1-8-08 "Crayons and Stilt Dances"

BACK TO WORK!!!!! Today we will begin a brief “village ministry”. I am so excited about this, because it is REAL LIFE AFRICA. Whatever that means???? :) What I mean, is I am excited to be with these beautiful people in THEIR ENVIRONMENT. I want to see how and where they live and what a day in their life is like.

So today, Jeff is taking us to the village of Kyenjojo and the Ihani Church of Christ. It was the experience of a lifetime. The people came running out to our vehicles (especially the children). They were so excited for us to visit them. You will hear this over and over: the kids were BEAUTIFUL! We got out and began shaking many a hand and sharing so many names.

The 1st thing we did was play with the village kids. We jumped rope with them. Wendy passed out bags of crayons and sheets to color. This was a HUGE hit! Some of them had never colored or “shaded”. I watched an older man, one of the church leaders color. He had obviously never done so by the way he was holding the crayon and moving, but I have NEVER seen such a look of PURE concentration ever. It was so cool.

After hanging out for about an hour or so, we went into their tiny dung walled church and we crackers began to sing. We thought we did pretty good, until the local church began to file in and join and then slowly drown us out. Their songs and prayers were so wonderful. We were moved to tears! The joy, passion and freedom there was unreal.

After the praise, each of us was expected to share and preach. So, I spoke with my family in Kyenjojo. I shared the prayer of Jehoshaphat and how they could find strength in it. Each of the team and all the missionaries also shared the word of God, love and encouragement.

Afterwards, we went back outside to play with the children. Did I mention they were GORGEOUS?!?!?!?!? They acted shy, but were totally enthralled with us. Suddenly the drums started and they all began to sing. And then they began to DANCE! They performed all of their traditional tribal songs and dances. They wore sashes and leg rattles! One man danced on stilts! It was SO COOL.

After the festivities it was meal time. They had prepared a feast for us. We were treated like guests of honor. An older lady came out with a jug of water and bowed low to wash our hands. They seated us in the back in a private room of honor, and served us millet, rice, metoke and meat. It was a really cool experience.

As we finished, Jeff began to pass out Bibles to all who could read in English. They were SO proud of the shiny new words of God they had! When we passed all those out, we played the local kids in some “football” (aka soccer). And hey…we white boys held or own! The ball was this excellent ball of wadded up plastic bags bound together by rubber bands and banana leaves.

WHAT A DAY! At day’s end we made it back to Ft. Portal. We played spades for awhile at the Cash home. Jeff, Johno and I walked over to M.O.M. for some fish sticks and chips. I took the quiet chance to call home. I talked to Jude and Merrick (Mom was at work) and got VERY homesick. Praise the Lord for this chance.