Last year, the harvest was good. I suspected that when it was happening, by the sheer number of drumbeat led, moonlight parties in the village. The number of marriages that took place within a short time after harvest, made me smile at people’s good fortune. Now, nine-ten months later, there’s another kind of felicitous confirmation. In the last two weeks, Christopher has been called to the clinic almost every night to get out supplies for a birthing mother (or two, or three), take emergencies to the nearby hospital, or to run the generator to make sure the clinicians have lights to work by. Life continues here in the bush.
It’s weeding time too. The mission has rented out some of its land for others to plant their crops. I’m enjoying seeing friends come and work in their fields just on the other side of our fence. It has also allowed us to participate more than in prior years. I’ve had the privilege to help weed sorghum and peanut fields. It makes me very thankful that I don’t live by the food I can get the earth to produce – and thankful for lower back stretches too! What a joy it has been to work alongside them in the open air and sunshine!
The mission also reserved a plot for some children the church is helping support as their mother was killed last summer and the father ran away from fear of retribution. A group of about twenty came to help weed their sorghum field. We spent the morning together, chatting, weeding, “keeping the line” of people, learning the names of plants and even animals (one of them brought me a little mouse and pronounced a new word I’d never heard before, telling me that it is neither the mouse that eats your toes nor the shrew that can’t cross the road without dying). When we got to the end of the field and someone told me there was no more sorghum planted among the weeds, I was ready to rest. I was very encouraged by those who volunteered their time and so thankful we were many!
We continue to see how the Lord is using this time to strengthen His body here. The church is in its nascent stages of developing a way to address diaconal needs apart from the mission. A small group of church members are meeting every Friday to discuss needs, solutions and ideas. Please pray with us that they would be filled with the Spirit in love, truth, creativity and energy! We’re very excited to walk alongside them in this process and see where the Lord leads. Another believer has also begun writing and recording psalms in Karimojong. We hope to include his songs with the sermons and audio Bible passages that are being distributed.
We are all getting a little stir crazy from the corona-instigated limitations. We pray as the church the world over is sorting through confusion, various responses, changing laws and constantly updated information that we would seek and follow the Lord’s will. May His name be honored in our thoughts, actions and words.