Today I preached twice. The first was the English service at the seminary, and then at 11:00am in an area called Saura about 7 miles outside Yambio. At 10:55AM, we were trying to "bump start" the seminary bus... (I don't remember if "bump start" is the correct name or not, we used to push motorcycles down a hill and pop it into gear to get them started. Whatever that is called, we have to do that with the seminary bus.) The only problem is that there is no hill at the Seminary!
When we arrived, it was about 11:20, and the translating pastor and his helper were sitting outside. There was no one else there. We sat around talking to them for another 1/2 hour, and people started to trickle in. The talk of that church was that a local Sauran pedestrian was killed yesterday by a motorcycle on the road. (Note yesterday's blog!)
Finally the service started. There were 8 of us from the seminary who went, the two translators, and about 5 people. By the time the service was over, there were 40 people plus us from the seminary for a total of 48. The people just trickle in whenever they want. The church was a somewhat-brick building with windows (no glass, no shutters), a tin roof, and a badly pitted cement slab floor. It was probably 60' long. There were wasps/hornets all over the altar area (I counted 8 mud hornet nests on my side of the altar alone). Fortunately, they just hover and don't mind us. There were also the normal lizards that came in and out (slightly large than the little brown lizards that we have in Arizona).
There was a baptism of a beautiful little girl today. (The mother was up front breast feeding the baby during the baptismal service!) After the service, the mother of the baby served a meal for the pastors and seminarians. It was rice and Casava greens. They eat rice like we eat potato chips, They reach into a common pan, grab a bunch of rice, squish it into a ball, and then dip it into the greens. There never is silverware. I chose to eat the banana instead!
Regardless of all of these differences, including the language, there is something special when you know that they are singing "What a Friend We Have in Jesus"!
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Eph 4:11-13
ReplyDeleteIt’s wonderful to hear as you share of your time in Sudan; how humbling it is as we sit with our “luxuries”; running water, indoor plumbing, a light to see what we’re doing after dark. Food!
You and your students are in our prayers, please be safe, all of you.
Will we even recognize you when you get home? It doesn't sound like you've been eating much, so you've probably lost some weight! It's hard to believe you've been gone for two weeks already. We look forward to having you return home safely. God be with you and your students as you finish teaching the book of Genesis.
ReplyDeleteI think "jump start" is the correct term, and oh to be a mosquito on the wall that day! I think I just about fell out of my chair laughing at the thought of that sight! We'll never start another service on time again!
ReplyDeleteIt is very comforting to know without a doubt that know matter who we are, where we are, what we speak, that "we have a friend in Jesus!