A weekend to remember

Saturday morning, all the sponsored kids came to the clinic for Bible teaching, games, and snacks. First, Marc, one of the social workers, taught the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32). They asked the kids questions to get them discussing the story, and each kid who spoke up got a piece of candy (sugar is a good motivator all over the world). The kids then played a boys vs girls trivia game on all sorts of different topics. One boy was asked to name two cities in America--all he came up with was Belgium. Nice try, kid. (Probably about how most American children/maybe even adults would do if asked to name two African cities, honestly). But my favorite thing was to just see how much FUN everyone was having. Life here (just like everywhere) can be challenging. I believe that giving people a safe space to relax and laugh is an essential part of ministry.

On Sunday, I was invited to visit a church in a nearby village with Andy, and two other men who work with the mission, Noel and Pastor Douti. This particular church is pretty small--there were probably only 15-20 people in attendance, including us. They currently meet in the courtyard of someone's home, but they have started building a permanent church building on some land. As we all sat in a circle, singing, praying, and worshiping together, it felt like a family. Their joyfulness and faithfulness was beautiful and inspiring and I'm honored to have experienced it (and hope it will happen again!).

We were also blessed with some glorious weather. Having grown up on the Oregon Coast, I've experienced my fair share of rain and wind and generally don't like it at all. But when the storm came that afternoon, I felt like a kid, sitting on my couch on my screened-in porch, just watching the rain pour down, hearing it pound against the metal roof, and feeling the gusts of cool wind blow against me. I put on a cardigan and made some hot tea and felt like maybe it actually is December after all. It was a very welcome respite from the increasingly hot weather we have been experiencing.