Today has also involved a few tears. My niece and nephew gave me some of their pocket money to buy paper and pencils for children here. It was very moving to see the children of very similar ages rushing to queue up to each get a pencil and a couple of sheets of paper. They were so excited and grateful with something so little, it made the contrast with home so stark. I wished my niece and nephew had been there to see how much impact their little gift made.
And there we were also given a gift in a ceremony that involved lots of singing and dancing and bowing and smiling. Each of us received some lovely African material which they wrapped around us once we’d unwrapped it. Together with feeding us meat, they blessed us generously from the little they had.
It all made me think about how God is in the business of taking the little we have to offer and multiplying it. In the story of the feeding of the five thousand, it was the packed lunch of one boy offered to God that fed the crowd. But nothing multiplied by anything, however big, remains nothing. We have to be prepared to offer something if we want to see God multiply it. And I think God is often waiting to surprise us with what God does with even the smallest thing we give with an open heart. As they say here all the time: Bwana asifiwe!
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