Sunday, 7-5-09, day 19. Sold for Cows???

I feel so much better after talking with God yesterday. I’m glad I have Him as a confidante. He’s changed me a lot since being here, and I’m not sure how to respond to this yet. He’s made it perfectly clear that my trip is just now starting. He’s helping me to have patience with people, to trust again, and is slowly breaking me down that way He can reveal Himself to me in a new way. I have to admit I’m terrified of some of the changes He’s doing, and at the same time I’m ready to let go of this shell that I called myself to see what things He has for me.
I was thankful to have my breakfast of champions- a cup of coffee! Today we traveled into Bungoma to visit Pastor Godfrey’s church. Jan and I did childrens ministry. It was a little difficult to do the puppets because the entire room was the size of my bathroom at home (which is not very big, let me assure you) so a lot of people sat outside to listen. If Sharon were here, she would be very proud of me! I did the paper cross story by heart AND was able to associate everything in the cross story with our salvation bracelets! Thanks, Sharon for being such a great teacher!
As is custom here, Pastor Godfrey asked the American team to come up and introduce ourselves. Pastor Protus went up after we did, and says to the crowd: “you may have noticed that the beautiful Miss Heather didn’t comment on her marital status like everyone else did”. He started saying something in Kiswahili. I guess he told the crowd that I was single because he told me later that “no one had enough cows anyway”. If looks could kill… Mark thinks he could get 20 cows (because of my lovely attitude I’m guessing) and Brad is at least polite enough to suggest 30. My lovely mom is saying that there needs to be an unreachable 200 cows. I have the feeling that I won’t be living this whole “cow” thing down anytime soon.
After service, we went to a community lot for lunch. It was here that we learned that the property we were on was (or, is) a tobacco farm (the British American Tobacco Agency, is what I think it was called.) We also learned that the church building we were in is being rented temporarily until the actual church can be built. It was ALSO here that the van got stuck in a pothole that was muddy. Eventually they got it out by the creative use of a rock….
Poor Protus was so tired! I guess Mark gave him 2 benedryl, so he was so close to falling asleep at lunch! I got pictures of him half asleep, they were funny! It wasn’t long before our chicken stew, chapatti, and beans were served.
After lunch we headed back to the vans , and one of the gentlemen that was sitting in service earlier told Jim to bring be back next year because by then he would have enough Cows. (I think I’ll be bringing a few of my guy friends back with me next year. They won’t sell me off!) Once we got home, I decided to spend some of my afternoon with Judith. I really treasure her friendship! She is an amazing friend, and I’ve missed hanging out with her for the last few days. We ended up talking until very late at night, about anything and everything! She taught me some of her recipes (which I have written down) and I’m hoping that I will be able to recreate them when I get home. It’s been a long day. So… I’m off to bed.