Where I stay at!

I am so excited about the living arrangements where I will be for the next few months. On the weekends my teammate and I will be staying with some African believers who are also doing what we are doing. They are a very delightful family. They have 3 little children…one of whom is not very fond of white people, but i don’t blame her. If I barely saw us I would think we were scary too. This family is such a blessing and have already gone out of their way for us. Please keep them in your thoughts, that our Father would bless  them and lavish them with kindness  for the kindness which they have given to my teammate and I. They are truly a delight to be around. In fact I miss them very dearly. Our team made a short trip to the new city and village and then had to come back to town for business. I can’t wait to spend more time with the family on the weekends. This will give you a picture of the love that they have for the Father and us. The night before we went out to the village we had family worship. We all got together and our new African Dad (I will call him this) led the family in singing songs. They handed a book and wanted us to sing with them… no it was no English, but it was great. Then after singing He read from psalms talking about the power of YWH. Then He told us a story and started to tell us that village life it is hard. He then pryed for us that the Father would give us strength…. It was wonderful and I loved every minute of it. Afterwards he told us we needed to go to bed because we had a long day ahead of us.

The next morning we left out for our village. Our village is wonderful. The compound we are living in…well the women are great. Every one was so welcoming! When we got out off the truck we started to welcome everyone. Adam then went up and explained to our family in the compound that we would be staying in the compound with them. Soon after that we met the woman believer whom I wrote about before. I was so excited to get to meet her. We walked with her down to the well and helped her wash clothes. We probably washed clothes for like an hour. There are no washing machines out here…the only machines found out here are the women washing the clothes… they are beasts but is a good way. We helped her draw water up from the well and then helped her do all her laundry. It was alot of hard work, but it was not stressful. I actually enjoyed this type of work… I would defin. choose it any day over nursing.

While we were in the village we are got our African names. This was so exciting and quite funny. A woman came in and gave us our names. A few minutes later another woman came in to check on us and to check out our names. We then found out that the first woman had gotten us confused. They named me Gimbela because I am short.

We continued to go around to the village and greet people. We then walked out to the field and met another one of the believers. He was very sweet. He came in from the field and had tea with us. He told us although he had much work to be done spending time with people is more important. So we had tea with him for a while.

We had chicken for dinner with noodles and rice. Yes, my teammate and I helped to prepare the chicken. We helped pluck the chicken and then we held it over the fire and cooked it. The women then took and put it with noodles and rice. It wasn’t too bad of a dinner. I am still trying to get use to eating with my hands though. I always drop rice and noodles every where. Of course I can’t but help laugh at myself. The Africans are nice and act like nothing is happening, but I know they are thinking this girl has much to learn she cannot even eat with her hands. Just as a warning when i get back to the states… Don’t expect me to have good table manners 😉

After eating dinner all the believers met together. The Africans lead the meeting. There is not one specific person who leads, but someone will comment, read scripture, break out in a song, or share a testimony. It is very very good. One of the men said something very profound. He was saying that YWH wants to do something in that village for their are many sick there (talking about lost people)… He then said that my teammate and I are like YWH sending fire down when Elijah was up against the false prophets. He said that we are evidence that YWH wants to do something in the villages. It is just very good to see the Spirit teaching spiritual truths to the people in the village. Lift these people up that they would be bold and share the gospel with others in their village and that the Spirit would continue to pour out his righteousness, wisdom, and understanding among this group of people. May He open eyes and ears and give new hearts to other people in the village.

The village was very good. It was hard to say goodbye. I am ready to go back there and spend time with the people. On our way back to the city we stopped at our African Dad’s house. They had been waiting for our return. His wife was so sweet in that she fixed lunch for us. We stopped and ate lunch and then were on our way again. The days that we were gone were some of the best days of being in Africa.

Thanks to everyone who is reading my blogs and lifting up the things asked. Thanks for lifting me up and keeping me in your thoughts. It has been a great encouragement to know that you all are prying for me back there.