Our trip could not have gone more smoothly – easy flights, entertained children (read “happy”!), got all of our luggage at the other side – thank you, Lord! For dinner we ate at a local restaurant near our guest house, and the kids smacked lips over fresh mango juice. The next day we spent in the city running errands and the kids got to play with some other MKs at the guest house, which is a rare treat for them. On the road early the next morning, as we got out into the countryside, Riley began to chant, “We’re back in Africa!” and Duncan joined in. When I announced the Benin border, Riley cut loose at the top of his lungs “Yaaaaaaaaaay!” After another hour or so we turned onto the dirt road leading to the farm and the boys could hardly contain themselves – it was so fun to see. We got home around 1:30pm, and the kids spent the rest of the afternoon reacquainting themselves with all their toys, while I unpacked and Matt set to work on getting the solar system working while we still had some daylight. He was able to get the fridge running, and we had power all night for the kids’ fan. Yay! It was not long before the farm kids came round, and the boys had a ball playing and running around outside – freedom! Soon the interns and farm workers came to greet us, and Bridget immediately gave Wo-wo (Robert) and his fiancée, Antoinette, big hugs, and then was overcome with shyness. Great to see everyone again!
The next morning, wanting to conserve power, I washed my face by candlelight. As I was splashing, I heard a sputtering sound. Assuming some water got on the candle, I raised my face to look at it on the sink (where the soap usually goes), but there it was, shining serenely. The sputtering continued, so I finally looked up into the mirror – my hair was on fire! I hurriedly patted it out, then began pulling out all the charred bits – ugh! Thankfully, not too noticeable.
Duncan has already complained of being hot and sweaty. Hate to break it to you kid, but plan on feeling that way for the next 20 months, most of the time…
I began to read a biography on Eric Liddell (of Chariots of Fire fame). I cannot believe what he and his parents and siblings had to go through, the sacrifices they made back then. When Eric was 5 and his brother was 7 (same ages as my boys now), their parents and sister (3) left them in a boarding school in England. They would not meet again for 7 years, during the next furlough. Boy do I feel blessed that I can home school. We have it so easy these days – and I think it has made us soft. It is rare to see nowadays the grit, determination, perseverance and hardiness of those pioneers.
Due to some recent virus and worm activity over at the main MOJ website, we’ve just added a new page to this blog that has all of our newsletters – past & present. If you have the time & inclination, feel free to browse our past newsletters.
We just safely arrived here in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso last night with no hitches. True, there were some delays with the flights, but since our connections were well spaced there was no problems. The kids did wonderful, they had great fun playing video games and watching G-Force and Tigger over and over on their own personalized screens while Sarah and I got to watch a few films we hadn’t been able to see while in the US (thanks Air France)
We’ll be spending a day or two here before driving down to Benin. I have to pick up some new batteries for our solar system and some other odds & ends while in the big city.
Thanks to everyone who continues to pray for us and thanks also to those who sacrificially support us.
More news on loneliness just released from Reuters, USA Today, the Washington Post and others. I wrote in an earlier post about this and my own observations since being back in the US this furlough, but as we enter the holiday season it moves further into the spotlight.
Loneliness increases a person’s likelihood to mistrust and to fear, setting themselves up for a further fall. The study reveals that people on the periphery are pushed out, “On the periphery people have fewer friends, yet their loneliness leads them to losing the few ties they have left. These reinforcing effects mean that our social fabric can fray at the edges, like a yarn that comes loose at the end of a crocheted sweater.” (Reuters) Studies and experience demonstrate that societies tend to “shed” lonely people making them even more vulnerable.
However, the Church is called to embrace those who are hurting, even if it is uncomfortable to us. Jesus called Himself our Friend and contrary to the natural way of the world, His holiness and His righteousness are contagious. Jesus never fell sick touching the sick, rather the sick were healed by His touch. (NB – not His latest post)
Loneliness is always heightened during the holiday season, but it is a growing swell within our society – a swell not slackened by Face Book or blogs, but by the touch of Christ. We all need to be Christ and reach out to those on the periphery, while some need to receive Christ and receive His touch through imperfect members of His Church and come in from the cold. A hug or a firm handshake go far for the hurting, it’s a lifeline that reminds them of their humanity and of their importance to humanity.
I was so blessed last night to be able to tag along to a David Crowder concert last night with my sister-in-law. It was a great show because it was so worship oriented. I haven’t been to too many concerts, like 3 in 40 years, so this was a lot of fun. The lights and the crowd were great.
Additionally, they introduced a “new” 7th member to the band which was pretty awesome – a robotic drummer, “Steve.”
After several of my sermons, people have been asking how they can make a difference which is a good question to ask. One concept that I exhorted people to do was to live on a wartime economy, Ralph Winter writes about this, which describes the contingencies undertaken to mobilize one’s economy for war production and to sustain the conflict.
World War 2 demonstrates the commitment that the nation made to end tyranny, a lesson the evangelical church could re-learn today. Lowering one’s eyes and hoping that it will all go away will neither solve world poverty nor the incredible number of people groups (6,000+ at last count) without an indigenous Christian church. (check out the Joshua Project’s link to the right…)
Everyone can and should be actively participating. Aside from tithing, which most disciples of Christ should at least be doing (more is even better), believers should avoid the trap of increasing economies. Many people can actually live on less than they are spending, but as income increases inevitably people seem to increase their spending. Setting aside those people working themselves out of debt (whose causes could probably be better examined), many people could set up a ministry fund.
What I mean by this is to do something similar to what we do in Benin. Each month, on top of your tithe, set up an automatic transfer into a special savings account that is dedicated towards Christian ministry. How many times do we see an opportunity to help someone or some mission, but say to ourselves that “this month we just can’t see how we can help.” But by having a savings account with automatic transfers, there will always be something in there each month. On top of that, we learn to live on less – which is for most people more than possible with a little less coffee, or a little more patience to wait for things to go on sale, etc. I don’t mean to over simplify what may be a very overwhelming problem in some people’s lives, but in a world where over 1 billion people go to bed hungry every night and 3 billion people live on less than $2 a day, I think we can learn to get by on less and be more intentional on building the Kingdom of God. I leave you a few more WW2 posters that I found…
Well, here we are in Denver, beginning our travels east. We will be here for a few days with Matt’s family and then we will spend one more month in DC both with Sarah’s family and our sending church. Then on Dec. 10th we will be flying off to West Africa one more time before we leave Benin semi-permanently in Sept. 2011. I say “semi-permanently” because I am planning to visit Benin 3 times a year from 2012 to 2015 to continue teaching training modules as well as assuring our Beninese family that they are not abandoned.
Thank you Wyoming for the blessings of your fellowship!
I had meant to make a new video for our church presentations, but the project grew too big for my “film production” skills, so I decided to just post bits & pieces. Here’s an interview with one of instructors at the Rural Training Center where we are equipping Beninese church leaders not just in biblical studies, but also rural development skills. This video is also over at Tangle.com where we have a few other videos posted.
