Loving through respect!

Last Thursday the LIFE team and a few volunteers went out to a village called Munyemunyemu, which is in the Mukuni Chiefdom.  It was about two and a half hours from our Rapid 14 base. 

We set up camp at the school and distributed about 2 tons of vitamins to the villagers during the day.  We showed the Jesus Film at night and many people were challenged in their faith.  We ended the night with dancing and celebrating the love of Jesus.

On Friday morning about 6:30am I woke to go to the long drop and saw a woman walking towards us with boxes of vitamins on her head, I wondered what she was doing and why she was here so early, I thought maybe she was overwhelmed and came to ask for more direction in taking them.

The rest of the camp was just starting to stir and as I walked back I asked her if she was okay. I got one of our Pastors to translate what she was saying.  She said her husband told her she needed to return the vitamins to us.

At first I was shocked and abit irritated at the ignorance of her husband, she was pregnant and all I could think of was that her body needed those pre-natal vitamins we had given her.

While she was still talking I realized that she was just being obedient to her husband and as much as I thought it was wrong because vitamins can bring you no harm, I needed to respect the situation.

 
In the last few months of me being in Zambia I have had some moments where this strand of thought has come up over and over again.  It is so easy for me to not understand or not agree yet when I think about why this comes up one word comes to mind! RESPECT!!!!

I did not agree with the woman’s husband and did not know why he asked her to bring back the vitamins we gave her, yet I needed to respect that decision.

For so long respect has been greeting people when I should, being kind when it is needed and esteeming others that are an example.  However now I am seeing that respect is a lot more than that, it is knowing that someone is making the wrong decision or seeing others not being treated fairly and still being able to find a common ground with them through the grace of God in our lives and then His unconditional love!  The more I learn about the work respect and put it into practice the more I learn what it is to love like Jesus did!