Sunday, March 27, 2011

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Happy 20th Birthday, Michael!!!!
We slept in till 6am today! We held church in one of the classrooms. As I was new to the village, they wanted me up front during the service. I did the health talk and shared how the largest meal is to be eaten in the morning and smallest at night, giving time for the stomach to rest. The medical student, Lwimba, interpreted for me then made it more culture-specific by mentioning how people don’t eat in the morning because they go out fishing and eat big when they come home. After church, Marleen had made enough food on Friday for everyone who had attended church to eat. We served everyone then we ate. There was plenty of food! I liked that they did this! At the first village, when we would have children at our place when it came time to eat, all but once they sent the children away. We would not have been hurting had we shared a little food. I do see the problem, though, that the children would have ran and got more children then we would have had an issue with too many coming. I had that problem just with passing out stickers. At 2pm we held the baptismal class in the classroom. Then Ana-Maria and I went to teach the children before the crusade. The topic was the Law of God.

The congregation in a classroom


I did a lot of reflection this day. Here is an entry from my journal reflecting on the family we’d met on outreach the day before:

I feel so selfish, yet hopeless. I have so much I don’t need. I have more in my suitcase than some people here own. And I have so much more at home. And think that I need certain things for certain events. But one lady only has one dress. I may have problems paying for all my needs: car, gas, phone, food-with just the money I make, but I have a car. I have a phone. I have enough food for at least three meals a day. And if something happens that I may need more money, my parents will send me some. I am not needy in anyway. I want to give away everything in my suitcase. But even having said all this, I find myself making excuses. The skirts I have, my aunt just made me. I would like to bring some chitanges home. I’ll never go to San Francisco again. But are these good enough excuses? I’ll probably leave the chitanges here and buy more in Lusaka the day we leave. But what about the lack of food? Even when the cassava comes up in three years, that family can’t live on just cassava. Their variety of veggies and fruit is SO limited. Giving them one good meal won’t change much. God help us!


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