your ingredients, my choices were limited, but I settled on beef stroganoff over pasta, green beans sautéed with onions and garlic, bread, and banana pudding for dessert. 

The recipe said "beef stroganoff in 20 minutes." It took me over two hours. That's because I had to get my fresh veggies from the market, cut them all up, pick off the ends of the green beans, and thoroughly wash and sanitize everything. I had to make my own cream of chicken soup. I even had to make my own sour cream. But in the end, I had a grand feast and one happy host family. It was the best "bon appetite" I ever said. 

And it was also the best banana pudding I ever had. Here's the secret, the eggs are fresh, the bananas are right off the tree, the sugar is raw, cream is way better than milk, and those little butter cookies you can find at the local boutique might even be better than vanilla wafers. 

The funniest thing to me was how much the boys loved the banana pudding. "Bananas and cookies and eggs make the best cake ever!" Ebenezer said. Jonathan, on the other hand, was rather fascinated by the sour cream. I didn't put all the sour cream into the stroganoff because I wasn't sure how well they would like it, so I set out an extra bowl on the table where they could add more if they wanted. Jonathan kept going back to the table and just dumping sour cream on his pasta. Nothing else, just pasta and sour cream. And he got seconds. And thirds.

Stanislas liked the sour cream, too. He didn't eat with us because he had a meeting, but when I went downstairs later to check on him, I found him sitting in his spot with his plate in his lap and the bowl of sour cream on the arm of the chair. When I asked if he liked the meal, he didn't even have time to answer before the rest of the family started laughing and making fun of him. "He went back for more three times already!" they jested. "And what is this called?" Stanislas asked with bright eyes and a big smile as he held up the little bowl of sour cream. 

I guess I didn't need to be worried about them not liking the sour cream! 

I took the opportunity to tell Charlotte and Stanislas how thankful I am for them. "Moving to a new country has been hard," I told them, "but because of you, the transition has been so much easier. I really don't know what I would do without you. Thank you for welcoming me and accepting me into your family. You are my burkinabe family now, and I know for sure that you are a gift from God. I thank God for you every night before I go to bed." 

In return, they told me that I have been a blessing to them, too, and that they are happy to receive me and work alongside me as a team in our city. 

And then I remembered my prayer, make me a blessing today...

And I decided that maybe I should pray that more often.