V-V-V-Village

7.26

We just got back from the village, and I feel SO much better! I didn't relapse to malaria, and my insides (after 7 LOOOONG days) are pretty much back to normal now! Praise the Lord (I'm not being cheeky, I really do thank God for healing me).

Let's see, the village... What do you want to know? Well, the best stories are left to be told in person, but I will give you a few snippets. The huts were nice, mine didn't leak when it rained. The stars were amazing, even brighter and more numerous than I can see from where I'm living right now. It's amazing what you can see in the sky when there are no lights on the ground. Oh, and as the stars got brighter, the bugs got bigger. One of my teammates found a beetle whose body was as big as a grown man's hand, fingers outstretched. The "feelers" were longer than 6" by themselves! Haha, the same guy had a run-in with a bat a couple nights later. He's a trooper though; he didn't even complain :) What else? Some of the animals know no boundaries, so you have to be on constant lookout for runaway fowl and stampeding goats! Possibly my favorite sight was a mule that was being taken for a joyride by 3 boys - bareback... (what else is there to say really? lol)

There were two other things I want to share with you. One is concerning a man, I'll call him Shawn, and the other is about the children in the village. Shawn deserves his own blog entry. No, he actually deserves to have a book written about him. But I will share part of his story with you next time. However, I would like to briefly explain what I saw in the children out there.
First thing to know, the children are numerous. The only investment the people have is their family. The bigger, the better because that means more laborers, more status, more people to take care of you when you get old, and so many more things. But, something you parents know, more kids means more mouths to feed, more responsibility, more time spent on the child(ren) and less spent on what you want to do. Out there, it means the same thing. But there's no doctor's appointments, no bandaids, no school, no babysitter... The only thing you have is family. So that means that when I child is too old to be carried around by his mother, he is left to himself while mom and dad work in the fields all day. They are left to their own devices. And frankly, they are blessed to survive age 5.
Malnutrition is too common, and I saw it so evidently in so many kids. Many of them have sores that won't heal. They don't get enough nutrition to enable their bodies to heal as a body was designed to heal. And so they walk around day to day simply surviving. That is their only task. Then, when they are able to work, they begin to help in the fields, tilling the land, driving the cattle, planting the seeds, pounding the rice, fetching the water from the well. And you know what their hope is? Their greatest hope is to survive and to raise a family who is able to do the same. Except there is one man who knows of a greater hope... Shawn. I'll tell you about him soon.

As you pray, consider your hopes and dreams. Consider your ultimate hope. And pray for those around the world who have not found hope. Ask that the Lord will communicate, in some miraculous way, His hope to the nations who do not know it.

Peace and love to you, my brothers and sisters. I'm looking forward to seeing you all very soon!