Since May began, we’ve had only a few days with power. Thankfully most nights it has been on, minus a few. It can be off for anywhere between 10-20 hours, and we are in the hot season of 43-45 degrees everyday. It’s not just the heat, it’s the lack of cool water and therefore anyway to cool down… as well as the ability to keep meat and other fresh food cold.
I remember a time when God was inviting me to be sure of my hope in Him. As sure as I am that the sun will rise. That is pretty sure if you think about it. He was also reminding me of His power. The sun rises each day because of Him, and He has the power to stop it. If you think about the possibility that it might not rise, great fear will seize you. That is the fear we should have of God, a healthy reverent fear of His power and might – remembering that we are dust, that He holds the world in His hands. Let’s talk real. What else are you sure of? Are you sure that when you turn the light switch on, that light will come? That when you turn on the kettle, it will boil? Through experience we have come to trust something which is made and controlled by man… to rely on it for our sanity, sometimes. Is that dangerous? I couldn’t live in 45degrees everyday without an air-conditioner! But... I am. Wasn’t expecting that. Wasn’t expecting an everyday reliance would be taken out like a rug from underneath me. It’s not until it’s gone that you realise you leant on it. I’m sure you can relate with losing friendships or jobs or money, and perhaps this has shifted your dependence onto God. Maybe that’s why we find such great faith among people that have so little – there are no obstacles between them and God – there is nothing else for them to rely on. I had to wonder why I was getting so discontented every time the power cut out. It was reminding me of a bad feeling - of having faith in things that don’t seem to come to fruition – and then I realised it was reminding me of the feeling of believing I’d been healed and then having yet another migraine. The feeling of trusting but being let down. Faith is hard – the bible says faith is being CERTAIN of what we hope for, SURE of what we do not see. It says if you have faith, you can literally move a mountain. Faith is powerful. But because it is so powerful, there is great opposition. Experience and every day reality fight to become greater truths to us than the word of God. I certainly don’t have answers. But the power cuts are reminding me, of the unsettled contest in my heart - of having faith when my reality may be contrary to my hope. In the meantime, we aim to rely on the giver rather than the gifts, and to find peace in all circumstances, regardless of expectations. This morning, I am in an air conditioned room, and I am grateful!
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This is Yan, he is the son of my lovely house helper, Rosalie. Like all fraggles here, he loves Brad and follows him everywhere if he can. While Brad was trying to pray on the porch, Yan tried to get his attention by pressing the beeping buttons on his watch. So Brad covered his watch with his hand and kept praying. Yan tried touching Brad’s closed eyelids, but still got no response. So he decided to try licking Brad’s arm fur. Dear little Yan. He also went through a phase of rubbing his mouth on things because he liked the feel of it. The computer screen was a favourite, closely followed by a picture on the wall made of velvet. Today Hunter came home and said his kinder teacher said she was so hot she thought she was going to die. When I was with the ladies cooking food and getting pretty for the fete on Sunday, one middle aged lady wanted her eyebrows painted but the woman doing it said they were too scruffy. So she signals for a young girl to come over (maybe 7 years old) and sends her off with a few cents on an errand down the street. The girl returns 3 mins later with a tiny rectangle of paper – a small double edged razor blade, with which she promptly has her eyebrows shaved by the girl doing the painting. As I open my gate to the street, a man rides his bike and pulls up near me, expecting a sale. His front handle bars are lined with live guinea fowl, hanging upside down with their legs tied, their little heads looking around like what is going on. The man who sells pieces of cracked coconut signals his presence with a ‘cwak cwak cwak’ as he walks down the street which sounds more like a duck. While Brad sits with his friends at the boutique... a man walks along with nothing but a small purse by his side. He is given a nod by one of those sitting. He comes running over and unfolds his purse to reveal many small scalpels. He begins to give the sitting man a pedicure while he continues the conversation with the others. A motorbike comes screaming down the road and doesn’t slow down in time to miss the two cows crossing, so instead he hits one of them head on – the cow unmoved, the two men from the bike sprawled across the road laughing. A lot of evenings in the week Brad sits with his friends in the street out the front of their boutiques. One of the men was walking over the bridge in the night recently (which is highly discouraged) when some robbers jumped out asking for money. Since he had none they beat him with a pole until his calf muscle was falling off his leg. Our other friend took him to hospital, but they would not stitch or treat him until there was a guarantor to pay for it. His wife refused to pay and said she was leaving him now because he has no money, so our friend was forced to pay. For the days that followed he sat in his usual place in the street with a hugely swollen leg and foot, in a lot of pain. He had no work and no way of earning money since he is now in his late fifties.
Our guard has gone on holiday to his home country of Burkina Faso this month, so we offered this man the job while our regular guard is away. What a huge smile this caused, and how diligently he is watering the garden, and letting us know of the night’s activities (such as a family of four hedgehogs who search the garden beds each night for food before they return to their home under the rubble in the corner of the yard.) After meeting Belle in the morning and evenings, it took him only two days to begin nicknaming her the bandit. For those of you who know her, you would agree that this is a fitting judgement of personality. When our regular guard returns, we will be able to offer him one night a week only, but even this is better than no work at all. On a less encouraging note, this week somebody entered our yard and stole our language helper’s motorbike. The bike is the way he manages his livelihood of teaching missionaries and ex-pats local languages. We are wanting to be generous but also wise. The normal cultural reflex of the west is to pull someone clear out of their problem, but is that necessarily the most helpful option? Locals have explained to us the trouble with missionaries buying things for people or attempting to get people out of their predicaments with gifts. If a missionary buys a village a pump and it breaks, the village will not fix it. But if the missionary helps the village combine a small amount of savings each week until they are able to buy the pump themselves, then they will all look after it as long as humanly possible. People want the dignity of earning things themselves. These are the things we are trying to consider when we look to supporting the people around us. |
AuthorWe are Brad, Andy, Hunter and Belle. Hoping to keep you connected! Archives
May 2019
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