2013-01-20 –
Sunday - Greetings!
What
a difference a week makes! Last week I
was sitting in a 5 star hotel in Washington DC.
This week I am sitting in a small room surrounded by boxes, trunks,
parts of tents, water filters and more, praying the electricity will stay on
long enough for me to finish writing to you.
What
an amazing testimony to God’s unending beauty and grace this homecoming has
been. I arrived in Akobo on Tuesday and
each day has been an incredible blessing from the people I have returned
to. I know I said before that my arrival
in Akobo the first time was as close to arriving in heaven as I could
imagine. Except for a little hiccup or
two, this was even better.
It is hard to
describe in words the beauty and the emotions associated with this return.
Our
arrival this time was met with some surprise and many “You DID come back”. I can’t even begin to describe the welcome
from the ladies who cared for me at the compound where I stayed before and the
ladies of the church. There was much
laughter, tears, singing, dancing, hugging and joy cries (high trilled voices
raised in praised). I knew how happy I was
to be returning but I could never have anticipated their joy in seeing me again,
and it was all repeated when we went to the church to give our greetings.
There
is joy and there is peace. Those are
some words that come to mind to describe the last few days. There is much joy in returning and there is
much peace in finding my way back to the places that were familiar and some
unsettledness in finding the changes that have occurred that are not always so
good – more foreign aid workers, more NGO (non-government organization)
activities with their increased traffic on the roads, among other things.
I
couldn’t really think of a way to share this week with you, so I will just have
to tell a story or two…
Things that
go bump in the night…
Welcome
back to Africa! I have a mouse and I am
quite sure he thinks Santa Clause came and brought him all these new and
exciting boxes and put them around the room for him to run and jump and play with.
I
lay in the dark last night and listened; scurrying on the floor between the
boxes, the rustle of my backpack and the sound of tearing plastic of the film
around my sinus meds. That was followed
by the sounds of little feet climbing up the side of my boxes and sliding down
as they lost their grip right at the top.
He
was a determined little mouse and finally made it to the top, just in time to
scurry across and take a tumble that sounded like he fell off the edge, bounced
off my suitcase and landed in the middle of what used to be a metal aluminum
pan. It had been crushed into a semi
ball and I think, from the sounds of it bouncing on the floor he got trapped
there – for a while.
I
lay there in the dark listening for a little while, trying to figure out what
to do. I didn’t want to get up and step
on him. I didn’t know where he was and I
certainly didn’t want him in my bed, so I turned on my light, praying he
wouldn’t like it, and pointed it toward the door, hoping he would show himself
out.
I
think he did. A short time later, I
heard a cat choking outside my window.
Hmmmm---the rat didn’t come back and I enjoyed a peaceful night sleep. I
kind of felt bad hoping the cat won. But
not too bad. I had “Ben” in
Ethiopia. I really don’t want to name another
one…
Church…”Whom
Shall I send?”
It was an
interesting return to church in Akobo today.
The scriptures and songs were the same as the ones that Pastor Weiching,
from the Nuer church I attended in the states used for his blessings on my
going last week.
Isaiah 6 Then
I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I
said, “Here am I. Send me!”
and
Matthew parable of the sower of the seeds.
It was also interesting that one of the songs “Onward Christian
Soldiers” was the same as well.
ATTACK!! I wasn't sure what was going on. All of a
sudden all of the people started ducking and screaming, grabbing the kids and
running. The people on either side of me just kept singing 'Onward Christian
Soldiers" so I did too. The people
were covering themselves up and hiding the kids under them, and they just kept
singing. A swarm of bees had dropped from the trees and landed on the people
worshipping below.
All
I caught out of the corner of my eye was a black thing falling from the sky. I'm
not sure what I thought it was, but my first reaction was we were being
attacked from the river behind us. But,
I didn't panic. :)
I
just kept singing with the people around me.
It was almost funny too, in hindsight, because all I could think is "prove to
them you won't panic". Be calm!! and
so I sang!
I
laughed because when everyone calmed down, the pastor in charge said "See
even the bees are happy Michael Weller is here.
They came down to greet him"
Sunday
is a day of Sabbath here and very little work is done. It has been a day of resting and reading, but
at 104 degrees it Is a little hot for much else…
2013-01-17 to
be with Christ is to be in heaven, and to be in heaven is to be with Christ.
My
devotion: for as good Rutherford says,
"Heaven and Christ are the same thing;" to be with Christ is to be in
heaven, and to be in heaven is to be with Christ.—Morning and Evening
I
am looking at this beautiful sunrise and the sounds of the village starting
their day surround me. I am pretty sure
I am in heaven, bucket shower and drop latrine and all…Life is good this
morning…
As
a matter of fact, it has been good all day…we met with the church leaders and
staked out my tent. Plans were made,
again, and revised, again…we won’t have the tent up before Michael leaves next
week and that is ok. We have a plan. I have a roof over my head, food in my
stomach and life is good.
I was a little worried about the place they had chosen for my tent. Not because it is not a good place, it
is. Because, the spot they had chosen
would have infringed on the place the ladies stay and would have involved
taking down their fence to make room for the tent. Now the plan is good. We will put my tent outside their fence and
they will have their space, and we can still live as a community.
I
went to the river to sit a while this evening.
It was great! I was able to greet
the women who will be my neighbors. Their children showed me how they work –
washing dinner dishes in the muddy river for the girls.
A young boy is very
serious about his duty to provide food for his family by fishing with a broken
branch with a little string tied to it.
I don’t know if he ever caught anything, but he was quiet and very
determined.
It
was peaceful sitting there in the presence of Christ, in the presence of
heaven, as I watched a lady and her daughter hop into a dug out wooden boat and
paddle across the river where they began working in what I think is their
garden.
Time
stood still and backed up thousands of years and it was easy to see life as it
began, with the simple things…hard work, hard lives and a love of God that
brings joy and peace no matter what the circumstances…
2013-01-15 You Bloomin’ Idiots!!! A Day of Waiting.
Now
before I go any further I should stop and explain…
Michael
and I were sitting yesterday morning in the front yard, watching villagers
disappear off unseen footpaths carrying big loads of sticks and straw or big bags
balanced on their heads. Children were paying on the road and cows and goats
wandering by. We were watching the bids flitter back and forth and one, lone
cowbird with a broken leg hunting for bugs in the grass. It was just a peaceful morning, sitting there
watching the village come to life; the kind that makes me sit back and say
“Wow! I really am in Africa!”
All
of a sudden, this loud deep booming voice shattered the peace and serenity of
the moments when it came from behind us shouting, “YOU BLOOMING IDIOTS!!!” We both burst out laughing as we realized the
sound came from the tv in the mud hut behind us…
I
woke during the night to a sound that was familiar, but in my deep sleep didn’t
make sense. It was the sound of marching
and their “huh one, huh two” cadenced voices.
It was a sound that was familiar to me when I woke during the night in
Malakal. It became a part of the fabric
of life.
It
took me a minute to realize this was Akobo. So, I lay there for a few minutes,
in the dark and listened and was surprised how quickly old instincts kicked
in.
Is
the sound coming closer or moving farther away?
Is there only one set of marching sounds or more coming from different directions. The dogs began to bark, was it a normal – get
out of my yard bark, or something my vicious?
It is amazing how quickly those thoughts came pouring through my head,
and amazing at how comforting the familiar of it all was.
I
lay there listening and finally decided that no matter what, a trip to the
latrine was required. I had determined
the marching was coming from closer to town and it was going away, not coming
closer. There were no gunshots that
indicated there might be a problem. It
was just a routine patrol, I was pretty sure.
That
is a good thing when you have to take your flashlight and walk some distance in
the dark to the nearest latrine. Once inside,
the dogs closer became louder and more insistent that something didn’t belong
in this area, and there I was, laughing at the predicament of being in
“position” in the latrine if trouble arose.
Alas, it didn’t. But it was a
funny thought as my “survival” brain kicked into gear and I made plans to turn
out my light to not draw attention to myself, and stay behind the “locked” door
while I waited. Some things life just
cannot prepare you for. J
I
woke with a start this morning to the smell of wood smoke wafting through the
window and under my nose. My first
thought was “fire!” It took me a minute to realize just where I was. I lay there for a few minutes savoring the
sounds of mornings in Akobo. The
children were beginning to walk to the well and I could hear their scurrying
feet on the road. I could hear the women
begin their day as they stopped to visit on the road outside my window. Through it all I could hear the stirrings of
chickens and goats along with who knows how many variety of birds.
….
It
has been a day of waiting. We arrived at
the church early in the morning. And I had to laugh, I had taken my scarf so
the women could “help” me put it on, but I didn’t take my louwella – a long
scarf the women wear over their clothes.
They cut me absolutely, positively no slack! I was quickly “shooed” back to the compound
to get it. It was funny. You could almost hear them saying “We taught
you better than that!! What were you
thinking!” I quickly returned to the
compound, grabbed it and returned to the church to be properly dressed before
entering the church building for greetings and worship.
Then
it was off to the market and a stop to register me with the office of
immigration and “alien persons”. That
office was closed so we kept walking to the Commissioner’s office and began more
waiting…There is no hurry here.
Everything happens in its own time.
If you are an impatient person, this is NOT the place for you!!
There is a peace in the waiting that I think
we miss in our hurry in the US. We are
so busy rushing from place to place that we miss the gentleness of taking time
to greet someone and look into their eyes. We miss the opportunities to really
connect with another person when we reach out in greeting. We frequently reach out and shake a hand,
briefly, quickly. I love the greetings
here. Most times, you hold the hand of
the person you are greeting often times with both hands, or one hand shaking,
one hand on the shoulder of the other person, for the duration of the
greeting. There is something we miss in
our hurry to check the next text message on our phones and we hurriedly say “hi
how are you? I am fine. Thank you” with
one eye on the person and one eye on our phones. I have to admit, that is one part of life in
the US I will never miss.
We
returned to the compound and began to wait for the afternoon meetings to end so
we could have another meeting to discuss my tent and getting it up and ready
for me to move in. I am always impressed
with the thought, care and discussion that center any of the discussions I have
ever participated in here. Not just from
the men, but also from the women and the voice that they have here. The church leaders sat and listened to
Michael explain what our needs are. Then
took turns listening as each person spoke their thoughts and then came to an
agreement on what they thought was best.
We then walked to the place they thought was best and looked and
measured and discussed some more. When
we left, it had been decided.
A
short time later, the plans had changed and we were told to wait on Thursday
until they came to get us. And so, we
spent another day waiting….
01.16.
I
woke up to the sound of rain during the night.
I didn’t expect that. It was a
nice sound on the tin roof and it sure cooled things off…
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