Yes.

It's been over 2 years now since we moved to Tanzania. 

We had never been to any part of Africa, but felt sure that God could use us here and that He wanted to. That He was calling us to this place, for this time, for something. I wish I could tell you that it is now perfectly clear exactly what we are doing here and that we have made huge strides toward our goals. We've certainly been busy. We've started so many things, but really we haven't finished any. We've learned a great deal of Swahili, but we are still learning. We've done a lot of work on our house and just learning to live here. The house is our home, but it's not finished. We've begun many relationships and some have grown, but none have resulted in obvious life change.

We came with dreams of how we might use our skills to help the people of Geita, and as we've learned about culture and this place our dreams have adapted, morphed into something that we hope is more realistic, more possible, more appropriate. Sometimes it's a bit frustrating as we continue to beat out the details of what we want to do here, but it's also nice that we still sit on the couch after Jude is in bed and dream. Sometimes we lay in bed at night, needing to go to sleep, but needing more to talk through some new idea or new relationship and where it might go. 

Working in another culture, another world, is slow. People told us it would be, but we thought if we just worked hard it didn't have to be. It's still slow. And on the really slow days it's easy to wonder what we are doing here. Easy to want to know the end, how it will all come together, and what God will do through us here. But, what if it's not about that.

I read this blog post today over at gitzen girl and it really struck me. 

Honestly, I hope you'll read the post for yourself, but in it she writes about Noah, doing the insane task of building a boat on dry land before a drop of rain fell, just because God told Him to. He trusted God enough to do that. And in the end the rain came, showing that Noah was right. But, she asks the question:

"would he have been less right if it never rained?"

Is doing the thing that God calls us to less right if we never see the full point of it all?

I want to know that by the time we leave Geita we'll be able to see what God did through us, and know exactly why He brought us here. That we will finish the task he has set before us, but he might not have sent us to finish. That's His business. 

"Because we don't all live to see the rain. We don't all live to see the benefit. We don't all get to know if there even is a benefit.

But, if we really trust Him, our thirst can be quenched in the simple decision of YES."