Sunday, June 9, 2013

"Tell Me the Stories of Jesus"

David and Goliath
On Friday, we taught Religion class and I was designated "narrator" of the story of David and Goliath (note: I learned after getting some funny faces it is pronounced Go-lee-ath in Kenya!), while Ashley "played" David and Taylor, Goliath.  It really is rather convenient when telling the story of the little shepherd boy David and the giant Goliath to have team members who are a foot apart in height!  We learned that "God is BIG" and "God is STRONG" (with VBS-like actions of course :P) and I wrote a simple song the night before that tells how we praise God by dancing, praying, waving, playing instruments, etc.  We sang while the children did the actions.  I wasn't sure if the teachers liked our lesson, but at the end they told us, "Very good! Now the children will never forget the story of David and Go-lee-ath!"
Mr. Bennet
I must also mention that we have acquired a new team member!  We climbed into the van, but after sitting for a few minutes, I heard a sound from right behind me.  I swung around to find a chicken in the trunk!  Where had this chicken come from?  We learned that our driver Richard had just bought the chicken at the market because it was 40% off!  We have affectionately named our new travel companion Mr. Bennet.  We learned today he will be accompanying us all the way back to Nairobi.
Sylvia a foster child, Ashley, Susan, Taylor, Me, Rose
Friday night, the NGO coordinator over the Western region of Kenya, Rose, came to Busia for a meeting and stayed in our hotel.  We were making macaroni in the kitchen for dinner, so we invited her to eat with us and try some American noodles.  (We bought the noodles in Kisumu, but at least they were made by Americans and had cheese sauce on them!)  On a tangent, we have an arrangement where every other night we eat in the hotel restaurant and on the other nights, we cook in the restaurant kitchen.  And as a result we are becoming friends with all of the kitchen staff here.  For some reason, they think we're hilarious.  They like to hear stories about American food and weather and what we think of Kenya.  I think they are also entertained by our attempts at cooking and the things that we cook…I must say it is rather humerous to cook noodles and canned vegetables in front of three trained chefs! Hopefully I'll get some tips! :) Back to Rose: we had an awesome dinner with her!  She told us all about Kenyan marriage customs, which include that if a man wants to marry a girl, he and his family must bring the metal head of a hoe to the girl's family, who gives them the wooden stick of the hoe if they consent to the marriage.  But if they don't, the man's family leaves with half a hoe!  I don't think I will ever look at a gardening hoe in the same way again!
This morning, we returned to Mudoma Baptist Church and taught sunday school.  After much discussion on what to teach, we settled on the story of salvation.  I was the narrator and it was incredibly fun to tell this story (as well as the story of David and Goliath on Friday) as I felt God's nearness, taking away my nerves and giving me a special clarity of thought and speech.  We then made bracelets with plastic beads representing our salvation through Jesus: Green = creation, Black = sin, Red=blood, etc.   It was so fun to see the children's excitement as we tied the beads around their little necks and wrists.
Our NGO Peter then "brought a message" to the children.  He stood up and began to preach, and I have never heard such a powerful account of the salvation of Jesus Christ - ever.  And I was also stunned.  Peter had actually planned independently to teach the story of salvation.  We had no idea he was even preaching when we planned our lesson!  Afterwards Peter said, "Isn't it amazing how the Holy Spirit works? That we choose the same topic for the same day! Thank you for laying the foundation for my lesson."  
     Sunday School Bead Necklaces with little Esther
During Peter's message, I was thinking of how the word "different" has infiltrated my team's vocabulary recently.  We really like America, and we really have come to like Africa too!  But nothing is quite the same!  The sprite is not bad…just different!  We order fish in America…but it's not proper to dig in with our hands!  And people go to school and get married…but hoes don't play a role! And yes, we eat chicken…we just don't normally drive 12 hours in the car with one before we eat it!  But as I listened to Peter preach and thought about these differences, I realized that in this world only ONE thing is truly NOT different.  It is Jesus.  He is the thread that that ties all of of humanity together.  In this sea of differences, the words from Peter's mouth today were resoundingly the same words I heard all of my life.  There was no difference.  And it's comforting to know that no matter where I go, the story of Jesus is still the same.  




2 comments:

  1. Thank you for being a vessel to bring the message of Jesus to Kenya!

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  2. Love reading these updates! Praying for your team. RC

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