Does the sheer size of the challenges in Africa feel overwhelming to you sometimes?  Do you feel like David standing in front of 1,200 Goliaths as you read the statistics? ”One in eight children in Nigeria won’t live past their fifth birthday”…”maternal mortality rates are among the highest in the world”… “more than 70 million Nigerians don’t have access to clean water”…60 percent have no access at all to medical care”…”Nigeria is rated as one of the least peaceful countries globally.” The problems seem so big that it is hard to imagine how one person can make a difference. 

If you feel that way, you are not alone. Many familiar names from the Bible also felt inadequate, discouraged and defeated by tasks or enemies that seemed insurmountable. Gideon was a warrior who didn’t want to be a leader. Though he heard God’s call, he doubted not only his abilities, but God’s faith in him. By testing God’s calling not just once but twice, Gideon basically said “Really, God? Are you sure it’s me you want?” Yet, God was sure. He used Gideon to not only claim a victory for the Israelites, but to demonstrate the power of faith and God’s ability to multiply our own meager efforts into mighty works. 

Similarly, Paul felt overwhelmed at times by the enormity of Jesus’s call to “go and make disciples of all nations.” When Paul entered the city of Athens, the Bible says that Paul “was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.” He spent many days in the synagogue and marketplace proclaiming Jesus, until finally he was invited to speak to the Athenians at the Areopagus, their seat of government. His impassioned and persuasive arguments resulted in just four or five converts, only two of which are named in Acts. Paul left the city discouraged and frustrated, probably questioning his calling and his abilities.

But God quietly tended those seeds of faith and widened the circles of influence of Paul’s pebble in the pool. Today, if you climb the 180 steps leading up the Acropolis, you will find, etched in the stones there, a cross—evidence of the Christians who grew in faith and numbers until eventually they dared to bear witness to their faith in a pagan temple. Paul had left the city in despair vowing not to return. But God never wastes our efforts on His behalf. 

Likewise, God blesses every gift made to Vision Africa, joining them to increase their impact and have greater influence than we can imagine. When you help give a study Bible to a new pastor, he or she pays calls to individuals to share the good news of the Gospel. Those individuals share the visits with their neighbors. A house church is formed. The house church evolves into a community church. Church members go out to serve their community as a beacon for Jesus, and countless lives are changed and improved.

When you help give a hygiene kit and menstrual education to a young girl, she stays in school instead of staying home. She keeps up with her classmates instead of falling behind. Her confidence rises along with her grades. She finishes high school instead of dropping out. She goes to university instead of being forced into early marriage. She becomes self-sustaining, helps her family, inspires other girls and improves her own future and that of her community.

When you help us provide medicine for a father with malaria, he gets well and goes back to work instead of becoming an invalid. His family eats and his children stay in school instead of working. They get training and become self-sustaining instead of drowning in the pool of poverty. And the ripples go on and on and on. 

Your gifts—of whatever size—matter. They have impact. They change lives—not through our human efforts, but through the power of God’s provision. In the story of the widow’s mite in the book of Mark, Jesus tells his disciples, “Truly I tell you this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything.” 

What’s more, these gifts aren’t solely financial in nature. Whether you give money, your time, your talent, or your prayers, God blesses, honors and multiplies those gifts for His glory.  Paul instructs us in 1st Corinthians 12 that “there are different gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.”  Whether you volunteer with Vision Africa, tell others about our ministry, or pray for those we serve, you say to God, “here am I, Lord, send me.” And in doing so you demonstrate how one person makes a difference.

The poet James W. Foley said it this way: 

“Drop a pebble in the water: just a splash and it is gone;

But there’s half a hundred ripples

circling on and on and on,

Spreading, spreading from the center,

flowing on out to the sea.

And there is no way of telling where the end is going to be.”

Is God calling you to be the pebble in the pool today? Do you have talents or resources to share? If so, we hope you’ll join hands with us to widen those ripples all the way to the oceans. Visit our website at www.visionafrica.org to learn more about how to be involved or click on the Donate button below.  And to God be the glory.