Outreach...

Brett and I have been back from outreach going on two weeks and I’m finally at a place, St. Lucia Wilds, where I can take my time and begin to blog more about our outreach and the way God used us, corrected us, loved us, provided for us and those we served…basically what God did! I’ll be going all the way back to April 10 and my prayer is that you enjoy reading about our journey and that you take the time to share it with others.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Today we started having breakfast with the family…Petros, Elizabeth and all 16 kids! We had a breakfast of coffee, tea, bread, jam, butter, and cookies. Raines (pronounced Highness), our leader for this part of outreach, has prepared breakfast today. Now you may think it doesn't take much time to prepare coffee, tea, bread and jam. But let me take a minute to remind you that we are preparing for 27 people, there is no power, and we heat the water on a two burner propane stove. By the way, we have to get up at about 5:30 in order for this to happen AND we’re about 30 minutes behind the rest of the family getting up. Let me explain a little more here. At this home everybody works and I mean EVERYBODY! Every single member of the family has a job. One has to get up and get the fire started down in the “hot house,” which is where the water for baths and washing dishes is heated in a big pot. While that’s being done, someone has the joy of making sure others are getting awake and getting the buckets ready for baths. In the midst of all this, we’re in the kitchen trying to prepare breakfast. Ever heard of organized chaos?! This was it! As all the kids come in to have breakfast, its such fun listening to Raines ask if they want coffee/tea and how many sugars. Some of the kids, Grace, love about 4 sugars and Raines gives her a hard time! There is so much happening…kids eating, kids eating and getting ready at the same time, family jabber and joy! It makes getting up at 5:00 very worth it.

We have quiet time from 7:30 until 8:30 and then get ready to do ministry for the day. Today we’re not doing “spiritual” work but physical work. We are heading down to cut corn stalks in a field that Petros and Elizabeth have planted. Reminder here…Petros and Elizabeth live on the side of a mountain…walking down means, sooner or later, there’s a walking up! The walk down takes about an hour. The view is amazing but you have to be careful not to forget to watch where you’re walking at the same time…cow poop! I walk with Elizabeth and we just take our time, walking and talking about the Lord and her life. If I've learned one thing in life it’s that it’s important to follow the lead of the person who’s been doing this the longest. When Elizabeth didn't get in a hurry I knew I needed to pay attention! Our work waited for us at the bottom of the hill, across a road, and through a field. We finally got to our destination and got to work. Petros had already decided that we would work until about 1:00 and get as much accomplished as we could. We took that field by storm! The job was to cut down the corn stalks, saving what corn was on them, stacking the stalks and, in the meantime, keep an eye out for the pumpkin that had also been planted. There was laughter, there were tears, and there was fun. Going to be really transparent here…while we didn't know it at the time, this was also a time of learning how to squat to…well you know!! This lesson would come in very handy in Malawi, but you’ll have to wait to hear about that! The part of the field that we cut would have taken Petros and Elizabeth about three weeks to clear if we hadn't been there to help. It took us 2 ½ hours!! Remember when I told you what goes down the mountain must walk back up the mountain? Well it’s time! Took Brett and I about an hour and a half to get back…not because he walks slow, but because I do! Thing is, I was pretty pleased with the fact it only took that long since I was the oldest one there and that mountain was STEEP!!

Got back up the mountain and it was time for a bath. This should be interesting…two tiny buckets and me. There was a bit of a fight, I think the buckets thought they were going to win, but in the end I figured it all out! There was a bit of downtime and then we were heading down to a small group meeting. I was hoping that we were not going to have to walk back down and back up again and we didn’t. However! The small bakkie (truck) that picked us up was made for two in the front seat and we had three! Everyone else was stacked in the back of the bakkie…literally stacked! Down the mountain we go! When we got to the small group, we were ushered back to where they were meeting. There were stacks of shoes outside the door and we all took our shoes off and went in. This was not to be! The weather had turned cold and we were meeting in a room with a concrete floor. Before we knew it our shoes were being brought back in and we were being “loving” told to put our shoes back on. We tried to refuse but there was no arguing. I grew up the daughter of preachers kid/usher and for some reason I find it important to have an approximate number of those in attendance, so I counted…8 women and 33 children! 33 CHILDREN!! Talking with Petros on the drive back, I learned that many of the children that were there are actually orphans and they choose to go to this small group!

This group is studying the tenets of faith and the Pastor’s wife was trying very hard to get the group to answer questions about what they’ve been studying. I think they may have been a little intimidated with us there. We were asked to give a testimony and a word of encouragement. Ronny, one of our African brothers who comes from the local community Kabokweni, gave his testimony. He grew up without a father and he encouraged the kids to learn about God and make Him there Father. Ronny is very animated and he has such a way with the kids. They are just drawn to him and he ministers on their level in words they can understand. It’s quite beautiful. When he finished, I gave a word of encouragement from Jeremiah 29:11. It seems God gives me that scripture any time I’m in Africa and I believe He does it because He knows the people here need to be reminded that God is their hope and He has plans for them. There was a woman that I looked at, took her hands and told her “God has hope and plans for you.” She was so receptive! It was in that moment that I “felt” the Holy Spirit. Yes, I know the Holy Spirit is always with us, but there are those moments when “feeling” Him is so tangible! I believe that He wanted to do more in that moment but, I didn’t want to overstep my place. I believe He did a great work in her!

We head back to the house and get a few minutes of down time before we have our one on ones with the children. My one on one is with Domsile (pronounced Dom see lay). I haven’t quite figured out exactly which child belongs to Petros, which belongs to Elizabeth, which belongs to both or which ones are orphans and so I mess up with my very first question…is Elizabeth your mom? “No, my mom died in August. My dad lives in another town and, since he couldn't take care of me properly, I moved in with auntie and uncle.” At first I thought that would be it and she wouldn't care to talk to me anymore, but she continued to share her heart. She misses her mother greatly and the stories that her mother would tell her about life. She said her mom would tell her stories that applied to life and how to live a good life. She would tell her how important it was to focus on her studies and NO BOYS! I reminded her that she can always remember the stories her mother shared with her and that her mom would very proud of her. I also reminded her to focus on her studies and NO BOYS! She laughed, which is one of those laughs that make you laugh! From here we head to small groups with the girls age 15 and up. Raines has planned our every moment! LOL At small group we decide to talk about what we did today. We laughed as every one of them told every single detail of their day…even down to when they went to the toilet! We had to poke and prod to get them going, but they start LOOK OUT! You’ll never know what you’re going to hear them say!

After small group is dinner. Dinner is cooked the same way breakfast is and by oil lamp. I didn't write down what dinner was this particular night but I can say this...it was eaten as a family! Everyone comes together for dinner and family time after dinner. There's singing, dancing, scripture, and prayer. When is the last time you did this with your family? Imagine 16 kids and 11 adults doing "break one." This is something the family does that is similar to a hand jive! It starts with break one...easy enough. Break two...still easy. Break three...so far, so good. Break down...wait! What?! Show me again! Only took me almost the entire time we were there to get break down but the little ones do it like breathing! So much fun! Especially when the little ones look at you like you have two heads because you don't know how to do it! Lots of laughter!! After dinner and family time, the kids need to do their homework. Since there is no power, the kids also have to huddle around an oil lamp in order to do their homework. This may change!! Small tease!!

There will be more added as the next five days that we're in St Lucia pass by. There may two or three post a day but I pray you'll take the time to read all about us and our journey. If you would like to partner with us please follow the Donate link above. We truly appreciate any amount!