Boy did we have church today!!!! “Our” very own Ron McLean from Winnipeg was preaching, and I’m telling you, African preachers have nothing on them that Ron hasn’t got!!!
For those of you who aren’t Calvary Chapel family, Ron is the pastor of Gateway on Panet in Winnipeg; it’s our ‘sister’ church. We used to attend Gateway almost every Saturday evening, where we where richly blessed.
Ron spoke on the Holy Spirit baptism, … and the Holy Spirit took over!!!! Glorious! Powerful!! Wonderful!! Life changing!! WOW!!!
We knew Ron was coming, but last week when I was in the middle of teaching year 6, I was completely taken by surprise when all of a sudden, there was Ron!! I was so excited to get a Canadian hug.
Yeah, it’s hard when you see some one from the west and you say bye to them, knowing that they are stepping on an airplane and soon they will be in their familiar surroundings, their “cosy” life. Often when I hear the sound of an airplane flying overhead, my mind fast forwards to July 2011, when we’ll be stepping on an airplane to go home. It’s a bitter-sweet thought - and if Jesus says He’s not done with us here, we’re coming back. As hard as it is sometimes, it truly is where we want to be.
In fact, 2 weeks ago was a huge turning point for me. We were going to the boucherie and as we pulled into the parking lot, I saw a non-descript car and I looked at the licence plate, as I often do, and in that moment, weird as it sounds, I had a deep feeling of contentment, of “homeness,” of “yeah, life is good.”
It’s not that I wasn’t feeling that this was home before that, or that I wasn’t content and happy, but somehow it just went much deeper, or to a higher level. That week I had several of those ‘moments,’ and I’m very grateful that God is allowing/making our roots go down deeper.
Let me take you to Sunday, the day before this happened.
We had borrowed the movie/documentary on George Muller from Honda and Libby. George Muller was born in Germany in the earlier part of the 1800’s. He was a thief, a cheat, a drunkard, and was imprisoned for a time. He left Germany and went to England to attend university, where he encountered Jesus.
God put it on his heart to start rescuing the orphans of Bristol off of the streets. In today’s money he raised a staggering one hundred million pounds - that’s two hundred million dollars!!!! to provide homes and welfare for 120,000 orphans in Bristol. He did this without making any pleas, without any fundraising techniques, but simply by prayer. There were times when the children were sitting at the table, ready to eat, but there was no food. They would pray and there would be a knock at the door, and there was a baker, loaded down with fresh bread. The baker would relate how the Lord had woken him up early and put it on his heart to bake bread for the orphanage. This nineteenth century pioneer took God at His Word, and the work of George Muller continues to this day. The faith of this man did a huge number on me.
So that evening, when Isaac asked me what he could pray for me (something we’ve done for years every night - we ask each other what we can pray for the other - I encourage all couples to do this.), I was grappling with a monumental question; dare I ask him to pray that I will have a faith like George Muller!?
I told him what was churning in my spirit, and we started to talk about the ‘implications’ of such a prayer. What would we face where we would need such an incredible faith…. Did we want to be in such circumstances….
In the end I asked Isaac to pray about whether I should pray for a faith like this. I mean, this is huge; I pray for an increase in my faith very often, but the “George Muller faith” - that’s a whole new level.
Next day, Jesus was still talking to me about this issue, and Isaac and I talked about it to Colton. We knew this wasn’t going to be a flippant prayer spoken almost half heartedly, but if this would be prayed, it would have to come from the very marrow of my soul, my spirit.
On Tuesday when I lay down for my siesta, I asked the Lord, “ what will you take us through if I pray for this kind of faith?” I was very deliberate in saying ‘through’, and not ‘into’. Almost immediately, very clearly, I heard: “war, famine and hardship.” Yikes, my first response was, if war and famine aren’t hardships, what is?? But right on the heels of that was the fact that I had prayed “through” and so I knew we would make it. We wouldn’t be defeated, not spiritually nor physically. In my spirit I think I already knew that I was going to pray the prayer, it was just a matter of time.
But you see, since Colton was just a little tyke, I’ve thought that one of the things that would be the absolute worst thing for me to experience would be to see Colton starving and not being able to do anything for him.
On Wednesday at school I’m at my desk praying about this again, and I asked Jesus about the war, famine and hardship, and if there is anything else. And as clearly as the previous three, He said “joy.“ Excitement and a great anticipation for what God was going to do flooded over me. I strongly felt to get on my knees.
And I prayed the prayer.
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Sunday, March 7, 2010
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Refining fire - hard and glorious!!
Where to begin…
“The closer you live to God, the smaller everything else appears.” Rick Warren
“It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn Your decrees. The law from Your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold. May those who fear You rejoice when they see me, for I have put my hope in Your Word. I know, O Lord, that Your laws are righteous, and in faithfulness You have afflicted me. May Your unfailing love be my comfort, according to Your promise to Your servant. Let Your compassion come to me that I may live, for Your law is my delight.” Ps 119:71,72, 74 -77
A few months ago 2 people, 2 different countries (thanks Jean and Jackie B.), emailed me and both wrote about faith/ hardships, and I will quote what they wrote:
“God has us in the fire and in His tender care every day… and it’s hard and glorious.
“ We can all say we want more faith, but it seems we never want to be in the situations where we need faith.”
I can testify to you that God definitely has His mighty hand upon us, and it is very painful at times, but also gloriously wonderful because He’s answering our prayer to mold and shape us more and more into the children of God that He created, planned, purposed us too be.
But I can also tell you, without a seconds’ hesitation, that I wouldn’t trade this for anything in the world!!
We are getting to know the Father in a much more intimate way. And boy, the comfort of Jesus is so absolute and immediate when I fall on my knees and cry out to Him.
“But let all who take refuge in You be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread Your protection over them, that those who love Your name may rejoice in You. For surely, O Lord, You bless the righteous; You surround them with Your favor as with a shield.” Ps 5:11-12
The Bible verses I quoted have been very near and dear to my heart in the last number of weeks. I’ve prayed them many times, read them many times, and have been greatly encouraged and blessed by them.
Amahoro!! Peace
“The closer you live to God, the smaller everything else appears.” Rick Warren
“It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn Your decrees. The law from Your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold. May those who fear You rejoice when they see me, for I have put my hope in Your Word. I know, O Lord, that Your laws are righteous, and in faithfulness You have afflicted me. May Your unfailing love be my comfort, according to Your promise to Your servant. Let Your compassion come to me that I may live, for Your law is my delight.” Ps 119:71,72, 74 -77
A few months ago 2 people, 2 different countries (thanks Jean and Jackie B.), emailed me and both wrote about faith/ hardships, and I will quote what they wrote:
“God has us in the fire and in His tender care every day… and it’s hard and glorious.
“ We can all say we want more faith, but it seems we never want to be in the situations where we need faith.”
I can testify to you that God definitely has His mighty hand upon us, and it is very painful at times, but also gloriously wonderful because He’s answering our prayer to mold and shape us more and more into the children of God that He created, planned, purposed us too be.
But I can also tell you, without a seconds’ hesitation, that I wouldn’t trade this for anything in the world!!
We are getting to know the Father in a much more intimate way. And boy, the comfort of Jesus is so absolute and immediate when I fall on my knees and cry out to Him.
“But let all who take refuge in You be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread Your protection over them, that those who love Your name may rejoice in You. For surely, O Lord, You bless the righteous; You surround them with Your favor as with a shield.” Ps 5:11-12
The Bible verses I quoted have been very near and dear to my heart in the last number of weeks. I’ve prayed them many times, read them many times, and have been greatly encouraged and blessed by them.
Amahoro!! Peace
Monday, February 8, 2010
Church on the Edge
Yikes, over two weeks since I last blogged.
We survived a pretty intense heat wave that lasted about 2 weeks. Temperatures were in the 40’s, with 44 degrees being the highest that I’m aware of. Seriously hot!! At night it went down to about 33 degrees. So now that it’s back to normal - high 20’s to low 30’s, we sometimes feel chilled, especially at night. Sounds crazy, I know!!!
Sweet!!! Colton just brought me my first guava from our tree. Norma, Tina and Netty, remember how much I like guava!? Be right back, gotta check this out… Just picked our first harvest of tasty fruits. It’ll be tricky to beat the birds to the guava. There’s a good yield of fruit, but we also have a bumper crop of birds in our yard.
The Sunday before last we went to a church up country with our friends Travis and Astrid. Travis is from California, Astrid from the Netherlands; they met in the States at YWAM. They’ve done missions in Kenya for one year, and in Rwanda for four years. They’ve been in BUJ (Bujumbura) for one year, and are on the tail end of registering their own ministry called SOZO. Anyways, there’s a YWAM team (two Canadians!! one however hasn‘t lived in Canada for years) here for the service part of their DTS, and so they asked us to join them.
We drove up into the mountains, parked the vehicles and started a very strenuous 30 minute trek further up the mountain. The narrow, steep, windy, one person width path took us over two “bridges”, with about half of the logs missing, making the streams under us a real possibility/threat of cooling off our sweat drenched bodies. And all this in a skirt!!! And VANS!! Nice combination, eh?
We finally reached the little church, and I kid you not, some of the YWAMers could have wrung out their clothes!! They had only arrived 2 days prior to this expedition, and had not yet acclimatized to this weather. We were given some time to catch our breath, then ushered to the front of the church. The pastor of the church is the husband of Travis and Astrid’s cook. The worship was typical African - uninhibited, wonderful. Travis preached on Ezekiel 37 - one of my favorite O. T. passages.
It would have been rude and offensive had we not stayed after the service, which ended at 1:30, and allowed them to serve us lunch. So while that was being prepared the pastor couple and a regional pastor took us further up the mountain.
This whole mountain side was where about 10 years ago the rebels were a deadly force as the Hutu and Tutsi were killing each other. This war only ended about three years ago.
The view from high in the mountains is beautiful. Bujumbura lies right on the shore of the second deepest lake in the world at 1470 m at it’s deepest - Lake Tanganyika, which is also the second longest in the world at 673 km. long. The average width of the lake is 50 km. (We can see the lake, with the Congo mountains behind it, from our kitchen window.)
God is really helping me with not really thinking a great deal about the cleanliness of the people that sometimes prepare our food, the food itself, or the places where the food is prepared. Once the food was ready, we were again ushered into the church where they had set up a little 4-6 person table, and 18 of us crowded around it!! Seriously!! The pastor couple served us. The food was… food.
The one side of the church was literally built onto the edge of a steep drop - the bamboo wall was attached to the side of the embankment; this is the side that we sat on. About 1 foot from the end of our row was the edge, with only the bamboo sticks between the chair and “the fall.” We sat about 4 feet in. The roof - tin, the floor - dirt, the presence of the Holy Spirit - awesome and powerful.
Thankfully, our descent was much easier (though perhaps more dangerous with slipping on loose rocks) than our ascent.
We may have future ministry opportunities here, as the pastor was eager to have our contact info. Please pray about this with us. There are 12 churches up country that are affiliated with each other, and the regional pastor was adamant that we visit others as well.
This brings me to another subject. I’ve mentioned in previous entries that we are really praying about what the Lord’s full purpose is for bringing us here. We still believe that it’s for more than we’re currently doing. Yes, I know, we have a tiny influence on people we meet day to day, and Isaac’s influence on the guy that “works” with him is great, and yes, being able to teach devotions to 3 classes, where many of the kids are Muslim/Hindu is a huge blessing, and there are some other “little” things, but we feel in our spirits there’s more. But at the same time, even if one person will be in heaven as a result of us being here, it’s worth it. When I was a little girl, my mom taught me; “Whoever doesn’t honor the small isn’t worthy of the big.”
It’s not that we don’t honor the big, … I don’t know if I’m succeeding in making you understand in one paragraph what we feel… sometimes it’s hard not to see what we’re doing as ‘just’ a job, albeit the fact that we get to talk about Jesus and faith and salvation to people.
But many of these kids come from the wealthiest families in Burundi; they are the privileged. Yes, I know, the privileged need Jesus just as much as anyone else. They learn about Jesus from other teachers as well. And Isaac sometimes wonders where his spiritual giftings are put to use in fixing things. We came here to serve, and we want to serve. And if this is all that the Father has us here for, we want to be content in that.
Please pray with and for us in this regard.
Love as always,
Isaac, Rosel and Colton
We survived a pretty intense heat wave that lasted about 2 weeks. Temperatures were in the 40’s, with 44 degrees being the highest that I’m aware of. Seriously hot!! At night it went down to about 33 degrees. So now that it’s back to normal - high 20’s to low 30’s, we sometimes feel chilled, especially at night. Sounds crazy, I know!!!
Sweet!!! Colton just brought me my first guava from our tree. Norma, Tina and Netty, remember how much I like guava!? Be right back, gotta check this out… Just picked our first harvest of tasty fruits. It’ll be tricky to beat the birds to the guava. There’s a good yield of fruit, but we also have a bumper crop of birds in our yard.
The Sunday before last we went to a church up country with our friends Travis and Astrid. Travis is from California, Astrid from the Netherlands; they met in the States at YWAM. They’ve done missions in Kenya for one year, and in Rwanda for four years. They’ve been in BUJ (Bujumbura) for one year, and are on the tail end of registering their own ministry called SOZO. Anyways, there’s a YWAM team (two Canadians!! one however hasn‘t lived in Canada for years) here for the service part of their DTS, and so they asked us to join them.
We drove up into the mountains, parked the vehicles and started a very strenuous 30 minute trek further up the mountain. The narrow, steep, windy, one person width path took us over two “bridges”, with about half of the logs missing, making the streams under us a real possibility/threat of cooling off our sweat drenched bodies. And all this in a skirt!!! And VANS!! Nice combination, eh?
We finally reached the little church, and I kid you not, some of the YWAMers could have wrung out their clothes!! They had only arrived 2 days prior to this expedition, and had not yet acclimatized to this weather. We were given some time to catch our breath, then ushered to the front of the church. The pastor of the church is the husband of Travis and Astrid’s cook. The worship was typical African - uninhibited, wonderful. Travis preached on Ezekiel 37 - one of my favorite O. T. passages.
It would have been rude and offensive had we not stayed after the service, which ended at 1:30, and allowed them to serve us lunch. So while that was being prepared the pastor couple and a regional pastor took us further up the mountain.
This whole mountain side was where about 10 years ago the rebels were a deadly force as the Hutu and Tutsi were killing each other. This war only ended about three years ago.
The view from high in the mountains is beautiful. Bujumbura lies right on the shore of the second deepest lake in the world at 1470 m at it’s deepest - Lake Tanganyika, which is also the second longest in the world at 673 km. long. The average width of the lake is 50 km. (We can see the lake, with the Congo mountains behind it, from our kitchen window.)
God is really helping me with not really thinking a great deal about the cleanliness of the people that sometimes prepare our food, the food itself, or the places where the food is prepared. Once the food was ready, we were again ushered into the church where they had set up a little 4-6 person table, and 18 of us crowded around it!! Seriously!! The pastor couple served us. The food was… food.
The one side of the church was literally built onto the edge of a steep drop - the bamboo wall was attached to the side of the embankment; this is the side that we sat on. About 1 foot from the end of our row was the edge, with only the bamboo sticks between the chair and “the fall.” We sat about 4 feet in. The roof - tin, the floor - dirt, the presence of the Holy Spirit - awesome and powerful.
Thankfully, our descent was much easier (though perhaps more dangerous with slipping on loose rocks) than our ascent.
We may have future ministry opportunities here, as the pastor was eager to have our contact info. Please pray about this with us. There are 12 churches up country that are affiliated with each other, and the regional pastor was adamant that we visit others as well.
This brings me to another subject. I’ve mentioned in previous entries that we are really praying about what the Lord’s full purpose is for bringing us here. We still believe that it’s for more than we’re currently doing. Yes, I know, we have a tiny influence on people we meet day to day, and Isaac’s influence on the guy that “works” with him is great, and yes, being able to teach devotions to 3 classes, where many of the kids are Muslim/Hindu is a huge blessing, and there are some other “little” things, but we feel in our spirits there’s more. But at the same time, even if one person will be in heaven as a result of us being here, it’s worth it. When I was a little girl, my mom taught me; “Whoever doesn’t honor the small isn’t worthy of the big.”
It’s not that we don’t honor the big, … I don’t know if I’m succeeding in making you understand in one paragraph what we feel… sometimes it’s hard not to see what we’re doing as ‘just’ a job, albeit the fact that we get to talk about Jesus and faith and salvation to people.
But many of these kids come from the wealthiest families in Burundi; they are the privileged. Yes, I know, the privileged need Jesus just as much as anyone else. They learn about Jesus from other teachers as well. And Isaac sometimes wonders where his spiritual giftings are put to use in fixing things. We came here to serve, and we want to serve. And if this is all that the Father has us here for, we want to be content in that.
Please pray with and for us in this regard.
Love as always,
Isaac, Rosel and Colton
Saturday, January 23, 2010
This and That
Jambo;
Isaac’s vegging on the couch with an IPOD, and Colton’s kicking his soccer ball around outside with our worker. Colton and Stany really enjoy each other’s company, and if one of the 3 soccer balls that we brought out from Canada holds air long enough, they’ll go at it for quite some time.
For the past few weeks Isaac’s been busy renovating and painting at Chrissie’s in the ‘baby unit.’ No, she’s not taking in new orphan babies; there are a few of the older CRIB boys that are living in them. Chrissie wants to paint the entire CRIB house in the next little while, so that will keep Isaac busy for some time. It’s a large 2 storey building with many bedrooms, washrooms, common areas, etc. I just hope that won’t be oil paint as well; Isaac hasn’t felt that good, nor has his appetite been what it should be the last few weeks from the awful fumes.
At the same time though, the school also has a ‘to do’ list that needs attention, so he tries his best to keep everybody happy. Between Chrissie’s, CRIB and both schools, there’s never a lack of things to do. There’s this one “hardware” store where Isaac gets a lot of the supplies from, and a few weeks ago, this guy who Isaac thinks is the owner, had said that we’re neighbours. The previous day Isaac had needed a doorknob, and this neighbour was not working, so the price for the doorknob was $55,000, roughly $55.00 CND. So Isaac asked this neighbour for the price, he said $35,000. Isaac said “how about $30,000” and the deal was made. So needless to say, Isaac now deals with this guy as it’s saving A.R.M. money.
Since I’m on the bartering subject…
There are many, many people selling their wares on the street, and if they see a mzungu, the car is beset with up to 10 people, all wanting to make a sale. There may be 4 or 5 selling cheese; one sells cheese that comes from Rwanda, one from the Congo, one from Uganda, one that is local. They’re all shoving their cheese into the car for us to smell, all insisting theirs is the best. One time we must have had at least 8 rounds in the car at the same time!! We had no clue which round belonged to whom. At the same time, there are 3 or 4 people showing us their fruit and vegetable selection, also pushing it into the car; after all, if it’s in the car, chances of you taking the product are higher. This is quite a loud ordeal, as the merchants are all very eager to make a sale. Isaac finds this stressful; I find it intriguing.
We know the prices of most things that we buy regularly, and many of these items we buy on the street. If you are mzungu the price is automatically increased. So when they realize that we know the prices, they are very quick to go down in price. The comment has been made “either they think the mzungu is very rich or very stupid!” In fact, a mzungu pastor at Jabe a few weeks ago said: “ I’m mzungu but I’m not stupid” in reference to having the wool pulled over his eyes.
Tomorrow is the third Sunday in a row that we will have an English speaker at church - hooray!! Tomorrow’s speaker is from Vancouver.
I’ll take you on a typical ride to church/up-town with us. Buckle up, it can be a wild ride!!
On the way to church are a number of groups, ranging in size from about 20 - 200 people that are walking. These are organized clubs, often with the walking club name on the shirt, which is always white. As far as we know, these clubs walk only on Sunday mornings. There are moms with tiny babies tied on their backs (no helmets),perched on the back of the ever present motorbike taxi (mototaxi)as it careens through traffic. There are boys that are pushing huge carts of beer and Fanta. For the male gender the washroom is where ever you need it to be. In one short stretch there are 2 buses (basically what we would call a ‘hippy’ van in Canada- there must be a thousand!!) with a flat tire that are affecting traffic flow. There are many bikes loaded down with massive bunches of bananas, huge sacks of charcoal, a tall rack of bread, a bed, 20 or more foot long pieces of lumber or steel bars (no joke); just to name a few “bicycle transportable goods.”
You need to keep your eye on other vehicles almost more than on your own driving because you get cut off very much and very often. A 2- way highway is a three lane road when ever the need arises, (which is almost more often than not,) not counting pedestrians and bikes. And let me tell you about bikes and pedestrians; they are everywhere!!
Coming up to our church street are the “regulars” - the women with their children sitting on the side of the street in the dirt, close to the smelly gutter. With their hand out-stretched, they hope and wait for generous church - goers to bless them.
This street is almost insanely busy on Sundays; imagine, 7,000 people flooding into 2 narrow gates, wide enough for only one car at a time. These gates are shared by pedestrians and vehicles; by far the majority of church goers walk. Getting on to the church yard is relatively easy; it’s altogether an entirely different matter getting off. You see, being from the west, we believe that if church starts at 9:00 A.M. you should be there by then. For Africans, this is definitely not the case. In fact, some leadership sometimes only arrives after 10:00. But this is fine because we’re still in worship. So coming to church is spread out over a period of over an hour, but after church everyone leaves at the same time. You need much, much patience as you inch forward. The police are always present, armed with their AK - 47‘s.
Some more fun facts:
1. Colton has a girl in his class by the name of Satellite… and Happiness. I like Happiness for a name. Yes, these are given names, not nicknames.
2. Other names that are heard here: ‘Perfect‘, ‘Innocent‘, ‘Blessing’ is fairly common.
3. I teach two boys by the name of ‘Prince‘, and one girl named ‘Princess.’
There’s a wonderfully cool, gentle breeze coming in through the window; I’m so grateful that the Lord sends these, especially at night time. It makes for a good nights’ sleep.
Good night.
Isaac, Rosel and Colton
Isaac’s vegging on the couch with an IPOD, and Colton’s kicking his soccer ball around outside with our worker. Colton and Stany really enjoy each other’s company, and if one of the 3 soccer balls that we brought out from Canada holds air long enough, they’ll go at it for quite some time.
For the past few weeks Isaac’s been busy renovating and painting at Chrissie’s in the ‘baby unit.’ No, she’s not taking in new orphan babies; there are a few of the older CRIB boys that are living in them. Chrissie wants to paint the entire CRIB house in the next little while, so that will keep Isaac busy for some time. It’s a large 2 storey building with many bedrooms, washrooms, common areas, etc. I just hope that won’t be oil paint as well; Isaac hasn’t felt that good, nor has his appetite been what it should be the last few weeks from the awful fumes.
At the same time though, the school also has a ‘to do’ list that needs attention, so he tries his best to keep everybody happy. Between Chrissie’s, CRIB and both schools, there’s never a lack of things to do. There’s this one “hardware” store where Isaac gets a lot of the supplies from, and a few weeks ago, this guy who Isaac thinks is the owner, had said that we’re neighbours. The previous day Isaac had needed a doorknob, and this neighbour was not working, so the price for the doorknob was $55,000, roughly $55.00 CND. So Isaac asked this neighbour for the price, he said $35,000. Isaac said “how about $30,000” and the deal was made. So needless to say, Isaac now deals with this guy as it’s saving A.R.M. money.
Since I’m on the bartering subject…
There are many, many people selling their wares on the street, and if they see a mzungu, the car is beset with up to 10 people, all wanting to make a sale. There may be 4 or 5 selling cheese; one sells cheese that comes from Rwanda, one from the Congo, one from Uganda, one that is local. They’re all shoving their cheese into the car for us to smell, all insisting theirs is the best. One time we must have had at least 8 rounds in the car at the same time!! We had no clue which round belonged to whom. At the same time, there are 3 or 4 people showing us their fruit and vegetable selection, also pushing it into the car; after all, if it’s in the car, chances of you taking the product are higher. This is quite a loud ordeal, as the merchants are all very eager to make a sale. Isaac finds this stressful; I find it intriguing.
We know the prices of most things that we buy regularly, and many of these items we buy on the street. If you are mzungu the price is automatically increased. So when they realize that we know the prices, they are very quick to go down in price. The comment has been made “either they think the mzungu is very rich or very stupid!” In fact, a mzungu pastor at Jabe a few weeks ago said: “ I’m mzungu but I’m not stupid” in reference to having the wool pulled over his eyes.
Tomorrow is the third Sunday in a row that we will have an English speaker at church - hooray!! Tomorrow’s speaker is from Vancouver.
I’ll take you on a typical ride to church/up-town with us. Buckle up, it can be a wild ride!!
On the way to church are a number of groups, ranging in size from about 20 - 200 people that are walking. These are organized clubs, often with the walking club name on the shirt, which is always white. As far as we know, these clubs walk only on Sunday mornings. There are moms with tiny babies tied on their backs (no helmets),perched on the back of the ever present motorbike taxi (mototaxi)as it careens through traffic. There are boys that are pushing huge carts of beer and Fanta. For the male gender the washroom is where ever you need it to be. In one short stretch there are 2 buses (basically what we would call a ‘hippy’ van in Canada- there must be a thousand!!) with a flat tire that are affecting traffic flow. There are many bikes loaded down with massive bunches of bananas, huge sacks of charcoal, a tall rack of bread, a bed, 20 or more foot long pieces of lumber or steel bars (no joke); just to name a few “bicycle transportable goods.”
You need to keep your eye on other vehicles almost more than on your own driving because you get cut off very much and very often. A 2- way highway is a three lane road when ever the need arises, (which is almost more often than not,) not counting pedestrians and bikes. And let me tell you about bikes and pedestrians; they are everywhere!!
Coming up to our church street are the “regulars” - the women with their children sitting on the side of the street in the dirt, close to the smelly gutter. With their hand out-stretched, they hope and wait for generous church - goers to bless them.
This street is almost insanely busy on Sundays; imagine, 7,000 people flooding into 2 narrow gates, wide enough for only one car at a time. These gates are shared by pedestrians and vehicles; by far the majority of church goers walk. Getting on to the church yard is relatively easy; it’s altogether an entirely different matter getting off. You see, being from the west, we believe that if church starts at 9:00 A.M. you should be there by then. For Africans, this is definitely not the case. In fact, some leadership sometimes only arrives after 10:00. But this is fine because we’re still in worship. So coming to church is spread out over a period of over an hour, but after church everyone leaves at the same time. You need much, much patience as you inch forward. The police are always present, armed with their AK - 47‘s.
Some more fun facts:
1. Colton has a girl in his class by the name of Satellite… and Happiness. I like Happiness for a name. Yes, these are given names, not nicknames.
2. Other names that are heard here: ‘Perfect‘, ‘Innocent‘, ‘Blessing’ is fairly common.
3. I teach two boys by the name of ‘Prince‘, and one girl named ‘Princess.’
There’s a wonderfully cool, gentle breeze coming in through the window; I’m so grateful that the Lord sends these, especially at night time. It makes for a good nights’ sleep.
Good night.
Isaac, Rosel and Colton
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
The deadly tongue
A very warm (pun intended) hello to you all!
For the last week or so this has been reverberating in my head and heart:
“… continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.” Phil 2:12b -13
I like how my study Bible expounds on that verse;
1. work out your salvation- Work it out to the finish; not a reference to the attempt to earn one’s salvation by works, but to the expression of one’s salvation in spiritual growth and development. Salvation is not merely a gift received once for all; it expresses itself in which the believer is strenuously involved - the process of perseverance, spiritual growth and maturation.
2. fear and trembling - Not because of doubt or anxiety; rather, the reference is to an active reverence and singleness of purpose in response to God’s grace.
Yikes!! For some days that’s a tall order - strenuous perseverance, spiritual growth and maturation?? Active reverence and singleness of purpose????
Check out the verse that immediately follows: v:14
“Do everything without complaining or arguing.” There are times when the only strenuous activity I’m engaged in is the wagging of my complaining tongue. “ Why doesn’t the government improve the infrastructure?… why don’t people do things this way, why can’t things be like in Canada???” It’s sometimes easy for me at this point to get down on myself about my maturity in Christ, or lack thereof. After all, we all know if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.
Listen to what James (3:6,8 - 12) says about the tongue: “The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole coarse of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. But no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.”
The Bible doesn’t merely suggest that I shouldn’t complain, it’s a direct command!! “Do everything without complaining…” Everything!!! Man am I ever thankful for God’s grace!!! I’d be very foolish to think that I could ever attain to God’s high standards apart from His divine help through the Holy Spirit, and with “strenuous perseverance, active reverence and singleness of purpose.”
And if I douse the fire that I was about to deluge on someone before it erupts out of my mouth, I can take no credit, “for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.” Verse 15 goes on to say: “so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life…” This side of heaven no one will ever be “blameless, pure or faultless”; this is descriptive of only one Man that walked this earth - Jesus Christ!!! But, when we ask Jesus for forgiveness of our sins, and His blood covers the offence, God the Father looks at us through His perfect Son and He sees us as “blameless, pure, faultless, children of God without fault.” Hallelujah!!
Could you please pray with us that Jesus will continue to help us “shine like stars in the universe (Africa,) as we hold out the word of life.”?
For, and because of Jesus Christ;
IRCF
For the last week or so this has been reverberating in my head and heart:
“… continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.” Phil 2:12b -13
I like how my study Bible expounds on that verse;
1. work out your salvation- Work it out to the finish; not a reference to the attempt to earn one’s salvation by works, but to the expression of one’s salvation in spiritual growth and development. Salvation is not merely a gift received once for all; it expresses itself in which the believer is strenuously involved - the process of perseverance, spiritual growth and maturation.
2. fear and trembling - Not because of doubt or anxiety; rather, the reference is to an active reverence and singleness of purpose in response to God’s grace.
Yikes!! For some days that’s a tall order - strenuous perseverance, spiritual growth and maturation?? Active reverence and singleness of purpose????
Check out the verse that immediately follows: v:14
“Do everything without complaining or arguing.” There are times when the only strenuous activity I’m engaged in is the wagging of my complaining tongue. “ Why doesn’t the government improve the infrastructure?… why don’t people do things this way, why can’t things be like in Canada???” It’s sometimes easy for me at this point to get down on myself about my maturity in Christ, or lack thereof. After all, we all know if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.
Listen to what James (3:6,8 - 12) says about the tongue: “The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole coarse of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. But no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.”
The Bible doesn’t merely suggest that I shouldn’t complain, it’s a direct command!! “Do everything without complaining…” Everything!!! Man am I ever thankful for God’s grace!!! I’d be very foolish to think that I could ever attain to God’s high standards apart from His divine help through the Holy Spirit, and with “strenuous perseverance, active reverence and singleness of purpose.”
And if I douse the fire that I was about to deluge on someone before it erupts out of my mouth, I can take no credit, “for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.” Verse 15 goes on to say: “so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life…” This side of heaven no one will ever be “blameless, pure or faultless”; this is descriptive of only one Man that walked this earth - Jesus Christ!!! But, when we ask Jesus for forgiveness of our sins, and His blood covers the offence, God the Father looks at us through His perfect Son and He sees us as “blameless, pure, faultless, children of God without fault.” Hallelujah!!
Could you please pray with us that Jesus will continue to help us “shine like stars in the universe (Africa,) as we hold out the word of life.”?
For, and because of Jesus Christ;
IRCF
Friday, January 8, 2010
Christmas Season Happenings continued
So… continuing from yesterday…
December 30-31 We went to Nyanzu lac - a beautiful beach about 2 hours from Bujumbura. We went with friends of ours. In the evening on the 31st, we were invited to a New Years party at Dave and Sheena’s.
January 1 2010 - We were invited to friends for another party.
As you can see, God really provided many friends to surround us during the Christmas season - a time that could have been filled with much homesickness. We truly are blessed by the people the Lord has put, and is continuing to put into our lives.
Fun Facts:
1. We have baby dedication at church every single Sunday, and some of the names are very interesting; but the one that takes the cake is this: twins, a boy and a girl named King and Queen. I’m not kidding!
2. Pastor Ray goes to the Congo (the border is about 15-20 minutes from our house) to minister, and has for some years already. One couple decided to honor Pastor Ray by naming their baby… Pastor Ray!
3. Isaac gets stopped by the cops soooo frequently for no reason, other than to check out the new mzungu, and that his papers for the car are in order. One day he got stopped three times.
4. A nice, sweet and juicy pineapple costs about 75 cents CND.
5. A regular box of Corn Flakes costs about $23.00 CND.
Debby the head teacher (she’s a teacher from England, married to a Kenyan,; he‘s head teacher in Secondary), asked me if I would be willing to do devotions with Nursery, Reception and year one, each class once a week, for about half an hour. I will also be starting with monitoring the year 4 CRIB homework group 3 days a week for an hour and a half. I start both of these next week
Please pray for much energy for me. We’re up at 6:45 A.M., teachers’ devotions start at 7:00, and schools’ out at 1:00 P.M. We come home for lunch, and than I need to go to CRIB for homework group 3 times/ week.. Some of you know about my struggles with fatigue; combined with the energy sapping heat, this will be a huge stretch. We’re praying about possibly dropping some other regular activities we do at CRIB.
Isaac is still spending his work days with Gentile, teaching him and keeping watch over him. This is going very well. Gentile is a pleasant, likeable guy. Now that we have the use of a vehicle, Isaac can do a lot more in a day. Instead of waiting for supplies he can now go and pick them up himself if they are available, and he doesn’t have to walk between Chrissie‘s, both the schools and CRIB. This saves a great deal of time. He was saying yesterday that his ‘to do’ list just keeps getting longer and longer. There’s so much to do since there was no one to do maintenance before we arrived. Also, the quality of almost everything out here is relatively poor, so things break down much faster than usual. If someone would set up a proper hardware store out here, wow…
That’s it for today, I’m tired. We get to sleep in tomorrow.
Please continue to pray for Earl, as well as for Ramona’s family.
Love as always,
IRCF
December 30-31 We went to Nyanzu lac - a beautiful beach about 2 hours from Bujumbura. We went with friends of ours. In the evening on the 31st, we were invited to a New Years party at Dave and Sheena’s.
January 1 2010 - We were invited to friends for another party.
As you can see, God really provided many friends to surround us during the Christmas season - a time that could have been filled with much homesickness. We truly are blessed by the people the Lord has put, and is continuing to put into our lives.
Fun Facts:
1. We have baby dedication at church every single Sunday, and some of the names are very interesting; but the one that takes the cake is this: twins, a boy and a girl named King and Queen. I’m not kidding!
2. Pastor Ray goes to the Congo (the border is about 15-20 minutes from our house) to minister, and has for some years already. One couple decided to honor Pastor Ray by naming their baby… Pastor Ray!
3. Isaac gets stopped by the cops soooo frequently for no reason, other than to check out the new mzungu, and that his papers for the car are in order. One day he got stopped three times.
4. A nice, sweet and juicy pineapple costs about 75 cents CND.
5. A regular box of Corn Flakes costs about $23.00 CND.
Debby the head teacher (she’s a teacher from England, married to a Kenyan,; he‘s head teacher in Secondary), asked me if I would be willing to do devotions with Nursery, Reception and year one, each class once a week, for about half an hour. I will also be starting with monitoring the year 4 CRIB homework group 3 days a week for an hour and a half. I start both of these next week
Please pray for much energy for me. We’re up at 6:45 A.M., teachers’ devotions start at 7:00, and schools’ out at 1:00 P.M. We come home for lunch, and than I need to go to CRIB for homework group 3 times/ week.. Some of you know about my struggles with fatigue; combined with the energy sapping heat, this will be a huge stretch. We’re praying about possibly dropping some other regular activities we do at CRIB.
Isaac is still spending his work days with Gentile, teaching him and keeping watch over him. This is going very well. Gentile is a pleasant, likeable guy. Now that we have the use of a vehicle, Isaac can do a lot more in a day. Instead of waiting for supplies he can now go and pick them up himself if they are available, and he doesn’t have to walk between Chrissie‘s, both the schools and CRIB. This saves a great deal of time. He was saying yesterday that his ‘to do’ list just keeps getting longer and longer. There’s so much to do since there was no one to do maintenance before we arrived. Also, the quality of almost everything out here is relatively poor, so things break down much faster than usual. If someone would set up a proper hardware store out here, wow…
That’s it for today, I’m tired. We get to sleep in tomorrow.
Please continue to pray for Earl, as well as for Ramona’s family.
Love as always,
IRCF
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Christmas Happenings
Amahoro - Peace!!
Over the next few days I will endeavour to bring you up to date with our goings on over the last month. Sorry for not posting regularly lately.
It’s hot - indoor temp. - 28.5 degrees, quite humid at times; it rains frequently, accompanied with fantastically loud thunder that sounds like it could almost originate in our back yard. Colton loves the thunder.
The flowers are blooming beautifully; when we got here 5 months ago we thought the vegetation was nice, but now that we’ve had regular rains for a few months, God is really putting on a show!!
Speaking of rain, many of you know about my super sensitivity to the sun (interesting how the Lord called us here, huh?), and so since Colton was a little tyke, when there was a warm, gentle summer rain, sans thunder, we would go and play outside, fully clothed, frolicking in the rain.
Well, we’ve had ample opportunity for this out here; our yard is fenced in with a 7 - 8 foot brick wall, so privacy isn’t an issue. A few weeks ago during a ‘thunderless’ and ‘lightningless’ rain Colton and I went out, and Stany, our worker, a normally relatively serious yet friendly guy, couldn’t hide the fact that he was quite intrigued by the scene. As we were chasing each other around the house we noticed that our deck was seriously slippery when the smooth cement is wet. Well, this could lead to only one thing - a Burundian skating rink!! We took a running speed or pushed ourselves off the house and sped across the deck. Very cool, but not cool enough! I sent Colton for dish detergent and then we were in business. Stany in the meantime is standing and watching us, chuckling as he’s watching two mzungus having fun.
We invited him to come and join us, and at first he declined; however, it was evident that he was curious about the experience, and before we knew what happened, he was in there like a dirty shirt. What a sight!!
Soon he was replenishing the water on the deck with buckets of water. What fun!
Isaac, who was trying to fix Colton’s popped bike tire nearby chose not to join the fun.
December 22 - Isaac’s birthday. (23 and holding!!) In Canada we always have both sides of the family over for birthdays, and we couldn’t stop now. So we had our living/dining area full of our Burundian “family” - people that the Lord has blessed us with out here. You should have seen the cake that I made… it looked quite awful! Isaac and Colton always opt for my ‘Midnight Cake’ for their birthday; I hadn’t made it here yet, due to the exorbitant price/and or unavailability of some of the ingredients. ( Would you pay up to $19.00 for a little container of cocoa?! Cream cheese and vanilla are not available.)Well, for birthdays you sometimes splurge.
Keep in mind, altitude, oven variances, flour, who knows what else (I suppose the skill of the baker would come into play as well), these are all contributing factors as to how your baking turns out. Well, let’s just say this oven is not like my convection one in Canada - in other words, do I want a big, medium or small flame. This determines the rate at which the bottom of the baking is burnt if I’m not right on top of things and every little while rotate and re-position the pan. So after the cake was dizzy from all the movement - and a bonus was it hadn’t collapsed from all the movement, I let it cool so I could invert it to ‘decorate’ it, which consisted of piping his age in the center and a border around the edge. The problem arose when literally about an eighth of the cake simply did a “land slide” on to the counter. The more I tried to fix it, the worse it got, so Colton and I just stuffed our faces with the land slide. It was different than usual, especially the crumbly texture, but still tasted good. I had no choice but to incorporate the land slide crater into the piped border decoration. Our guests were very gracious in over looking the appearance of the cake.
God again proved Himself to have a sense of humor with this event. Before Colton was born I was decorating cakes at Penner Foods - fancy cakes - wedding, anniversary, birthday,… nice cakes. On top of that, I’m a ‘re-covering’ perfectionist, so this event had the makings of being disastrous. Strictly by God’s grace I found the whole ordeal amusing.
December 23 - Isaac’s at Chrissie’s working; Colton asked if he could do my toenails. He couldn’t open the nail polish bottle, so I tried. It was so tight that the bottle broke into pieces as I tried to open it, with a big piece of glass still attached to the cap. When it suddenly gave, it sliced into my thumb; yes, the one that previously, as a little girl had the encounter with the cement mixer. My hand, including the deep gash, was covered with nail polish, mixed with blood. Running water over it did almost nothing as far as washing the polish off, so, bracing myself against an even more intensified sting, I asked Colton to pour nail polish remover over my hand. Yikes!! Ouch!! WOW!! At this point I realized I needed to sit down… now… on the floor in the washroom if I didn’t want to faint and collapse.
Colton called Isaac and we went to the hospital to get stitched up. This proved to be a very eventful experience. I’ve not experienced it, but I would liken the repeated freezing needle on the outside, tip of my thumb to having a needle shoved under your nail repeatedly. Excruciating!! The rest of the story will remain untold for now.
Christmas Eve. - late morning. Honda and Libby asked us if we wanted to join them in distributing a Christmas treat to the kids at Sabe Village. Wow, what an incredible experience!! Each child received a lollipop, an orange Fanta, and two “doughnuts” - really they are small round portions of dense dough deep fried. We had enough for about 480 children.
The kids knew they were getting a treat, over and above breakfast, so when they saw us pulling into the compound you should have seen and heard the excitement. Some children could hardly contain themselves, and were lightly hitting their head with their fist. Once they were calmed down, they were taught more about Jesus, followed by singing. Once everything was organized, the children, single file, came and received their treats. Colton was asked to help with the distribution of the doughnuts. What joy to see him thoroughly enjoying himself as he smiled and bent down to look in the little ones’ faces as he handed them his offering. I kept watching him as I was helping nearby, and at times Colton’s face showed such great love and compassion as the kids filed by, a number with nothing on except a filthy, tattered shirt. I often wonder what all God will accomplish in and through Colton through experiences like these; things that will have eternal value and purpose, not just for the here and now.
What a beautiful sight, all these destitute ones enjoying an ’extra’. You might be thinking, “well why didn’t they at least buy healthy food?” You know, Jesus gives each of us so many “extras” every day, things we don’t need, but things He just enjoys giving us. It reminds me of Matthew 7 where it talks about us humans, though sinful, yet giving good gifts to our children, and how much more our Father gives us good gifts when we ask.
After this we went to Chrissie’s birthday celebration at CRIB. In the evening we had our Christmas at home, and Everiste and Annick dropped in.
Christmas day - 9:00 A.M. at CRIB watching all the kids open their presents that are shipped in from England, followed by Isaac assembling toys and things for about 2 hours. We were invited to friends of ours for lunch, together with some other expatriates. It was great - Christmas dinner outside on the deck, dessert (another one of my famous “land slide” cakes) under a sun sheltering gazebo, followed by lawn games.
At about 5 we went to Honda and Libby’s who had invited us to spend some time celebrating with the ‘Restoration of Hope’ boys - all 65 of them. These are street boys they’ve rescued and are providing a safe, godly home for them, as well as discipleship, a chance at a future, etc. You shoulda’ seen us dance to…. Boney M. Christmas songs, being piped into the yard via big speakers. Loudly!!! It was fantastic! So much fun.
If Boney M. members are still alive, I’d be curious to know their thoughts on a yard full of people in the middle of Africa dancing to “Winter Wonderland!”
December 26 - more time spent with Honda and Libby, and Libby’s parents who are out from the UK.
December 27 - we went to the local beach; me with my trusty sun-shielding umbrella.
It’s getting late, past 11:00, and we’re up and at ‘em at 5:45 A.M.
To be continued…
Over the next few days I will endeavour to bring you up to date with our goings on over the last month. Sorry for not posting regularly lately.
It’s hot - indoor temp. - 28.5 degrees, quite humid at times; it rains frequently, accompanied with fantastically loud thunder that sounds like it could almost originate in our back yard. Colton loves the thunder.
The flowers are blooming beautifully; when we got here 5 months ago we thought the vegetation was nice, but now that we’ve had regular rains for a few months, God is really putting on a show!!
Speaking of rain, many of you know about my super sensitivity to the sun (interesting how the Lord called us here, huh?), and so since Colton was a little tyke, when there was a warm, gentle summer rain, sans thunder, we would go and play outside, fully clothed, frolicking in the rain.
Well, we’ve had ample opportunity for this out here; our yard is fenced in with a 7 - 8 foot brick wall, so privacy isn’t an issue. A few weeks ago during a ‘thunderless’ and ‘lightningless’ rain Colton and I went out, and Stany, our worker, a normally relatively serious yet friendly guy, couldn’t hide the fact that he was quite intrigued by the scene. As we were chasing each other around the house we noticed that our deck was seriously slippery when the smooth cement is wet. Well, this could lead to only one thing - a Burundian skating rink!! We took a running speed or pushed ourselves off the house and sped across the deck. Very cool, but not cool enough! I sent Colton for dish detergent and then we were in business. Stany in the meantime is standing and watching us, chuckling as he’s watching two mzungus having fun.
We invited him to come and join us, and at first he declined; however, it was evident that he was curious about the experience, and before we knew what happened, he was in there like a dirty shirt. What a sight!!
Soon he was replenishing the water on the deck with buckets of water. What fun!
Isaac, who was trying to fix Colton’s popped bike tire nearby chose not to join the fun.
December 22 - Isaac’s birthday. (23 and holding!!) In Canada we always have both sides of the family over for birthdays, and we couldn’t stop now. So we had our living/dining area full of our Burundian “family” - people that the Lord has blessed us with out here. You should have seen the cake that I made… it looked quite awful! Isaac and Colton always opt for my ‘Midnight Cake’ for their birthday; I hadn’t made it here yet, due to the exorbitant price/and or unavailability of some of the ingredients. ( Would you pay up to $19.00 for a little container of cocoa?! Cream cheese and vanilla are not available.)Well, for birthdays you sometimes splurge.
Keep in mind, altitude, oven variances, flour, who knows what else (I suppose the skill of the baker would come into play as well), these are all contributing factors as to how your baking turns out. Well, let’s just say this oven is not like my convection one in Canada - in other words, do I want a big, medium or small flame. This determines the rate at which the bottom of the baking is burnt if I’m not right on top of things and every little while rotate and re-position the pan. So after the cake was dizzy from all the movement - and a bonus was it hadn’t collapsed from all the movement, I let it cool so I could invert it to ‘decorate’ it, which consisted of piping his age in the center and a border around the edge. The problem arose when literally about an eighth of the cake simply did a “land slide” on to the counter. The more I tried to fix it, the worse it got, so Colton and I just stuffed our faces with the land slide. It was different than usual, especially the crumbly texture, but still tasted good. I had no choice but to incorporate the land slide crater into the piped border decoration. Our guests were very gracious in over looking the appearance of the cake.
God again proved Himself to have a sense of humor with this event. Before Colton was born I was decorating cakes at Penner Foods - fancy cakes - wedding, anniversary, birthday,… nice cakes. On top of that, I’m a ‘re-covering’ perfectionist, so this event had the makings of being disastrous. Strictly by God’s grace I found the whole ordeal amusing.
December 23 - Isaac’s at Chrissie’s working; Colton asked if he could do my toenails. He couldn’t open the nail polish bottle, so I tried. It was so tight that the bottle broke into pieces as I tried to open it, with a big piece of glass still attached to the cap. When it suddenly gave, it sliced into my thumb; yes, the one that previously, as a little girl had the encounter with the cement mixer. My hand, including the deep gash, was covered with nail polish, mixed with blood. Running water over it did almost nothing as far as washing the polish off, so, bracing myself against an even more intensified sting, I asked Colton to pour nail polish remover over my hand. Yikes!! Ouch!! WOW!! At this point I realized I needed to sit down… now… on the floor in the washroom if I didn’t want to faint and collapse.
Colton called Isaac and we went to the hospital to get stitched up. This proved to be a very eventful experience. I’ve not experienced it, but I would liken the repeated freezing needle on the outside, tip of my thumb to having a needle shoved under your nail repeatedly. Excruciating!! The rest of the story will remain untold for now.
Christmas Eve. - late morning. Honda and Libby asked us if we wanted to join them in distributing a Christmas treat to the kids at Sabe Village. Wow, what an incredible experience!! Each child received a lollipop, an orange Fanta, and two “doughnuts” - really they are small round portions of dense dough deep fried. We had enough for about 480 children.
The kids knew they were getting a treat, over and above breakfast, so when they saw us pulling into the compound you should have seen and heard the excitement. Some children could hardly contain themselves, and were lightly hitting their head with their fist. Once they were calmed down, they were taught more about Jesus, followed by singing. Once everything was organized, the children, single file, came and received their treats. Colton was asked to help with the distribution of the doughnuts. What joy to see him thoroughly enjoying himself as he smiled and bent down to look in the little ones’ faces as he handed them his offering. I kept watching him as I was helping nearby, and at times Colton’s face showed such great love and compassion as the kids filed by, a number with nothing on except a filthy, tattered shirt. I often wonder what all God will accomplish in and through Colton through experiences like these; things that will have eternal value and purpose, not just for the here and now.
What a beautiful sight, all these destitute ones enjoying an ’extra’. You might be thinking, “well why didn’t they at least buy healthy food?” You know, Jesus gives each of us so many “extras” every day, things we don’t need, but things He just enjoys giving us. It reminds me of Matthew 7 where it talks about us humans, though sinful, yet giving good gifts to our children, and how much more our Father gives us good gifts when we ask.
After this we went to Chrissie’s birthday celebration at CRIB. In the evening we had our Christmas at home, and Everiste and Annick dropped in.
Christmas day - 9:00 A.M. at CRIB watching all the kids open their presents that are shipped in from England, followed by Isaac assembling toys and things for about 2 hours. We were invited to friends of ours for lunch, together with some other expatriates. It was great - Christmas dinner outside on the deck, dessert (another one of my famous “land slide” cakes) under a sun sheltering gazebo, followed by lawn games.
At about 5 we went to Honda and Libby’s who had invited us to spend some time celebrating with the ‘Restoration of Hope’ boys - all 65 of them. These are street boys they’ve rescued and are providing a safe, godly home for them, as well as discipleship, a chance at a future, etc. You shoulda’ seen us dance to…. Boney M. Christmas songs, being piped into the yard via big speakers. Loudly!!! It was fantastic! So much fun.
If Boney M. members are still alive, I’d be curious to know their thoughts on a yard full of people in the middle of Africa dancing to “Winter Wonderland!”
December 26 - more time spent with Honda and Libby, and Libby’s parents who are out from the UK.
December 27 - we went to the local beach; me with my trusty sun-shielding umbrella.
It’s getting late, past 11:00, and we’re up and at ‘em at 5:45 A.M.
To be continued…
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