It’s just a bar of soap. Look at the picture and that’s what most people would say. And a funky looking bar of soap at that…least by what most Americans are accustomed to seeing. Yet in Zimbabwe just this simple piece of one of the most basic of necessities, something most of us never even stop to think about can be quite important. We hold a monthly “Widows Tea” for our ladies at Celebration Church, as well as anyone in the community who is widowed is welcome to attend.  We encourage our people to invite others that they know and one of our ladies who did just that had a huge impact on another life.   

    As a little cultural info concerning widows in Africa, let’s just say they are way down the food chain. Women are not highly valued here in the first place and when the husband dies, many times his family will come in and take everything, leaving the widow to fend for herself and children. Sad but true, it’s a reality of life here in Africa. That’s why we try hard as a church family to look out for and love on our widows.   

   So here’s what happened. One of our ladies had invited a neighbor to the widows tea last week. We try to give something to the ladies as resources permit. It does not happen every month, this past month we happened to have some soap like you see above that had been donated to us from a local organization. When this lady received her soap, she was just so blown away that anyone would care enough to give away such a thing. Overjoyed to the point of tears,  she related a story of how just that same day, she had been forced to ask her neighbor for a piece of soap as she had none left and had no idea how she would be able to get more. Cost of that soap….about 50 cents.

   I love to hear these kinds of stories. Just another reminder of just how much God loves every one of us, even down to meeting the needs of a widow who is out of soap. Also for me is a great reminder of just why I do what I do. For many people living in Zimbabwe may seem to be craziness, but these kinds of things always let me know I am living an incredibly blessed life.

James 1:27

27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.