Its Hard, I cant take it anymore ....

You were in need of work, or to serve in a comminuty or ministry, hurray !!! You get what you wanted.

Few months down the line, not everything is going as you planned, you start to feel the pressure , the people in leadership being hard on you, work colleagues being mean to you. People don’t appreciate all the hard work you put in. You feel used, 

I have been there, I understand your situation. I once felt being taken for granted , unappreciated. I didnt want to talk to them or even to see them.. . The situation became very hard and i felt like quitting . I begun to pray and the Lord enlightened my mind and I came to this understanding

 The Lord wants us to grow in all aspects of our lives. . He wants us to show love and sympathy to people whom we associate with . When people around us become unthankful and unkind, show them Christ’love, maybe there are going through hard times or have been hurt before and they don’t know how to put themselves together as a results they hurt other people.

God put us there not by chance, but by purpose. You can’t run away, if you do, then you will go to another place and find the people with the similar characters.. God wants to use us to be a blessing to people and in return we will develop to become  better individuals. God wants to restore us into the divine image He created us in the beginning. 

In everything that comes your way, no matter how bad the situation, look into it with a positive eye, remember that; “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” Romans 8:28

Pray for people who put you into hard situations , pray that God may continue to give you strength to endure, and perform the work that God sent you to do. You will have to die to self and serve. Its not easy but God has promised to be with you. Its not always about you, but it’s about glorifying God in every situation .

May this be the guiding principle of all that we do

Colossians 3:23  And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men

These principles not only apply to work places but also in our families, church communities, ministries and social gatherings

“'Are you offended at someone? Have you allowed that offense to birth bitterness, murderous anger and jealousy in your heart? Has the offense prompted you to leave the place God sent you? Trust me when I say that God doesn’t change His mind just because you’re offended at someone over something. In fact, the people you’re sent to help and those you work with will offend you the most. That’s all part of the journey. Realize it, and move on. To say you were compelled by God to do something or go somewhere is major because you’re attaching His name to your actions. Then, to say that He changed His mind just because you’re offended is dishonorable and disrespectful. No matter who or what you’re offended with, you must realize that you still have a job to do! Vacating your position leaves a void that you were called to fill. You were sent there for a purpose, and the “season doesn’t end” on the account of offense.

Furthermore, your feelings shouldn’t dictate your obedience. Mature above the offense. There’s still work to be done. And, remember that you were commissioned for a purpose. You’re there for service, not a popularity contest. Humble yourself, fix your face, get your attitude together and get back to work!”'

May People see Christ in you.

God bless.

Lots of love,
Neema x

Disappointed? Discouraged? There is the reason!

We feel disappointed when things dont work out as we hoped for, when we loose someone or something or an opportunity  dear to us,  I have been there. I can sympathize with you. It hurts and it pains. The pain blinds us not to see what was gone was for our best and we start to question God to why did He even allow us to go through that experience if He knew all along what would happen and if not careful, we start to doubt if He even loves and cares for us. This situation can lead to depression and anxiety. It is actually satan’s plan to make us doubt God and  separate us from Him and to see Him not being fair and just. He started this work more than 6000 years ago, in heaven, His CV is full of this experience but with the help of God, do not agree to his claims and suggestions. 

I am here to tell you that God is too wise to be mistaken, He is too good to be unkind, I am sure you are wondering and saying, Neema what do you mean??!! Allow me to explain;

God in His infinite wisdom withholds certain things to happen for our good. He closes doors which at the present time, we may not fully understand thats where faith comes in, fully trusting in  God that He knows whats best for each one of us. He is our father, He cares and loves us and He is still in control. He said in 

“Psalms 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly” 

No good thing God will withhold from you if you walk upright. No good thing He promised so when that “thing” doesn’t work out, Its because God weighed it and thought hmmm I am not going to give “that” to my son/ daughter because its not good for him/her but I have “something” better for them. All we need to do is wait and trust in God.  We need to wait on God for his perfect timing and He will give us that better “thing”. Lets do our best not to hold on to the closed door but patiently wait for God to open another door which is better than the closed door. 

As we wait, lets grow our relationship with God, lets spend time with him in prayer and Bible study. Lets get to know Him, lets not focus too much on the blessings and forget the Giver of those blessings. He promised not to leave us alone during the disappointment season. Whenever you get the feeling of disappointments and feeling alone, talk to God, tell him everything, He is there for us. He said in 

“1 Peter 5:17 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you”  

He also promised in, “Isaiah 41:10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness”

“Isaiah 40:31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

My prayer for you is,  Trust God, He has never failed you and He never will. Amen 

Attack from the unseen world

I was invited to take part in the presentations for a 3 weeks seminar. While the seminar was going on, we had threats from people around the area because they were not happy with the truth that was being taught at the seminar. 

A midnight of October 19,there were noises on the roof of the house where the team members were residing. It was as if stones were being thrown to the roof, we were shocked and started to ask ourselves who at 1am throws stones. Immediately after the noises from the roof, we had a loud shout of something landing on the floor from the top, It landed near my bed  but I saw nothing. There were also some strange things happening in other rooms of the team members. The Holy Spirit promped us to pray, we pray to God for protection from the witchcrafts that came to disturb us that night. 

God answered our prayers. The noises stopped and we went back to sleep in peace till sunrise even unto the end of the seminar. 

From that experience, it taught me a lesson of thanking God for His protection even from the things that our naked eyes don't see. We do sometimes take for granted His protection on us. 

One of my favorite writer says; 

"We cannot know how much we owe to Christ for the peace and protection which we enjoy. It is the restraining power of God that prevents mankind from passing fully under the control of Satan. The disobedient and unthankful have great reason for gratitude for God's mercy and long-suffering in holding in check the cruel, malignant power of the evil one" GC 36.1

It is only by the grace of God that He protects us from our enemies.If  we heed to what He bids us, He fulfills the promise of sending his angels to protect us as it is written in " Psalms 34:7  The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them." 

But if we reject him and we persistently resist The Spirit of God , we will have no protection from the malice and enmity of satan. 

We owe so much to God for his daily protection on us. Let us not take it for granted but let us be thankful and willing to be led and protected by Him 

Amen 

Attack from the unseen world

 I was invited to take part in the presentations for a 3 weeks seminar. While the seminar was going on, we had threats from people around the area because they were not happy with the truth that was being taught at the seminar. 

A midnight of October 19,there were noises on the roof of the house where the team members were residing. It was as if stones were being thrown to the roof, we were shocked and started to ask ourselves who at 1am throws stones. Immediately after the noises from the roof, we had a loud shout of something landing on the floor from the top, It landed near my bed. One of the team members saw someone in my room but I saw no one. There were also some strange things happening in other rooms of the team members. The Holy Spirit promped us to pray, we pray to God for protection from the witchcrafts that came to disturb us that night. 

God answered our prayers. The noises stopped and we went back to sleep in peace till sunrise even unto the end of the seminar. 

From that experience, it taught me a lesson of thanking God for His protection even from the things that our naked eyes don't see. We do sometimes take for granted His protection on us. 

One of my favorite writer says; 

"We cannot know how much we owe to Christ for the peace and protection which we enjoy. It is the restraining power of God that prevents mankind from passing fully under the control of Satan. The disobedient and unthankful have great reason for gratitude for God's mercy and long-suffering in holding in check the cruel, malignant power of the evil one" GC 36.1

It is only by the grace of God that He protects us from our enemies.If  we heed to what He bids us, He fulfills the promise of sending his angels to protect us as it is written in " Psalms 34:7  The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them." 

But if we reject him and we persistently resist The Spirit of God , we will have no protection from the malice and enmity of satan. 

We owe so much to God for his daily protection on us. Let us not take it for granted but let us be thankful and willing to be led and protected by Him 

Amen 

Submission ??? What???!!!!!!!

For the past 3 years, I believe God has been teaching me on the principles of Godly marriage. One of the topics that I was struggling to understand is wife's submission to her husband, so whenever I could read Ephesians 5:22 " Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands"  In my head I am like yah yah I get it, but deep down I knew I didn't . Until recently when God opened my eyes to this gem. 

Before jumping into this important topic, I want to say that, everyday we take time to prepare, either for work, exams, moving houses, weddings, food etc  all these are important but there are temporal too but we forget to prepare for something that affects us in this life on earth and life to come in heaven, a matter of life or death, thats MARRIAGE. We can get busy on how many guests we would want to invite, the color code, the cake, the venue and so on but we forget to take time to learn what are the responsibilities within the married couples, How to please your spouse, How to take care of the children given to us by God etc.  Thats why there are so many divorces in the world and in the church. I would advice those who are single, engaged or even the married couple to take time to know Marriage God's way and what it takes to make marriage successful.All these don't come naturally, they need to be implanted into our minds. Books that I recommend, The Bible, The Adventist Home, Letters to young lover, Christian Temperance and Bible hygiene. If we pray God will teach us through the Holy Spirit all things that we need to know.  He has been teaching me and I will share just a glimpse of what He has taught me so far.  

What is Submission??? What does it mean to submit?? Before we start concluding into our heads what it means, First and foremost we are Christians and we claim to be Christ's follower. Lets look how our Master, our Lord Jesus Christ, how He submitted to God the father. Its beautiful picture of submission.  In Joh 5:19  Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

Joh 12:49  For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.

Joh 12:50  And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.

 All these are just examples of Christ submitting to God the Father, the oneness between the two. Although Jesus is God, but He chose to submit to God, to His's Father's will, even to submit to the point of dying on the cross to save us, Its amazing. In the garden of gethsemane, He prayed Luk 22:42  "Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done" 

Now lets answer the question what submission is?! Submission means choosing to yield to another's will, As we have seen Christ chose to yield to His father's will. Submission makes us die to self, deny self, choosing to trust someone's else decision to be the best decision for the particular situation. 

Submission doesn't mean to be controlled or say nothing, do everything you are told to do, No! No! Its quite the opposite, its a CHOICE. God gives us free will, to choose what we think its best for us.  

Submission doesn't start in marriage life,but rather its starts with our Christian walk even while we are single.  When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior. We choose to be led by Him every day, every moment, by allowing Him to take control of our lives because we love him, trust him and believe on Him that He knows whats best for us. 

Thats why in His word, He said, we need; 

1. To submit to God ;                   Jas 4:7  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
2. To submit to those ruling us ; 1Pe 2:13  Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;
3. To submit to one another;    Eph 5:21  Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
4. Wives submit to your husband:  Eph 5:22  Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.         Col 3:18  Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.

 Submission starts with God first and obeying His word. We can't submit to God without knowing what to submit to, If we don't take time to read His word, then we wont know how to obey Him. 

God is God of order. This is how He designed a family 

1Co 11:3  But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God. 

Eph 5:23  For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.

Head of children- Father&Mother&Christ

 Head of Woman- Man

Head of Man- Christ

Head of Church- Christ

Head of Christ- God

Sounds simple right??!! But why thats not the reality??? 

We live in a day and age where everyone wants their rights, children rights, women rights, homosexual rights etc, but is it really how God wants it to be that way? That's something to ponder about. Thats why when women read Eph 5:22 about submitting to their husbands, they may say, " dont tell me what to do, I know what i am doing " or they could agree in their husband's presence and do something different when their husbands are not there and they may rebel and cause many conflicts and arguments  in the family. A good example is Eve in the garden of Eden, God told Adam and His wife not to eat from the forbidden tree and Adam was in charge, what if Eve could submit to God and to her husband, She could not have eaten of the forbidden tree and cause Adam to sin and we became sinful by nature but what did she do, She had self confidence and gave a way to be tempted by satan, she left her husband side.

Let me share a story of what happened yesterday, my mum applied for a visa for country A but also she planned to go to country B first then to Country A. As time was ticking, two days before the travel, we became worried that the passport wouldn't come on time. My dad told my mom to go and check if the passport has been returned at the visa application centre. In my head I am thinking, thats not possible, we can't go there and be successful because they haven't sent a notification email to say we should go and collect the passport. My mom was on my side for a moment then she changed her mind and obeyed and I went with her to the visa application centre, although the passport wasn't there but one lady kindly said,"  if it comes, I will ring you immediately and you will come and collect it" and the same day in the evening, she was called and went to collect it. What if mum could have not listened  to my dad and waited for the notification email, and with only one day left , she could have been more stressed and who knows what could have happened. 

Submission doesn't mean you have no opinion  on the issue but rather you can bring up the ideas and ways to tackle the issue but let the Husband do the final decision because He is the leader/ head of the family and the house. Let the men do the big decisions and us ladies do our responsibilities of taking care of the family, house, children and sorts. Without Christ we cannot do it. We need Him to help us and He is willing to do so as He has promised in his word. Claim the promise! Pray!  Claim the promise! 

Amen  

I hope and pray that we have learned together a thing or two on submission. 

God bless you 

Throwback Thursdays; when Satan throws at you disappointments, God backs it up and changes it into blessings.

Let me take you back two weeks ago on thursday, I had speaking appointment on health somewhere and I got ready and I went to a place to present, but one of the host for the place, for some reasons decided that I should not present.  I was disappointed because there was no solid reasons to cancel the presentation. I was tempted to complain but silently I left the place. And I thought since I have a free time I should go and look for wheat seeds, I have been wanting to buy them but it seemed an opportunity never showed up, so I go to a market and started to look for them with no success, since I was in the market, I thought I should look for soapmaking equipments, and I was directed to a certain shop , upon arriving there, i found the owner of the shop sick and I shared some health tips and as I was leaving, The Holy Spirit told me to pray for him so I went back and prayed with Him and I left the shop, and I felt that peace channeling through my heart, and God changed the situation to be a blessing for the shopkeeper and It was a joy to know that God is still in control. 

For the last time I went looking for the wheat seeds, I couldnt find them anywhere. I did the rest of the shopping for things that were needed at home  and I was about the leave, I saw by far some grains like brown rice and I wanted to know the price and when I asked, I was told it was wheat seeds, I jumped for joy, finally my goal has been accomplished. 

After few days, I received a text from the shopkeeper that He is feeling better , Praise God the prayers have worked and one day He might come to know about the Christ who healed him. Amen 

Well a week later, this story starts on wednesday and ends of thursday, On Wednesday morning I had a meeting and my phone screen started not to respond to the touch of my fingers and I was leading an evening devotion on YOAM ( Youth on Advent Mission) who are based in England and I would connect to them on FaceTime on my phone since I am Africa and I started to worry how will I connect and share  egw quotations on whatsapp, I tried using my sister's phone but that didn't work either so I left the matter to the Lord and continued with the preparations for the devotion. One of my prayers was for the Lord not to allow electricity to be cut and here in Africa to be precise, In Tanzania sometimes electricity can go off at anytime and cause the WIFI to be off  as well and that would cause me not to  be able to use FaceTime on my laptop, But praise God, everything went well, the devotion was a blessing. 

Come thursday, my phone is still not responding and I am like Lord whats this !! After some hours, memories comes into mind that last year mum gave me an iphone  that she thought it died and when I charged it, it still works, Praise God. 

But the icing on the cupcake is that, the "not responding iPhone" had 8GB but I was only suppose to use 5 GB, who is in this day and age survives with less than 5GB phone storage, well for me personally I was struggling with space on the phone, I had to delete messages on whatsapp, sometimes the phone could not download new emails and I had to backup pictures regularly and my fingers got used to dismiss " storage almost full" warning on phone. To be honest, I was tired with the issue and I prayed to God to help me get another phone with larger phone storage . But God is ever faithful and merciful that I now have 12 GB phone storage. Hallelujah  

I dont know what you are going through right now, but God is still watching over you, choose to rely on Him, choose to trust him even if things don't look suitable, He still love you and cares for you. He can work wonders in big or small scale. He never changes. He can turn things around in your life IF you let him. When we are discouraged, go to Him and you shall find rest for your soul.  Have faith in Him. 

 

Faith can endure trial, resist temptation, bear up under disappointment. Jesus lives as our advocate. All is ours that His mediation secures. – {GW 478.1}

God bless you 

When a packed bag was for another unknown journey 💼

In August 2016, as I was waiting for God's providence so that I could pay for uni fees to start my studies , there was that inner voice telling me to pack my bags and buy all the things that i need. God provided for me, I had only one bag so I thought I would buy another bag to fit my things and at the end of it all I was able to complete my preparations.
After a month of waiting, University sent an email saying, its too late to join this year until in September 2017. I felt discouraged and hurt and had questions why would God allow me to do all the preparations and the packing of bags if I was not going to uni this year. I couldn't get an answer. Every time i entered my room and saw the bags, i felt more bad. I saw no point of having clothes on the packed bags and since I was not going anywhere, so I wanted to unpack. But I hesitated and that voice said, I shouldn't.. I kept on praying for God's help,  my faith was shaken. Step by step i started to regain faith by prayer and bible study and when I could get time at work i could study on the health message.
By the end of November, One sabbath evening, I received a call from a friend, a lay evangelist, he wanted me to help in conducting evangelist campaign in giving health talks and its was in a week's time. I knew God was calling me to His work. I accepted the call and started to make preparations. To my surprise I had almost everything ready. The bag that I bought was a perfect bag to go with. Other preparations I had done them in September and everything was packed... Now, I understand God saw this trip and He prepared me for months before He called me to it. If I didn't do any preparations it would have been so difficult to do everything within a week and I wouldn't have enough money to do everything. Praise be to God.. 

(For all who are reading this, I want to tell you that, God knows our best, He allows things to happen to us for our good, although we dont see it, after a while we will understand. Jesus while on earth He said, in John 13:7 Jesus answered him, "You don't know what I am doing now, but you will understand later." (WEB) and other promise that goes along with this is in Romans 8:28 ''And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.'' KJV..... so dont worry when things dont look okay, God is still in control :)   

Leaving going to the campaign I knew I would loose my job  but God called me to it so I had no choice but to listen to God. The journey was the whole day. The village that the campaign took place was called "Tumbakose" In Dodoma. Its quite interior, surrounded by mountains and trees. People there,  have lost hope of living, Satan has chained them with alcoholism. They drink from morning to evening. Fathers as well as mothers, children are not left out too, they are given to drink the traditional alcohol at a very young age, when a mother is drinking and the baby starts to cry, the mother gives her baby alcohol so quite her child, oh how, most children in the village are poorly taken care of.
For the two weeks, we did health talks, family life talks and preaching of the gospel. Last Friday of the campaign, The heavens rejoiced because 6 people were baptized, adding to the 2 church members and now the church has 8 members, Praise be to God. Apart from the talks and the preaching, we had health checks on Sundays and Wednesdays. Most of the people who came to check their health, didn't come to the meetings so I had a chance to share the gospel and tracks that were available. The Health Message is truly the right arm of the gospel.

Although 6 people were baptized, 12 people wants to learn more about God.
The work has just started in Tumbakose. Lets keep in prayers those who labour there.

Amen

 Children here cooking traditional alcohol for their parents to sell and drink 😔😔

That was our water, we used it for cleaning, cooking, bathing except for drinking but the villagers drink them but to be honest, the water made our skin shine haha 

When a man of God was preaching, A drunk man came and slept at the front of the preacher, after the meeting was over, we waked him up and he requested for prayer, Praise God

Baptism 

These are lovely souls who have given their lives to Christ.

Sabbath School service

Measuring blood pressure to the villagers