After we ate a delicious lunch of rice, beans, red sauce w/meat, plantains, avocados and pineapple, we chilled at the house for a while. “Mama� washes our clothes for us which is a wonderful blessing, let me tell ya, but we are responsible for washing our undergarments. Amanda and I had some soaking and went to wash them a little after lunch. Love, Mama’s maid, decides that she needs to show us how to properly wash them. She very nicely helps me wash and shows me the “proper� techniques. I even tried to throw in a French word to try and communicate which is obviously ridiculous…just ask Amanda.
Around 2:30 two teachers from the school came to our house so that we could teach them English. Well, no one on my team is a teacher. Yes, we all know English, but do we know how to teach it as a foreign language – without a translator?? The teachers know at least a little English so we weren’t starting completely from scratch. This was our first day so we needed to try and assess where they were at. We went over nouns, pronouns, verbs and basic sentence structure. At the end of the lesson they told us that it had been easy for them so we’ll be taking another approach at the next lesson.
By this time it’s about 3:30. Now we normally have tea around 4 or 4:30, but we were having it early this afternoon because we needed to be at the church around 4:30 to go on some home visits. Afternoon tea is of the utmost importance here, and everything is scheduled around it. I’ve come to love tea time around the world and often wonder why we don’t have it in the US. I think it would be fabulous. Anyways, we have our tea and bread and wait on our translator to meet us and then we head off to the church.
After our 25 minute walk we arrive at the church and meet up with our contact, Pastor John. We set off and visit 4 different “homes.� Most of them are church members or at least have some connection with the church. They lovingly and humbly welcome us into their homes so that we can encourage them with Scripture, words of life and prayer. As we walk from home to home we are usually followed by a mob of children. I looked at the doorway in one of the homes and counted 9 little children gathered around watching us wide-eyed and with shy smiles.
We walk home as the sun is setting and the coolness of the evening is blowing in with the breeze. The crickets are chirping, and by the time we get home the stars are out. I take a shower after we get back to wash off the dirt and sweat from our 2 mile round trip walk and get settled in for the evening.
We do a little feedback for team time and then eat a course of some kind of amazing green soup. A little while later, I’d say around 8:45, we eat our supper of rice, ground beef in a red sauce, chips (fried potatoes) and a platter of cucumbers, tomatoes and onions followed by milk tea of course.
There ya have it. I hope these 2 recent blogs have given you a peak into my life this month. Granted, every day looks different, but this is the basic layout we have for this month. Wherever we are on the path God has placed us, may we live life to its fullest and find joy in every situation. There is beauty all around. Sometimes we just need to take the time to stop and have a cup of tea with Jesus. Be blessed.
“Now all glory to God , who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”
Ephesians 3:20
