It’s been a short week back in Musho and Tumpa, but a good one. About 70 people accepted Jesus in Tumpa over the first 2 weeks, so now we have begun the follow up process of discipleship, and cell group planting.
Last night, Amy, Eduardo, Richard, Jake and I hike up the mountain a bit with pastor Josua to visit the small community that lives at the mine. Pastor leads a church there, as well as the one in Musho and the one we are planting in Tumpa. It was a wonderful experience.
The community is only about 100 people, and a ton of kids who crave attention. Within minutes of our arrival, I was tackled by several young girls who nearly never left my side, always wanting to be touching me. Amy and Richard chatted with some ladies while Jake, Eduardo and I played games with the children for an hour and a half. The guys acted out the story of Moses and Pharoh, which was quite entertaining and we laughed a lot. Beautiful children.
The service is held in a small room of a house, about 12ft x 12ft, but there was a good number of people in there. Pastor played the keyboard while a couple women sang worship songs in their typical highland style. I unfortunately cannot begin to explain the highland style, except to say that it is piercingly high and yodely. (No, you are right, I don’t think that ‘yodely’ is a word). At first it is hard not to laugh, but I am learning to embrace the various aspects of the culture, even when it is entertaining.
After worship, Amy shared the Word of God with them, mostly about the weapons that we carry as followers of Jesus. More worship followed, led by them, and then they asked us to sing. I was voted the one to sing, so I sang Amazing Grace, all by myself. They loved to listen to us and wanted to record our voices singing so we all sang another worship song in English and they recorded it on a cell phone. It really was an honor.
I am looking forward to going back there, as I will be teaching them next Thursday night. The mountain people are an amazing people, strong and sturdy, tough skinned and bent over from work. There are those that are hungry for Jesus and I am honored to be a part of their learning and growth in Jesus.
