Coaching at RashidatO.com | Social Activism at Whereveryougolove.com
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Today we started early this morning at 7 am after an eventful and restless night of sleep for the ladies. Last night I remember waking up to Bliz screaming about a moth and then another moth and then a snake before we were all able to get bed. In the middle of the night I woke up. I didn’t immediately get up to pee. I was procrastinating and thought that I didn’t really need to go. When I finally got up it seemed as if my legs were automagically wet and I realized I was already starting to pee as I stood there looking for a pair of pants to put on. In the midst of my struggles Daiva jumps out of her bed, runs to door and dramatically pushes it open. “Get of here bug!” And then she walks back to her bed to pull down the mosquito net. But then she sprints out the door. As I come out of the door she is coming up from a squat. I continue at a brisk walk to the bathroom since I am not good at squatting. Thankfully the rest of my urine makes it in the toilet, but I decide to remove and rinse my undies to keep them from smelling. I then head back to our room and climb back in bed, but now I am wide awake. I read a chapter of my book and then forced myself to lay in the darkness. I think I fell asleep momentarily before Daiva’s alarm sounded. Therefore, sleep was pretty evasive last night.
But at 7:15 am six of our seven Salty and Bright members pile into the Burke’s red truck to head to Petra Christian School in order to participate in “Jesus Time” with a specific grade this Thursday morning. We prepared a skit for them so Vickie introduced us when we arrived and then we jumped into the skit. Friendship was the topic.
“What does it look like to be a good friend or a bad friend?” Through 3 scenarios, done 2 ways each time, we acted out what it looked like to be a good friend or a bad friend in all 3 instances. We asked the students to call out which instance was good and talked about the differences and what made the person in that instance a good friend. The kids were great! They listened well and were eager to participate. Kayla wrapped up the skit with Bible verses and a last summary of the topic. The children clapped as we took our seats.
I must say the best part was that one of the students called Kayla out as a Texan because of all the y’alls she spoke during the presentation. I guess country talk is famous all around the world!
Vickie took the stage next and asked the children for a word with 3 syllables that is the most important part of friendship. Immediately a boy in the back raised his hand and said “forgiveness”. We also had a young lady talk about doing something nice when a friend did something that was not nice. Vickie then created a visual for the students. She asked the boy in front of her to stand and asked where was his friend. His friend stood up and Vickie put his arm around the first boy.
“This is Johnnie and his friend Matthew. And they love each other, but sometimes Matthew is grumpy. When he is grumpy, Johnnie can either push him away because he is offended or he can forgive him. Which should Johnnie do?!? Of course he should forgive him! And you know what?!? It is easy to love some one when they are nice, but it is hard to love when they are not nice. But if we love like Jesus loves we give them a gift when the person doesn’t love us. That’s how Jesus loved us! He tried to commune with us and show us the way, but we cursed and killed him, but He in return gave us the gift of salvation. So when your friend is grumpy, not only should we love them and forgive them, but also give them a gift a blessing.”
I love listening to Vickie and seeing her excitement with the children. It’s so beautiful and profound and clearly the Word of the Holy Spirit every time.
We finished the session with the children in an hour. Vickie also received the letter to take to the hospital asking for permission to bring the children to do mission day at the hospital on Tuesday. Bliz and I walked with Vickie through the hospital as we searched for the Chief Executive Officer of Mpilo hospital. We did not get to speak to him, but we did give the letter to his secretary in hopes to get a return call quickly.
Our day continued with a couple hours of ATL, Ask The Lord, down in the city center while Vickie and Adam had their coffee date. The time was not dramatically eventful, but I did get give a couple bananas to a young man on the street. He shared one with his friend and they thanked me for them. We wrapped up our ATL with a debrief at the coffee shop. I had the best, cheap, massive sausage link called a Russian and a Coke for $2! Best lunch ever!
Next we had a meeting with Litu. Litu is an evangelist in the Bulawayo area. This is a new concept to me, but I would describe him as an outreach pastor. He doesn’t have a congregation per se, but he goes around sponsoring event and preaching at gatherings around the city.
Vickie planned for us to sit down with him to hear his heart, get an understanding of the ministry he does and to do some ministry with him with the Incogeni mental hospital. So that is exactly what we did. After hearing his heart and doing some planning while we were at the coffee shop, we went to buy some bananas to take to the hospital with us.
We arrived at the hospital hoping for the chance to minister to the men and women of a particular ward, but as the conversations progressed the leadership preferred some proper planning and prior approval before we did that. Instead, as we prayed as worshiped for the facility, the leadership decided we could minister to the staff instead. Litu lead the service, Vickie, Walker, Josh and Kayla all spoke words of encouragement to the staff and then we laid hands and prayed for the staff.
As we listened to them worship I struggled to suppress emotion that was welling up inside of me. I didn’t know why I was emotional. All I wanted to do was cry. I felt so out of place. In Africa I feel so far out of my comfort zone and I honestly don’t know why.
Regardless of my emotions, I am thankful for the day. So many things happen in our days; things that are funny, things that are unexpected, things that are emotional. I write as much as I can because I want to go back and reread them. I may not understand what God is doing in that day as it happens, but I know He will reveal His plan and purpose in time.
