Monday in the Mud

Well, today was quite interesting!  It rained all.night.long. so we had to delay our departure to the village because some of the roads were impassable.  The roads are very sandy and somewhat rocky, so after some time, we set out for Tarikpaa and made it there just fine.  A few places in the road were washout out, but not impassable or even covered in water.

Today was the day we had planned to go to four different villages to deliver grain to widows and orphans.  This grain is from the maize field that was planted last season with the support and help of donors in the US and in partnership with Shalom Baptist Church.

We made formal presentations to three widows in Tarikpaa and then set out for Yipilegu, a village about 20 minutes away.  After going through parts of the path that seemed impossible to get through, we were driving along at a steady pace when all of a sudden the left side of the van sunk deep in the sand.  Two hours  and many village men later, we were finally pulled out by a tractor.  It was amazing to watch the teamwork that went into trying to get the van unstuck.  Men from all over just started showing up with shovels and machetes.  They cut tree branches and put under the tires, along with rocks that were picked up from the nearby field.  Many of them, including Pastor Mohammed and Pastor Issah, were covered from head to toe in mud before it was over with.

While the men worked on freeing the van, the girls, including Suyuhini and Dorcas (Pastor Steven's daughters) walked the short distance to a nearby village to play with the children.  Most of the older children were in school, so we had about 50 younger children to play with.  Someone (Tayler?) got out bubbles and the fun began!  I don't think I've ever witnessed such joy on the faces of children.  Watching the children run and squeal, trying to pop the bubbles as they floated in the wind, was priceless.  I don't know who it enjoyed it more, the village children or the team members!

After some time, the van was freed and we were able to visit two more widows and present the grain. It was an overwhelming and humbling experience to sit and listen to the widows explain the significance of receiving the grain and how it would help feed their children during the "lean" times.  They have such profound gratitude for something that seems so small to us.  It is not even possible to write much about this and explain it very well.  Things like this take time to process, so hopefully there will be a future blog post that can do it justice.

The day concluded with a revival service at Shalom in the evening.  The team had so much fun dancing with their African friends, especially Elisha and Mishael.  The preacher reminded us that we are witnesses, which was very fitting since today (Tuesday) we are going out to do village evangelism.

Please continue praying for the health of the team and for boldness, without fear, in witnessing.