February 1, 2010
The day begins with waking up, as some days do. I ignore the
translator and his guitar playing, dress, wipe the eyes, pray, read some
scripture, get out of the mosquito net, slip on some shoes, pee… the morning
routine.
“Yes, I heard you,
it’s breakfast time,” I say to myself as the words “thank you” come out of 
my
mouth.
Breakfast with the pastor, rice again. I like rice at 8am,
rice is safe. We are briefed on what today will hold for us. Matthew and I get excited about the prospect
of physical labor after 3 weeks without.
I change into jeans and put on my “work shoes.” Today, we
are going to be helping a family plant some trees, I am told. The family, we had the opportunity to pray
for previously at a home group we visited. Their daughter is paralyzed and the
family needed some help with the planting. I am handed a hoe by my pastor friend and we walk the dirt road to where
we will be working, finally noticing the heat. We arrive and begin the work, which consist of using the hoe to till the
ground of a small patch of land. The
work is enjoyable and I am glad that we are able to serve this family, but as I
look up I notice about 8 grown, healthy-looking men just standing around
watching as we work. I am used to an
audience, we are quite the spectacle, “but why are these men just standing
there,” I think aloud. “I hope they are not a part of this family, they should
be helping, I like this work, but really? I didn’t come here to do the work for
people who were quite capable and just didn’t want to work.”
Yeah, I am a fool.
even. I find out that these men were
just random men in the community, “a few of them are gangsters,” we are
told. They saw us doing the work as hard
as we could, not knowing what we were doing, but just helping the family out,
and they knew that they could do it better, so they did. I feel like an idiot, and rightly so. Later
in the night I would be called on it in a roundabout way.
to visit villagers.
doesn’t know what to do. I tell her that
her only hope for her husband is for him to come to know Christ, and that even
if he stops drinking without Christ, he will find something else. I encourage her with the words of Peter, to
stay faithful in serving the Lord, praying for her husband, and showing him
respect and love that her husband might be won without a word when he sees her
pure conduct. Janna says some great
things, the pastor speaks, and we pray for the woman. I ask God to protect her.
We leave, and later I will have to face the fact that the woman didn’t. I have
to trust God for her and her family, and pray that she is.
I get sick, again. Stomach aches, nausea, and vomiting. I
don’t look at rice the same way anymore. I feel better momentarily for a team meeting:
I apologize for my idiocy earlier and explain the joy of my day. Today, I
experienced the love of God in such a way.
nor be weary when reproved by him. For
the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he
receives.’ Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees,
and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out
of joint but rather be healed.” Hebrews 12:5-6;12-13.
