Brooks
- The market. Hundreds of women sit on the ground with stacks of tomatoes or greens or cassava or those that can afford it, have stands where their wares are neatly piled for easy viewing and hopeful purchasing. Most of them have carried their enormous bundles of capital on their heads for great distances, often with a baby strapped to their backs.
- Women. Mamas have left for the day searching for long sticks of firewood in the forest or walking the long distance to market to sell vegetables or buy beans. There was no food to cook for breakfast for her children or herself and no lunch will be eaten. Dinner will be cooked when she returns around 4, starting with laying a fire so hours later she and her children will have their first and only meal of the day.
- Children. Tiny, tiny little girls with a baby securely wrapped on their backs meander around the village spending their day idling looking for something to do. Their main job, even though they are so young themselves, five to 10, is making sure the siblings beneath them are taken care of. Their mothers have left for the day.
- Play. We were delighted to happen on a group of boys who had made various types of drums from tin cans, cloth, a hide, string, anything they could find. They were under a tree rhythmically tapping away singing and dancing. The talent was amazing…I couldn’t help but run over and dance with them…to their delight!
- Witchcraft. It’s everywhere. It’s culture. Superstition. A chief of the community (a territory of homes) explained how his father and his grandfather had kept a huge, very long, very big snake (a poisonous mamba snake). This snake must be fed and worshipped every day. It lived in the huge tree outside their home. That snake (and the ensuing babies) holds all the power to their health, finances, happiness and well being.
- Lake Tanganyika. Often I saw buck-naked children jumping from rocks, splashing in the cool water and fishermen casting enormous nets circling their prey with dozens of men and women standing on the shore cheering and shouting, just waiting to collect the fishes to sell at the market.
- Sexual Abuse. Prevalent. Incest. Prevalent. Rape. Prevalent. AIDS. Rampant.
- Physical Abuse. Husbands hit wives. Wives hit children. Children hit each other. Beating is normal.
- Community. Neighbors help neighbors. Money is exchanged often. If you have it, you share it. If you don’t, you receive it. There’s a level of obligation to help each other that is honoring and respectful, a “we need each otherness” that is inspiring to my self-sufficient, independent heart. One day you need me, the next I need you. We are there for each other. We are the same; we cannot exist alone.
- Joy. Have you seen an African dance? If there is rhythmic sound, there is movement. They cannot stand still. Something is moving. The head, the hand, the feet, the shoulders, something. And, sometimes all of him at once. My body does not move like that. I try, but it just doesn’t. They don’t try at all; it just happens. It’s in them, like blood. Music is part of life, an expression of joy…that means I’m happy! All of me is happy and I can’t express it any other way than to dance!
- Men. Men circle. They cluster in groups everywhere. They walk hand in hand. They touch each other’s shoulders. They hug and laugh and show genuine delight in meeting each other. They cannot talk without touching to emphasize and exclaim, “You know it!” or “Right on!” or more importantly, “I’m glad you get me and I get you and that we’re friends!”
The scenes are endless…East
Africa is unique, unlike any other place on earth. It’s majestic, and
expansive. Time seems to stand still for what’s important. Community is
expressed in a thousand different ways, each one of them leaving me in
awe.
I don’t know why, but I am always surprised when I come across blatant lies in Christian blogs.
A lot of this, I guess, is intended to cash in on all the new bloggers that start a blog every single day.
Originally,
I wrote this guide for myself, so that I would remember all the steps
involved to taking my book manuscripts from a Word documents, all the
way through editing, typesetting, and design, to the ultimate goal of
putting the books on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Apple iBooks.
Approaching
people with Bible verses and theology has never worked for us. The
people we know don’t want that. They want someone who will listen to
what they have to say. As my dad once said, “Good talkers are a dime a
dozen. Good listeners are tough to find.”
Whether
it’s a major illness, loss of a job, a new baby, a promotion at work or
major problems with the kids, people want someone who will listen to
their stories. Sometimes we run into these folks when we’re walking in
our neighborhood, at dances and even at the store. We often have other
plans. It is so easy to brush off these opportunities, but we have
discovered that listening to people when they want to share is one of
the best ways to get to know them and build relationships with them.
Want
to be the church in your community but don't know? Here are some posts
which not only explain what it means to be the church in your community,
but also gives concrete, practical examples of what it looks like and
how to be the church whatever you do and wherever you go.
Remember, you ARE the church, and wherever you go, Jesus goes with you!