Christmas Blog,
Greetings all,
It is currently around 37 degrees and it feels odd to think that it’s almost Christmas, as I would normally be well wrapped up at this time of year, not putting on Sun tan cream. The village is becoming more populated as people are returning home and a small Christmas tree has been erected at the front of Church, although it looks somewhat out of place.
One good thing about the increase in temperature is the decrease in mosquitos, at one point I was getting ready to take down my mosquito net. However one night whilst asleep I felt something on my foot, which was sticking out of the mosquito net and looked up to see a rat, the result was a flailing of legs, yet I am proud to say that I didn’t scream. Needless to say the mosquito net has remained in place as a rodent net.
Since school broke up I’ve been working for Steve (the missionary who owns the compound I live on). The work has involved helping build a new house to accommodate medical teams and transporting a 40ft container with a 20ft truck. The School exams all went well with some signs of improvement, but nothing amazing. Now that more people are returning to the village for holidays, football practices have become frequent, yet I am struggling to really get to know any of the guys who aren’t in the school very well and don’t know how to go about talking about the gospel with them, so any prayers (or ideas) regarding that would be much appreciated. The team was getting ready to play another local village however the other team backed out for some reason, I said it was because they heard I was playing but Jamus and the other guys didn’t seem too convinced. The language lessons with Jamus have been going well and we recently translated the Apostles creed together into Lopit (the name of the language) as I felt that the church might benefit from it, as the beliefs of those who attend can at times be dubious. Having spoken with one of he pastors he has agreed that we can introduce it the Sunday after Christmas, I pray that it will be helpful.
I was recently troubled by the question of whether I should move into the Village or not. Right now the compound I live on is on the edge of the Village and I don’t really get to live among the people 24/7. However I was uncertain whether I would be able to hack it. There are often weddings and funerals in the village, which last 3 days and involve a lot of drums through the night, those of you who know me well know that I don’t function too well without sleep, so I decided to stay put. I am going to try and focus on working with a group of young guys who live on the Africa Inland Church Compound and hope that if I can strengthen their faith, that they could be the ones to help the other villagers. From what I have seen the Majority of people here see white missionaries as a way to get money or advance technology, not as bringers of good news. So my hope is that they will listen to their converted brothers. Prayers that I could get alongside the guys and see what God wants me to do out here would be helpful.
I am sad to say that since my last blog my roommate Adam has returned to Germany, I am grateful for having the time to get to know him. Meanwhile my other roommate Elijah has been having an eventful time. It was about 3 weeks ago that Ellen Fox an American Missionary living up in the village came down for dinner, once dinner was finished, because it was Dark Elijah and I took Ellen back up to her house. On the way we bumped into a Local girl who was about 20 I would say. After introducing herself she followed us for a short while, she then took Elijah by the arm and began to Serenade him with a Song that I didn’t fully understand as my Language isn’t good enough, however the gist of it was obvious enough. After walking like this for two minutes with Ellen and I in hysterics and Elijah looking very scared the girl stopped singing and halted, then turning to Elijah she asked him for soap, as another missionary later said it was quite a cheap date.
I hope you all have a happy Christmas,
Yours in Christ,
Chris
Hello! This is Elijah's second sister Abigail. :) It's good to hear how things are going there; we all enjoy reading your posts, and it gives us extra details of how we can better pray for the mission. When we got to talk with Elijah on Skype, he too was telling us how difficult it is to share the gospel with the people there, and how needy the church is for strong doctrine. His comments on the spiritual state of things there reminded us of an excellent sermon by Paris Reidhead, a man who also worked in Sudan. If you haven't heard it, I would really urge you to listen to it: http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=10180222445 as it seemed to describe the situation there very accurately, at least going by what we've heard of it. It has been one of my parent's favorite sermons for many years. I do think that translating the Apostle's creed is an excellent start in addressing the need for true doctrine!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like the rats keep life sufficiently exciting during your leisure hours... I think I would keep the net up too! My family laughed when you said the bit about not functioning well without sleep, as we have one of those people in our house. (me!) Tell Elijah that he has been much in our thoughts and prayers, and I hope you all had a merry Christmas and will have a happy new year!
Greetings Chris, our parents left today and will arrive there in early Jan. We trust that you'll help them get situated- can't wait to hear about your adventures together. --The Parker Kids
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear from you again. Praying for you, and wishing all the best for the beginnings of this year!
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