2/5/13
“Ma says don’t go barefoot in Africa. Worms!”
I couldn’t help laughing aloud when I read this text from my mother. She and my grandma clearly know me all too well. At home, it’s quite the rarity to find me with shoes on. I never wear them around the house, and I’m known not to wear any while driving. Even when I’ve worked public jobs, most of the time you could look under my desk and find that I’d kicked them off, happily free of constraint! As a kid, and even now more often that I should probably willingly admit, I would often come in from playing outside and find the bottoms of my feet completely black, requiring a bit of intense scrubbing before returning to their normal shade of pink. That’s just with Kentucky dirt… Tanzania dirt is an entirely different thing.
While I am heeding my grandmother’s advice and wearing shoes anytime I’m outside, I’ve found that it’s really no use. My feet, I’m convinced, are now a permanent shade of disgusting! Mean Green and Steel Wool wouldn’t get this stuff off. I’ve completely given up trying, now far more interested in the experiment of seeing how long it will take for them to return to normal, “on their own.” I’m betting I’m back in the US and through a many a shower before this happens… That said, I’ve taken to referring to them as my “Hobbit Feet,” affectionately, and while they are pretty gnarly, I’m awfully fond of them. This month, especially, God sees my feet as beautiful!
Our major ministry this month in Ngaramtomi, Tanzania, involves door-to-door evangelism. Each day we set out to visit with neighbors in the local village. We readily accept invitations to sit on handmade stools, we happily converse (via translators) with crowds who gather out of curiosity about the white women, we play peek-a-boo with shy children who peer at us from doorways, and we try to build loving relationships with these beautiful people. Then we read God’s Word to them, or we offer to pray for their needs, or more importantly, we share with them The Gospel of Jesus Christ.
In two days, we have seen over 20 people make decisions for The Lord! Seriously, God amazes me! We pray for Him to prepare hearts to receive what we say, and they readily accept! Yesterday, I met two men, Tomitomi and Memesalon, who knew that there was only one God, but had never heard the name of Jesus Christ! I literally started in Genesis and explained everything to them, all the way up to Jesus dying as atonement for sin and rising again to defeat death! When Memesalon asked me why Jesus wasn’t sitting there with us in that moment, I realized I’d left out an important variable in the tale – He ascended to Heaven! They sincerely didn’t know any of this, but after hearing our message, they asked to be lead in a prayer for salvation! Heck yes!!!
Today, we met an elderly woman with crippling pain throughout her back, neck and arms. She is a Christian, and she believed that Jesus could heal her ailments, so we (Monica, Elizabeth, Karen and I) began praying over her, asking God to restore her body to former glory and better enable her to go about the task of caring for her family. When we had finished, Elizabeth asked our new friend how she was feeling, and we watched as a look of surprise and glee spread across her face while she outstretched her right arm – she hadn’t been able to do that before we prayed!!! God seriously healed this dear lady before our eyes, and what’s cool – He used us to do it! You can’t make this stuff up!!!
From house to house, hut community to hut community, we march on. We walk everywhere here, trudging on terrain that most people wouldn’t try driving along. We have to be careful to dodge thorns and piles of animal poo. We have to listen for pikipikis (motorcycles) that seem to fly out of nowhere from around hidden corners. We are exhausted by the end of our daily ventures and our feet are covered in… Africa. But, man, is it ever worth it!
"How beautiful on the mountain are the feet of those who bring good news…" Isaiah 52:7
Be Blessed,
Ashlee
