This was reason one for our delayed response, but I have more excuses too, ha! Cellular signal was not great when we were in the city, but especially now where we are for language learning in the bush it is non-existent, if we drive 15 minutes or so in one particular direction there is a hope, so maybe you will see this blog, or maybe I am just writing to myself. Thirdly, power for charging devices is always a challenge but we may have enough generators and solar chargers to sort that out now. Our last excuse I believe would be time and self care, our weeks in Ngong were wonderful but taxing on our mental and emotional health to some degree. We were traveling to many houses and churches, visiting many families, and constantly having people to come visit us, that rarely was there a time besides at 11pm where Audrey and I could just be and process the day's events, much less have a quiet time. By the time we had made it back to the city for our two days of "rest" we had pictures to edit, audio of language helpers to edit, update and prayer letters to write, and shopping to do before we headed out to the bush. Needless to say, we didn't get much rest. I say this not to complain about anyone or anything, because I have loved everyone and every moment I have had here. I only say this to explain and to share a glimpse of our life here. However, one great thing about Olipishet where we are doing our language learning now is that most days (with the exceptions of market day and Sundays) we are not visiting anyone, just cooking, doing language learning with our one helper, cooking, practicing, maybe having a small conversation with the same language helper in the evening, but we are able to have some rest. We can process, we can just be in His arms without the added on cultural stress. Of course stress will come and we are exited to interact with people, but we are still getting our feet under us and our beaks wet. Continue to pray for us to have grace and love, to be filled by Him who sustains us and to be at peace as we learn and get adjusted. We are trying to come up with systems to better disperse our blogging and editing of media so it doesn't all happen on our rest days so be in prayer for that as well.
A quick devotion before to center us again before I sign off only sharing my angst and complaints, ha! Matthew 5- Beatitudes: blessed are those who are at the end of their rope, who have lost what's dear to them, who hunger, who are persecuted and who love unconditionally -for their trust is in God. Those who are prideful and striving for their slice of the pie now, are getting it. But it is the humble and loving who put their faith in God, that are rewarded. The second part of the beatitudes is what hit me though, I have always read this and it has probably hit me in part before, but I got more of the blow today. Jesus says and I am paraphrasing, "For you, my followers, are the salt of earth, if you do not have these characteristics listed above, if you are not enhancing the flavor of the lives of others, how will they see Me in you? Huge cities can't hide at night, you can see their lights from far away (can I see yours, from a distance, all the time?) I did not make you lights just to cover you up when it was inconvenient for you to shine, or when others were going to make fun of you. I made you lights so people could see Me in you. I have a hard time with this. It is easy at times to hide or to blend in when people are making blatant statements about Christians because of the hate and anger that some have shown them. It's easy to just stay quiet and look away. However, it does not seem to me that this is what Christ calls us to here. So be salt, be light, all the time, from a distance, and wear the weather good and bad, for this is who we have been made to be.
