(Pictures: Grace and our youngest neighbor, Ababu; Tom practicing his own guitar skills for Grace’s enjoyment)Grace has started to babble and tell us stories in a language all her own. We can’t understand a word of it, but we can see her deepening desire to communicate. We feel a similar struggle. There are so many things we would like to share with our neighbors, but our language is so limited. How do you deepen a relationship when you can’t communicate well?
We were reminded this week that our language is progressing and that there are other ways to get closer to someone besides words. We are steadily growing closer to our neighbor, who we greet every morning. This week she asked us to watch her little boy while she made a trip to the market. But the real fun came that evening when she called Megan’s name…
“Mama Grace,” Came the familiar yell. Megan answered and went to see what was going on. Out in her courtyard, Mama Ababu had all the ingredients out for making pizza dough! Papa Ababu has spent some time abroad and found a taste for pizza, so he asked her to make some. She had never made pizza before and was calling on the American experts for help. So with Grace and Ababu playing around their feet, Megan showed her how to ready the yeast and knead the dough.
A bit later the familiar call came again, “Mama Grace.” This time Mama Ababu wanted to introduce her father–in-law. Not long after that “Papa Grace” was called over as well and asked to bring his guitar with him. Mama Ababu’s father-in-law is an accomplished musician and treated our whole family to a small performance. He played beautifully. While he was playing another friend knocked on our front door. It was Tom’s friend Mhono. He came back and joined in listening to the young grandfather play—recognizing some of the famous songs he had written and even singing along at some points.
After a while the party broke up and Tom and Mhono continued a conversation back in the living room. They talked about their beliefs. Tom mostly
listened, learning about the upcoming holiday where people fast, but was able to explain a simple idea now and then about his own understanding of things.It’s said that experience is a great teacher. We think it is also true that experience is a friendship maker. We are so appreciative for these moments of sharing which draw us closer to our neighbors and look forward to the days ahead when we will be able to share much more.
PRAYERS ANSWERED
The same day that we posted our blog about water we noticed a marked change in our water supply and since then have seen a vast improvement in our water. Thank you for your prayers! They are powerful! Megan and Grace are feeling better too. Our planning for the new team is going well. We had a productive planning time at our team meeting.
PRAYERS REQUESTED
It is getting down to crunch time as far as finding houses for our future teammates and we have not settled on anything yet. We have seen some possibilities but each one seems to be lacking in a certain area. Pray that as we continue to look God would show us the perfect homes for our new teammates. Our new teammates have arrived in Africa and are attending an orientation conference for the next three weeks. Pray that it will
