Small beginnings...

Another principle that we find in chapter four of Zechariah is that we shouldn't undervalue or look down on small beginnings. Anyone who has ever planted a tree (as we do in our Planting Together project in West Africa) knows that the seedling doesn't look at all impressive in the beginning. When we planted those thousands of acacia trees in the north of Senegal, they were only a few inches high. Yet, by the time we went back for the tenth or eleventh year, those trees were much taller than we were.

It can be like that with many things in life, but I specifically have lots of memories of how I've seen the principle in action in our mission settings. Just this week, I was thinking about "Project PowerLink" - a ministry that we launched in Cape Town. The vision was to serve township kids from informal settlements (squatter camp communities) by equipping them with skills that would prepare them to get a job, earn a living and provide for their future families. In particular, we wanted to offer:

1. life skills training (budgeting, planning, conflict resolution, personal hygiene and self care, avoiding AIDS, staying out of gangs, forming good friendships, and the opportunity also to have a friendship with God.)

2. English language classes - as the ability to speak English is a valuable skill when it comes to finding employment.

3. Computer skills - another valuable ability to have when looking for a job.

The third part of the PowerLink vision was slow to get off the ground, as we simply didn't see provision of all the computers we wanted to have for the project. Finally, we decided that we needed just to step out with the little we had. We invited a handful of teenagers to a "camp" in our own home, where we taught them basic computer skills on our three old office computers, together with biblically based discipleship activities and discussions. Recently I found an old (pre-digital) photo from that time, with the girls proudly holding up their "certificates" earned by carrying out specific tasks on the computer. Definitely a "small beginning," and not particularly impressive at all. But it was a beginning, and by the following year we had seen provision of a dedicated computer lab with 16 computers where we were able to work with around 700 children and youth every week.

I can remember so many experiences like that over my decades as a missionary - times when we stepped out and made a small beginning that was nothing like the bigger vision that God had placed on our hearts - and I wonder if sometimes the same principle is at work in our personal lives.

This morning I had a random memory of one of the flats where we lived in Muizenberg (seaside town in the south of Cape Town.) I remembered that when we moved in, we owned no table or chairs, so we had to sit on the floor around a small square side table to eat or meals. We used to joke, in that same accommodation, that my friend Helen had to "sleep on a cupboard" because her bedroom, a converted balcony was so small that there was no space for a bed and she simply placed her mattress on top of a wooden cupboard!

It strikes me today that I again have no table and chairs at this stage of my life in Spain. I gave mine away several years ago because a dining room table and chairs were already present in the house that I was renting, the one I lived in for the past thirteen years. 

But I do have other furniture - furniture that right now is stored in someone's basement garage - and how I hope it won't need to sit there for a long time.

But today, just as I already began asking myself at the beginning of the year (see this post from 3rd January), I'm wondering what it means for me in my current situation to "step out with what I have" and not to despise the day of small beginnings.

What about you? Where do you need to step out this week, instead of waiting for things to be ideal or perfect? Like this Israelites who stepped into the flooding Jordan river (in Joshua chapter 3), sometimes we don't see the way ahead until we have the courage to take the first step.