Update to Wednesdays post (which was posted November 8)

I want to add a little update to my post about the women I see every Wednesday. I knew before coming here that I would not be saving Africa, but it has still been hard for me to see extreme poverty and pain and to feel like I can't do anything about it. I began feeling like the time I spent at the training center was pointless because I wasn't really helping in a sustainable way. I felt like I was working on fundraising materials that no one was going to use for an organization that is going to die in the next six months and whose beneficiaries are not much better off than when they started the program. I thought I was wasting my time and should spend my Wednesdays somewhere else.

I kept going back, mostly because I didn't want the women who hadn't been interviewed yet to feel left out. I'm glad I did because for each of the last three weeks, one of the women I interviewed revealed something major about what is going on in her life now, of which the director of the center was completely unaware. It's not any big epiphany, but it showed me that I am wrong to ever think something is a waste of my time just because I am not accomplishing my goals for that situation. Just because I think I am there to help with fundraising doesn't mean God's purpose can't be something totally different. Just a small, but good, reminder that God is wise and sovereign, and I am not.

Also, after I wrote this first part, but before I could find an internet connection, I went to a meeting of the center's board, and they approved a new budget I put together to allow the girls to receive training for full days for the remaining five months. This means they will have twice as much training, eat a good lunch everyday and have a consistent bible study and check in time. It's a small thing, but I was so excited I could hardly contain myself.