A story not posted…..thought you would enjoy today 🙂
Written December 12, 2010
The last 24 hours have been a typical World Race experience
that I expected when I came on the race. Retelling it here can’t begin to do it
justice but I want to share it with you and bring you along on the race….
It all begins Saturday morning. We are told we are going to
another village for a church service. We will leave after lunch around 1:30pm
and be back Sunday. A few people weren’t feeling well so 7 of us packed up our
things and around 4:30pm we leave for the village (typical African time). We go
to the area of town to catch a bus/truck/van and our contact does some
negotiating. Our contact, Peter, is blind so we had to help him know what truck
beds had enough space and which ones didn’t. We get a good deal, with leg room,
climb on with our daypacks, tents, and bananas. You have to have bananas for
road trips, it’s a staple! The ride out to the village is absolutely beautiful!
Shannon, from Team Last Place, and I have a deep core conversation pulling out
lies and core struggles we have had most of our life. As we pour truth and love
into each other we are told we have arrived. We get off the truck and are
immediately surrounded by the over 20 village members. They begin taking our
bags off our backs so they can carry them for us. We check with Peter just to
make sure they are legit and we get the okay.
We are then escorted on a
30minute walk to the village. The men and women are incredibly kind and we just
keep looking at each other smiling, communicating through our nonverbals. I
humbly walk alongside them thanking the Lord for this amazing opportunity and
hospitality. I have no idea what I am walking into but I’m in awe of the people
and of the landscape we continue to walk through.
We finally arrive, they place our things in a hut and then
set up chairs and mats to sit on. I choose to sit on the mats with the women
and children, my favorite place to sit. First because I love women and children
but also so that I don’t have to be stared at during the whole service. I get to know the moms,
their names, and a few of the children hanging around. We sit there for 30 or
40 mintues, smiling, them teaching me Portugese words and songs, and the children
playing with my bracelets. Then they begin to lay down and go to sleep. Okay??
I guess no church tonight just in the morning. I guess no dinner tonight,
that’s okay I’m not that hungry…..
I lay under the majestic sky filled with stars holding
Isabella’s (one of the mothers) hand on my right and count bracelets ad fingers
on my left hand with the children. I sit in awe of God and just thank Him that
I get to live this life…amazing!
About 2 hours later around 9:00pm we are told dinner will be
done soon, it has been delayed, but they have Fantas for us, Fantas to the
rescue!! We are then asked who will be speaking tonight after dinner….oh,
church after dinner….okay. J
We look around at each other and Christy gives the nod. She jumps in her tent
and begins to ask the Lord what He wants her to share. At 10pm dinner is
served. At this point we are hungry,
tired, and just laugh. We open the covers and we have nsima! Nsima is a corn
flour that they make into like a paste that you eat with your hands and some form
of relish. Lucas then opens the other dish, looks confused and just states that
he will not eat that. Myself thinking we can make it work begins to say, “Come
on guys we don’t want to offend them.� As I say this I am picking up the dish
and as soon as I see what is inside I look up and retract my last statement
with, “Okay I can NOT eat that.� What is it? Well, we didn’t know. It looked
like reptile parts, a heart, liver, and other indescribable things. We were
informed that they were goat organs. We sat there while being watched by many in the village and
tried to discretely devise a plan on how we could dispose of the parts. We kept
looking in the dish laughing and choking on the horrible smell. We tried many
different tactics but we finally went and asked Peter if they would be offended
if we didn’t eat it. We said it was okay and besides the elders ate after us
and they surely enjoyed that we saved them the best parts. 🙂
After dinner church started around 11:30pm. There had been
dancing going on most of the time we were eating and being served…Mozambiquians
dance their hearts out! It was crazy to see women with babies asleep on their
back just dancing unashamed! They were jumping and singing and the babies
stayed fast asleep….crazy cool! I danced
along with them but was exhausted after just a few songs..these women are
tough!
At midnight Christy was called forward to preach. She
delivered a great message! As she spoke the rest of us listened and just looked
at each other laughing. What did we get into? Is this a 24 hour day/night of
praise and worship? How late will we be staying up? Why did we bring tents to
sleep in? We just laughed to ourselves as the Africans stared at us sitting up
in front and kept thinking, is this our life? Really? YES!
Around 12:30am Christy ended and we were told we could go to
bed after the next song…..At 1am we headed for our tents exhausted and ready
for rest. BUT don’t think the part stopped. The music, praise, and dancing
continued. As we prepared for bed I our tents 20 feet away from the action we
had many Africans watching us. Talk about a fishbowl….
Around 3am the party stopped……but not for long…..
Bright and early at 5am the preaching began. It was time for
baptisms! I awoke having the feeling I was being watched…..oh wait that is
because I was. I opened my eyes and was surrounded by Africas watching me and
Christy sleep. Different yes, but I guess muzungus are pretty entertaining. I
laid in my tent smiling at them and
listened to the preacher until I heart, “its time for the river!� I
climbed out of my tent – more like stumbled – but I made it out and began the
20 minute walk to the “river.� Most of the walk there was me “choosing in� to
the day. To the early morning wake up call, to no sleep, no food, and again no
idea of what laid ahead. God showed up and just blessed me with energy, grace,
and love as we walked. The women sang the whole way there and just praised God
for His work and character — yes surreal.
When we arrived we found the “river�
to be a section of water that did not move, was green, and a sure place for the
Holy Spirit and a parasite. But we prayed over the water, celebrated 9 baptims
and then headed back on the 20 minute walk to the village. The sights and
sounds of the walk are even more breathtaking that you can imagine right now.
About this time you are thinking the day is over or are
questioning whether this is real or not….yes it is, this is my life. J We made our way back
and sat on a bench. We watched everyone disperse and just wondered what was
next? When? We had no idea and our contact disappeared. So….Lucas, Christy, and
I decide we would like bananas for breakfast so we began the 2 mile walk into
town. We get some guidance by people along the way and find bananas, thank you
Jesus! We buy them and head back wondering if we had missed communion. Upon our
arrival an hour later we find out teammates in the church, sleeping listening
to Christmas music. Yes it is nap time and we have Third Day to serenade us. J We lay and rest for
about an hour and a half waiting for church to start. This gives us plenty of
time to test out the 3 different forms of a toilet in the village — rocks, a
small hole in a miniature hut, or a normal hole in a wicker square. The funny
thing is all of those are normal to me, this is my normal. Ha!
The day continues with MANY hilarious moments shared between
our pastor and our team. We listen to an hour and a half about the Lord Supper,
have prayer time, then take communion. During that time I’m going stir crazy
talking about hard boiled eggs and SALT, Laura is trying to hold any baby
around her, Christy is speaking in sign language to us, Lucas is trying to
survive, Colby is making braclets out of leaves, Alica is outside, and Shannon
was cleaning the dirt off her feet.
When service is completed we are taken into
a hut, fed lunch, and then escorted back into town by most of the village.
Their custom is to greet and escort their visitors. They would not let us carry
a thing, some women actually had babies on their back and our backpacks on
their front. Again it was very humbling. We were there less than 24 hours but
were welcomed in and treated like family.
It was definitely a crazy experience and one that can’t fully be retold,
but one that I hope I experience more often. It brought on much laughter and
joy in the Lord. We enjoyed the many moments the Lord brought us as we learned
from the village.
(Pic from day 2 in village. All pics by Lucas Tillman)
