Would you like some cheese with that whine?

I remember a few years back when one of our interns came to visit and there was an unexpected illness or something like that.  Instead of coming to Dano and going out to villages seeing baptisms or indigenous worship services, they had to go around and wait in various doctors offices and had to take a taxi, because the car was in the shop, etc.  And my teammate Chad told him (now you get to see what ‘real’ missionary life is like).
Well, I’ve had a big heaping spoonful of ‘real’ missionary life this past week.  I was sick the whole second half of last week with I-don’t-know-what because the lab tech was gone from the ‘hospital’ in Dano for the week.  That’s about when the internet cut out.  Then I think it was Saturday night when possibly the biggest thunderstorm I’ve ever seen (and that’s saying a lot for this west Texas boy) came blowing into town.  That in and of itself wasn’t a bad thing (I praise God for the rain that means my friends can eat).  However, it knocked out our electricity while I was trying to cook in our outdoor kitchen.  The rain was going so sideways that it was totally flooding said kitchen.  Then our night guard who had come early tried to start the generator even though I was screaming for him to wait for me, because: 1) the generator has been a bit uncooperative lately, and 2) he was the replacement night guard and I wasn’t sure how well trained he was at starting it.   First he inexplicably decided to cut off the fuel line and, remarkably it started with the fuel still in the line, but obviously died  when he put a load on it.  Then he tried to start it again and broke the pull cord.  This meant I was trying to take off the starter unit and rethread the pull string and attach the handle, not to mention the fact that I was trying to do this with a low-grade fever in a torrential downpour.  As of the writing of this post we still don’t have internet, which meant we had to cancel some important skype meetings this week, etc.  Also Dylan got up yesterday nauseous and throwing up.  He wound up testing negative for malaria and is fine now, but . . . hold on a minute, let me hand you the kleenex. Oh, and I haven’t even mentioned having electric current in our running water, our washing machine overflowing, and our VCR (remember those things) eating tapes, except that now I have mentioned it.

Anyway, a friend of mine invited me to attend the facebook event post rapture looting apparently making fun of the prediction that the Christ is coming this weekend.  And then in a separate development, my teammate pointed out to me how he was reading a scripture that talked about how we should be acting as if all the stuff we own doesn’t really belong to us . . .

Today I read II Peter 3 thinking about those “last days.”  Peter makes a couple of really good points.  First, Jesus is really coming back.  Have you ever had someone break in your house and steal something?  I have.  He didn’t make an appointment.  Neither will we know when He’s coming, but be assured He is coming.  Second, all my generators, internet, health, family, etc. will all be burned up and practically meaningless someday.  What will last is whose side we’re on.  What are we really after?  Third, the only reason God lets us hold on to any of this stuff is that He is patient.  He’s waiting to see what we’ll choose, all this stuff or Him?  I can hardly write that down.  It’s so convicting and scary, but I think in it is redemption from this cycle of whininess.  God has let me feel how disappointing all my idols can be this week.  This lack of satisfaction in those things is a great gift.  I just pray for the courage to follow this conviction and really seek my satisfaction in Him today, and I can’t thank God enough for his patience with me now.  What gifts of dissatisfaction has God given you this week?

What God did While We Were On Vacation

Ngmin-puor (orange shirt) and Kuun-bora, the teachers
in the literacy class at the Pen-zaan church.

I handed out primers and readers at the literacy conference to readers from three villages two weeks ago, and then we went to our West Africa Missionary Retreat.  I told Ngmin-puor (good luck on the pronunciation) from Pen-zaan that we would be back to Dano the first week in May.  I assumed they would wait for instructions or at least some narcissistic part of me assumed that they would try with faltering steps and I would come in to save the day and "fix" their efforts at starting a literacy school in their church when I got back from our retreat.  Before I left for Pen-zaan, we started a new family tradition of my family praying over me before I head out.  I can't remember what everybody prayed, but I think Dylan prayed, "God thank you for living and stuff."  Daniel prayed that I would, "have a good time," and Andrea asked that I would show up in Pen-zaan to find that the class was already underway.  Andrea's faith was rewarded and that is exactly what I found when I got there.

The Beach at WAMR (West Africa Missionary Retreat) in Elmina, Ghana

We really enjoyed the palm trees and the surf at Elmina, Ghana this past week.  It was a time of relaxation and listening to words of Jesus spoken over us by our speaker, Ethan Brown from Lubbock Christian University (needless to say views like this aren't available in either Dano, Burkina Faso or Lubbock, Texas).