We are His family…

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

We had a busy day! Since we take our malaria prevention pill on Monday I’m not feeling my best. It makes me dizzy and a little nauseated not to mention the constant ringing in the ears. Better than having malaria though… or is it?  We started the day with oatmeal pancakes with honey and bananas made by Joy. Have you ever noticed when we pray for a meal we often say something like “bless the hands that made it”? You know we actually know who made it, so we can bless them, so we do that now when we pray. It’s kinda nice and more personal. After all, we are His family.

We did three home visits today. First we went to Sycilias house. She is such a wonderful person. She always has a really big smile beaming across her face. She tells everyone in her neighborhood about the gospel of Christ and the Lakeview church. Many have come because of her and her daughter Janet.

Walking through the neighborhood from house to house is quite an experience. Children run up to us saying, “howwaaru?”  Cows and goats grazing and wandering around, people staring out their doorways. When they stare at you they look mad until you speak to them and then they light up. They are shocked that mzungus would come into their neighborhood. The ones we are visiting are so proud to show us off.

We went to Seline’s house. She told us what happened last year when her 2 year old son died. He had been playing outside when she called him in to get ready for bed. She tells the story with great detail, especially the dialog between her and her son, which was the last time she spoke with him. She found in the bed the next morning, dead for no apparent reason. I asked her why she didn’t get mad at God. She said her faith had grown because of the love and support she got from the church during this time. We recorded the story and asked other questions too. I wanted to know how often the family gets to eat. She said once or twice a day they have ugali and vegetables. I don’t think they are starving but they are hungry. We pray that God will show us how to help.
Although it’s very emotionally taxing, home visits are my favorite thing to do here. We really get to touch their lives and it changes us inside in ways I can’t even describe.

Tonight Abba taught the clan about being the family of God. He started out talking to them about how we need to love God first and then each other. We had just finished recording a video interview with a few of the clan members. Kennedy told how his father left him when he was a young boy and Violet told how her husband left her with 4 children, one of them cripple. Abba tied that into his talk, encouraging them to be the family of God and to never leave each other as they had been left. It seemed to have a real impact on them. It’s really hard to tell if they are understanding or not, but as I watched their faces they slowly began to change. Where there was sadness, hope appeared!

We gave them a kerosene lantern because they have no electricity and have to use candles for light. I noticed Dorris had red and weeping eyes, symptoms of a severe eye infection. So we went to the Chemist and got her some eye drops for just 300 shillings. That’s about $3.50 .

When we give money, medicine and food it is a good thing, but it will soon be gone. When we give them the love of the One who first loved us, it is eternal.

There is no greater gift.