January 25, 2009
Well I have now been in Africa 1 week! God has already been stretching, teaching and growing.
Today, I went with the other short termers (Ruth, Sam, Yohannes, and Philipus) to Onaladi, the poorest part of Gaborone. There we helped serve a meal at a meal site and then got to hang out with the precious kids for awhile. One look at these dear dear children and they have your heart for good. These kids were a little different than the others I had met so far, at the school we visited. The orphans at Onalady have been taught or have learned on their own how to survive. I could not finish my portion of lunch so I gave my plate to one of the girls, before she could sit down she was pushed this way and that while the other little ones were trying to rip the plate from her and grabbing handfuls of rice off the plate. They were very kind to me, but not so much to each other. One darling little girl came and sat down by my feet, she pointed at a few sores I had on my ankles as she looked up at me and I smiled and made a cringing face. That sweet heart then traced her finger around my foot and blew on my sores. This girl is an orphan, she comes to the meal site so that maybe she can get at least one meal a day, and she is blowing on my rich feet! I learned more from her in that 2 minutes than the pastor I listened to today for 3 hours!
On our way out, one of the guys friends named Lami gave us a tour of the village. Right after he finished explaining how Onaladi is a very unsafe neighborhood, there is quite a lot of violence and frequent robberies happen because the people there have nothing really to loose, and they are often hungry…our car broke down! It was quite humorous to me, but I held in my laugh for the sake of those around me. I was a little skittish about getting out of the car at first, but we were not stranded more than 5 minutes before the first little girl came to us. She came back later with a few more friends and before I knew it I was surrounded by about 20-25 little ones! So while the guys worked on the car, Ruth and I had a blast chillen with the kiddies. We sang songs, and I got some free Setswana lessons! They showed us their fruit that grows on most of the trees in their village called Malapo (its what they eat to survive sometimes) it was like a sour grape with a thick peeling, and for some reason they got such a kick out of me trying to eat it! It was a blast! Oh yeah the girls love to
touch white people hair so as soon as i sat down they had my hair out of the pony tail and were running thier fingers through! i ended up with a bunch of small braids...it was cool!
Yesterday, in my devotions I read 2 Corinthians 13 about Paul’s thorn. Paul cried out for God to take his thorn away three times, and for some reason God decided to not remove it. I often pray for my small thorns to be removed. Example: God please take my stomach ache away, God will you please help my face stop growing pimples. But God gives us thorns for a reason and His grace is sufficient. I often need to remind myself that I am not here to be happy I am here to know God more so I can worship Him more thoroughly. I am here to glorify Him, to bring Glory to His name. Nothing in our life is insignificant. Everything that happens is an opportunity for character development, to love more deeply, to depend more on God.
P.S I share a room with a lizard…I’ve named him Golegonnye (that means ‘little bit’ in Setswana) we get a long quite well J
Well I have now been in Africa 1 week! God has already been stretching, teaching and growing.
Today, I went with the other short termers (Ruth, Sam, Yohannes, and Philipus) to Onaladi, the poorest part of Gaborone. There we helped serve a meal at a meal site and then got to hang out with the precious kids for awhile. One look at these dear dear children and they have your heart for good. These kids were a little different than the others I had met so far, at the school we visited. The orphans at Onalady have been taught or have learned on their own how to survive. I could not finish my portion of lunch so I gave my plate to one of the girls, before she could sit down she was pushed this way and that while the other little ones were trying to rip the plate from her and grabbing handfuls of rice off the plate. They were very kind to me, but not so much to each other. One darling little girl came and sat down by my feet, she pointed at a few sores I had on my ankles as she looked up at me and I smiled and made a cringing face. That sweet heart then traced her finger around my foot and blew on my sores. This girl is an orphan, she comes to the meal site so that maybe she can get at least one meal a day, and she is blowing on my rich feet! I learned more from her in that 2 minutes than the pastor I listened to today for 3 hours!
On our way out, one of the guys friends named Lami gave us a tour of the village. Right after he finished explaining how Onaladi is a very unsafe neighborhood, there is quite a lot of violence and frequent robberies happen because the people there have nothing really to loose, and they are often hungry…our car broke down! It was quite humorous to me, but I held in my laugh for the sake of those around me. I was a little skittish about getting out of the car at first, but we were not stranded more than 5 minutes before the first little girl came to us. She came back later with a few more friends and before I knew it I was surrounded by about 20-25 little ones! So while the guys worked on the car, Ruth and I had a blast chillen with the kiddies. We sang songs, and I got some free Setswana lessons! They showed us their fruit that grows on most of the trees in their village called Malapo (its what they eat to survive sometimes) it was like a sour grape with a thick peeling, and for some reason they got such a kick out of me trying to eat it! It was a blast! Oh yeah the girls love to
touch white people hair so as soon as i sat down they had my hair out of the pony tail and were running thier fingers through! i ended up with a bunch of small braids...it was cool!Yesterday, in my devotions I read 2 Corinthians 13 about Paul’s thorn. Paul cried out for God to take his thorn away three times, and for some reason God decided to not remove it. I often pray for my small thorns to be removed. Example: God please take my stomach ache away, God will you please help my face stop growing pimples. But God gives us thorns for a reason and His grace is sufficient. I often need to remind myself that I am not here to be happy I am here to know God more so I can worship Him more thoroughly. I am here to glorify Him, to bring Glory to His name. Nothing in our life is insignificant. Everything that happens is an opportunity for character development, to love more deeply, to depend more on God.
P.S I share a room with a lizard…I’ve named him Golegonnye (that means ‘little bit’ in Setswana) we get a long quite well J
all the kids LOVE to get thier picture taken!
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