We had a nice service again at Bethel. The kids’ choir sang, and we loved watching all of our students sing and dance around the church to a drumbeat. I love that boys aren’t “too cool” to do that – even the twelve and thirteen-year-olds I tutor were up there doing a great job. I was amused with the announcements after the church service. Apparently it’s very African to be blunt about certain things. Pastor Mutentame told the congregation that they need to start working together to get chairs for the church and that they can’t expect someone else to come in and buy them. It wasn’t in a mean or a rude way – it was just very straight-forward. No beating around the bush for him. Then, a man (we think he’s the president of the congregation) stood up to jokingly scold the youths who didn’t come work at the church last week. He sent one of the members of the choir to stand by the gate and stop each young person who didn’t help last week. He threatened they’d be put to work today, but we’re pretty sure he was just joking. Again, this wasn’t rude, just very straight-forward. We appreciated it.
Rachel had the idea of taking pictures of our ladies with their families and printing them out for them. The ladies loved the idea, so we’ve been going around to each house taking pictures. I just have to talk for a minute about one of the nicest, sweetest, kindest families I have ever met. Regina and her husband Steward have such adorable children – Steward Junior and Brian. I have so enjoyed getting to know their entire family. Anyway, today while taking their pictures, I suggested taking one picture just with the boys. These boys are so sweet – they’re five and three and totally love each other. Steward reached for Brian’s hand and I captured the cutest moment between them. Ah! I just love those boys!
Pastor Sargent is letting us use one of his printers, which is the best thing ever. Having easy access to a brand-new printer is going to make planning so much easier. We spent our afternoon planning a little more for the week and went to choir practice at 3. While we were waiting, Charity, who could truly be a professional singer with her high, powerful voice, told us a story about how she broke both her legs five years ago. She fell out of the tree while picking fruit and shattered her right leg in twenty-five places and her left leg in five. The doctors here wanted to amputate her right leg, but Mrs. Wendland thankfully took her to the Italian hospital and they were able to set it. She wasn’t able to walk for over a year, but she made a full recovery. I can add good medical care to the rapidly growing list of things I’m thankful for.
Random, weird thing: When I was walking across campus, raindrops started pouring down me. One hit me so that was so huge and was coming down so fast it actually almost knocked the camera out of it. I took maybe seven more steps, and I was out of the rainstorm and in the sunshine. I could see it raining just feet away from me!
We’ve been here for three weeks now! Time’s moving very quickly. Thinking back to our bus ride down to Chicago seems like months ago, but it doesn’t seem like we’ve been here for more than a few days.
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