October 26 -November 14 :)

This week we stayed in with our supervisor a few extra nights to get some extra rest. The heat and being with the people 24/7 is more draining than I had imagined it could be….

Monday (Oct. 26) Went out to our village around 2 in the afternoon. We went to the well with some of the guys and ladies and I got to redeem myself from the week before and not being able to carry the water on my head! I carried this about 30 liter water bag with one of the other guys from the well to the water trough kind of thing. Our supervisor picked us up that evening and we got egg sandwiches from a street vendor and talked to some random people on the street. Tuesday we went out around 12 found a new compound and did stories there. Also went and storied with another lady that we are pretty well acquainted with. Wednesday we slept in late and went out to our village that night and stayed the night. Thursday our supervisor’s supervisor came out to visit us and see our work in out villages. He was really encouraging to talk to! It has been raining still which is weird because rainy season is supposed to be over at the beginning of October… but one of our friends and I played in the rain and the guys do this ninja play fighting thing with sticks so I play fought with him for a while in the rain and we had a really good time! Went out that afternoon and storied with an older lady who was in the middle of mourning over her son’s death… they do this very ritualistic mourning thing and women are not to come out of their hut or bathe for 40 days. They just sit on the floor completely covered head to toe, but she was willing to listen to a story and her granddaughter listened too so that was neat. When we got home we came to the realization that male testosterone is the same across all cultural boundaries… our brothers were arguing about who was stronger by the show of who carried the most millet on their head that day!! They are 20 and 28 and they took us to see the millet they carried so we could judge their strength! It was A LOT! We still joke about this now : ) Friday got to share coffee with our oldest brother and he shared shi (tea) with me. Our younger brother is the most fun! We sat there while our oldest brother was inside and made fun of him for a long time and laughed together! In their culture it’s out of the ordinary for siblings or cousins to NOT make fun of each other sooo by getting to make fun of them I’m sooo in the family! I love it! Later the chief’s second wife was sitting outside of our hut listening to some Christian music our language teacher gave us in their language. The song said I follow Jesus forever. So I’m singing this and she says questioningly “you follow Jesus forever” and I said yes and Lauren came over and asked if she knew who Jesus was. She said no so we got to share the gospel with her and told her she could follow him too. She told us she couldn’t, but now she knows and we can pray for her to dwell on that conversation. It raining AGAIN on Friday and there was a really pretty rainbow after : )

This week we got after it and went to a bunch of different compounds trying to scope things out and plan out the rest of our time in the village. Monday (Nov. 2) I learned to cook some African food with “Linda” (the young lady from earlier that I asked your prayer in building a relationship with). She taught me how to cook niri in the cauldron looking thing over the flame outside. It’s just pounded cooked millet like everything else they eat. We really just got to spend some good time with our family all day. At the end of the day, a small but neat breakthrough, our youngest brother who’s so funny is completely against anything concerning the Lord and has been very vocal about it, but we told him we were reading and studying and he said the word of Jesus? We said yes and he said that was GOOD!! Like I said so small but most definitely worth rejoicing over! Tuesday we went out to 4 different compounds. The first lady and her son who was in his late 20’s were both really excited about hearing the stories and asked us to come back and tell them more. We also got to spend some extended time with this lady and pound and sift millet with her and cook. We ate cho ball there with her. The next lady wasn’t very excited about what we had to say and we learned later that her husband is physically abusive and she gets beaten if she has people over so she really had good reason not to be excited about it. We decided against going back there unless she specifically asks for stories and invites us in. At her place we had chewtum and beans. The third lady is one that we have gotten to know pretty well. She is always excited to hear stories and repeats them back to us after! She’s really sweet. We had chewtum at her house that I made. The fourth lady was a lot of fun! She was quite a bit older and was fascinated with my glasses and the camera! She wore my huge rose colored sun glasses with her bright orange head wrap and we got a picture of her looking like the coolest hippy grandma I’d ever met making her chewtum!! I showed her the pictures I brought of friends and family and she saw one of me and Brad with our arms around each other and was amazed… in this culture men and women do not touch. She laughed at us and then introduced us to her husband and started joking about putting her arm around him and we got her to do it! We got a picture of them smiling with their arms around each other!! That’s a really big deal for this culture because they don’t smile in pictures usually either! Like I said, she was a lot of fun! It was a long but very successful day! Wednesday was a little bit of a beat down… we visited 2 compounds closer to our family and they were not receptive of the bible stories. But at the same time they were very kind and invited us to sit under the shade and drink tea. So I’ve started praying against kindness for the sake of kindness. That might sound harsh but I’m beginning to understand why the Lord doesn’t want us to be luke warm. It’s really frustrating. We really need to have clarity in where to spend our time and if people are just being kind but not listening to the Word then our time is better spent elsewhere. We have 4 weeks of ministry left and we will not be able to see everyone in our village, it’s just too big, and our time is short. So we will not be going back to these 2 compounds unless the people specifically ask to hear stories or ask about Jesus. Thursday was quite possibly my favorite day of ministry! We had planned on going to the other side of our village to story at one compound with one family but the Lord had other plans for us! We got there and there was just one man. He told us all the ladies were at another compound further back so we went there. It turned out they were in the middle of a marriage celebration. In our culture marriage is a sorrowful thing for the bride so she does not take part in the celebration. Her close family and friends who are ladies gather to eat and ring gifts to give her but she goes somewhere else during the party. So we get there and greet the ladies and sit for a little bit, then one of our closer friends tells us to go inside to eat so we follow and sit down to eat this bowl of niri and oil sauce. About 5 minutes later a lady comes in to do her ritual prayers in the same hut that Lauren and I are in. It was really strange and I asked Lauren why she thought this lady came in to do this. She quoted Ephesians… to remind us that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, so we began to pray right there out loud pretending to have conversation with each other while this lady was bowing down in vain on her prayer mat. Then another lady was outside washing up to come in and pray. We ended up praying there in that hut over individual ladies for at least an hour over about 12 ladies. I ate that whole stinkin bowl of niri to try and have an excuse to stay in there and pray! Crazier things have been done for the furthering of the gospel! Friday we stuck around our compound with our family some more. Lauren got to paint little girls toe nails and I spent more time with “Linda” and pounded millet with her. Later her little one had a poopy blow out and around here moms just take off their babies clothes (if they’re wearing any) and get some water and clean them up with their bare hands. Sooo being a culturally appropriate servant of these people I took off the little ones shorts, got some water, and cleaned her up! Her mom was thrilled! That night another one of the little ones has crying a ton so I put her on my back and she fell asleep right there. Women carry their babies on their back here and that’s where they’re used to being so seeing that my back is where she’s be most comfortable I strapped her on and she was out, it was really sweet : )
Monday (Nov. 9) I got to ride the bus in to the capitol city, about 9 hours away, with one of our ministry partners and we had a really fun time together! It’s Friday right now and we’ve been in the city all week taking some rest time. We have seen giraffes, went sand boarding with some friends we made, had meals with other missionary families, went shopping at an international market, and slept in air conditioning all week! It’s been wonderful. I’m ready to be back out with our people in our village! Our supervisor is having some back problems and is going to have that checked out. There is a possibility that she will have to take medical leave. In that case our ministry here will look a lot different for the rest of our time here. We know that The Lord is already in control of all of it and He has really given me peace about whatever happens. It’s neat how He speaks with such foresight and prepares me for things in advance.
Over all I’ve been missing home, but not in a way that is overwhelming that makes me wish I were anywhere else but here. It’s a weird thing. The Lord really does give peace that passes all understanding! I’m so so thankful for your prayers! I love you all so much and I’m excited to see you soon and share pictures with you! I’m hopeful that it won’t be this long between blogs ever again, but nothing is completely reliable here in Africa. I will blog weekly to the best of my ability to keep you updated on what’s going on and how you can be in prayer.
For now please pray for….
Our supervisor’s situation with her back
The Lord to give us clarity in what direction to take with our ministry in the village
The Lord to stir up the people’s hearts to seek Him
Him to give us endurance for our remaining weeks in Africa!