Blessings
A young woman from the states came to Africa on Christmas Eve and brought for Tom and I a suitcase with 30# of wonderful delicious thoughtful American foods, kitchen gadgets, candy, work shoes, spices, Christmas cookies and love. We picked it up last evening and put it in our back packs real fast from her suitcase. (so we wouldn't have to share) Funny how selfish I am with stuff that you don't believe you will see more of. I think it is called hoarding...We brought it home on our bikes and put it all on the table and looked at it real long and hard. Then I started tasting and feeling what packaging is like and imagining what I am going to do with all this new stuff. Tom took a picture of our cupboard with everything put away.
We felt proud and like “life is good” with all this stuff... We called our friends and family and talked about our stuff and our gratefulness. Today we had the young girl and her research partner over for lunch and she brought another blessing. She plays violin and showed me some things I need to know to be able to play better. (So the rooster quiets crowing when I practice and the cats quite coming to see who is in heat). Isn't that just like God blessings blessings blessing even when I continue with a greedy selfish heart. I feel as though he is trying to show me by example how to be generous and remind me of all the richness there is to share. For some reason I keep wanting to hoard. Even from Tom... I justify “He has his coffee's” I can eat his jerky or chocolates or whatever is parceled as “his because I don't have specials.. Get where this is going? Right back to selfishness. Being in Africa it show me so much more how afraid I am that the blessings will stop. Kinda like when the water quite and we had to haul and now the power is out and we have to conserve.
I don't see the selfishness in the Ugandans they share everything and anything they have. (Which isn't much) I guess when malaria, hepatitis and tuberculosis are everyday diseases you really don't count on tomorrow as much as I do, at this point in life. I am even older then the average Ugandan. They die at 52. So where is this going? I don't know, maybe confessing it makes it a bigger reality to keep on eye out for, but I am still not ready to share those peanut M&M's...
Thank you all for the blessings you give me everyday! For the time you take to correspond, the phone calls you sit through with me, the packages you put together and sharing your lives. I miss you all and didn't really think I would to this extent.
From Christmas eve I enclosed a picture of the hostess (Sherry) of the Christmas eve candle light and star service and ice cream social with 28 flavors of home made ice cream, and Betty my getting to be very good friend from Phoenix who I find great comfort in talking with.
Christmas day pictures are of me in the kitchen like always just a different kitchen. George, a PCV living with the brothers at the Cathedral boarding school wanted to do a pork loin on a charcoal fire and Betty and I and Tom made the rest of the meal. Included are pictures of us cooking with Rose the young girl who knew how to cook on charcoal as that is all there is at the kitchen of the school. The pork roast dripped onto the charcoal and caught fire and the outside was really char coaled but we licked it up anyway all 14 us.Boxing Day is the 26 and a holiday here. In the UK and Canada people box up stuff to bless others with and also do there Christmas returns by boxing them up to give away. We had Betty over for potato soup and rested and today was a fun run at the Youth With A Mission complex down the road. I am not running but the kids and I walked for 5 kilometers and that was a good way to say hello to morning. Right now, it is still about 80 degrees in the house. Someone went back to the states today for furlough and left us their solar shower. A large black bag you put on the sidewalk and let warm up during the day, hook up to something high and has a plastic nozzle head you can open and have a warm shower with. It was lovely. It is 7 pm and the mosquitoes are busy chewing on me. I hate crawling into bed but it is the only place with a mosquito net. We have screens but they still manage to come in the doors where there are no screens. The power is not on, the computer battery is almost gone, but we all well fed, well loved and enjoying the stars as they shine so bright here with no artificial light. It is also quite. With the power out the Ugandans can't play there music. Merry Christmas!
A suggestion for your church or book group. WHEN HELPING HURTS by Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert a book about how the western world sees help and how come it fails in the 3rd world or the majority world as it is called in the book. It also talks about the people that come to the church door for help and what the best way to HELP is. Excellent read and short but so thought provoking and insightful. Makes me and some of my missionary friends ponder how to do blessings here. More to come on the subject.
Love from Africa, Marcy and Tom
One last picture. The people across the soccer pitch playground are moving tomorrow so they are cleaning out. Bugs are a constant struggle here. They must have found a few or many cockroaches in a couple boxes they had put away as the man of the house come s out and throws these on the steps and the chickens immediately come to eat. Thought you would enjoy the picture
. Oh Yea here is a picture of Tom too!