Sunday, 7-12-09 day 26

20 days left, but who’s counting?
I don’t recall too much of last night’s dreams, except that someone was trying to move my hairbrush from my bag to my bed & I got mad at them. I woke up a few times because I kept kicking whatever it was that was at the end of my cot. Since my restless sleep caused me to be the first one awake this morning, I had the duty of making the coffee and drying off the chairs. As far as making the coffee goes, I thought I was doing great! That is, until Jim woke up and informed me that I had turned on the gas to the stove, but not the flame. The water that I thought would be heated soon was still sitting cold in the kettle. Such is my life! To top it off, all the kicking I did last night re injured my ankle. I felt better after Mike woke up- I had fun messing with him! When the team went to town yesterday, he went and got a haircut and pedicure! It’s a sad day when a gruff, grown man has prettier feet than I do!
We went to Timbe-Timbe (pronounced timba-timba) for church. Pastor Leanord is the pastor there. His daughter, faith, was quite afraid of Mark! His wife, Kristin, was pretty much everything in the church- she is in charge of childrens ministry, cooking, is the worship leader, and is a part of anything else happening in the church! I would say that she gets the “hostess-with-the-mostess” award for the year.
The first thing we got to enjoy at Timbe-Timbe was the kids! We did our childrens ministry classes first, and were treated by the kids singing 3 beautiful songs for us! They were so excited that we were there to watch them sing, that they smiled extra-big and were very well behaved! (some of them even started dancing while the other kids were singing!) My whole day was turned around by these kids! I think my favorite song that they sang for us was “Baby Jesus is My Savior”. Jan taught the kids to sing “Jesus Loves Me”, and we did the bracelets thing. I was in charge of doing the cross story (which tied in very well with the bracelets), and then we were on to the puppet show! Afterward we handed out bubbles, candy, and balloons! This has been the most incredible childrens ministry day! After childrens ministry, we finished out the rest of the adult Sunday service. The service was also well done, and I really enjoyed that this church has a set testimony time, for the members to share about the good things that have happened to them that week. I noticed that sharing these good things has helped the church to stay united in each other’s joys and sorrows, and the church as a whole is very happy, welcoming, and unified. Eventually we had to leave. We brought Protus’ kids (Zapporah, Junior, and Senior) with us, so they sat in the back of the van with me on the way home.
Alright, readers, you’ll get a kick out of this! Along every road is a police check. Most of the time you get waved through them, but today we were stopped. There was a female officer this time, and she came up to our window to say hello and check out that everything was normal. Mike (in the front seat as always) asks her: “Did you got to church today?” It was hysterical! (officers here are generally corrupt, and usually aren’t asked such questions.) She laughed and said no, and that she was going to be attending a service tomorrow, because she was working today. (obviously.) Then she asked us to pray for her and her fellow officer, and sent us on our way! I asked Mike what could have possibly led him to ask an officer that question, & he said that it was definitely spirit led because he was surprised that he asked it himself!
On our way home, we stopped by Pastor Fred’s house to drop off a bunch of flipflops that had mysteriously found their way into our van. Then, we were asked to say hello to his wife, Ruth, who was holding her weekly women’s meeting down at the orphanage. Of course, that meant everyone had to get out of the van to go talk to all of these people. It seemed like every woman there knew exactly who I was, and were all addressing me by name, and I don’t remember seeing any of these women before today! I’m glad this happens at work a lot, because I was able to play along with this until we left.
At last, we made it through the 45 minutes of bumpy roads to get back home! Titus and Jim left again to go tune up and check out the van. The rest of us meandered quietly around the compound. We devoured a chocolate bar (it doesn’t take long, here) and I finished some laundry. Now I’m just here journaling and eating beef jerky…
I decided to visit Judith for a while. We ate chapatti and had tea. I gave Protus the pictures of CarolAnn’s family, and decided that he MUST get a facebook. I’ll have to work on that tomorrow. Bonaventure stopped by for a visit while I was there. He was an interesting guy.
Ahh! I’m now sitting on the rock and enjoying a wildly colorful, beautiful sunset! I love the beauty of the things left unsaid!