Although we returned to Alaska a couple weeks ago, the people of South Sudan and Uganda have not left our minds and hearts. How do you express in words the love that God has put in your heart for these people. How do you explain how much you miss the smile of a little boy named Oliver (Duku). There are so many stories to share from our time and we hope that you are enjoying them even after our return because really our hearts are still there.
Todays blog is a short story from my wonderful husband and partner:
This story is not really about Denver
& Stacey. We are not boasting here in what we did. If you read that in
these lines you are mistaken in your interpretation of what I am saying. This
story is about How God uses His people to show He is alive to others and How
Good He is to us all.
Often our opportunity to be led by
the Holy Spirit will be skirted with distractions that may have nothing to do
with the upcoming opportunity other than to simply get us off course and leave
us in a position where we do not listen to the Promptings of the Spirit because
we are focused on the distractions, or our emotions occurring as a result of
those distractions.
One day toward the end of our time in
Yei, we decided to take a walk into the village. It is a six mile round trip
journey on foot on dry dusty paths and roads. As we walked, we were greeted by
each person with some acknowledgement or smile or the more common children’s
greeting of “quacha (white person), I am fine How are you?” Of course it is
very easy to allow your reply to be reduce to the same “I am fine…How are you”
in reply once you begin to realize that this is in all likelihood is the only
English that person would understand.
A large numbers of older adults –
both men and women had little stick built road side stands set up as they tried
to earn a living by selling various items. After a while it became apparent to
us that most people were selling the same items over and over…..tomatoes,
onions, small bags of sugar or beans, some had a kind of dried fish or two.
Occasionally some had a drink of some kind or an offering of sodas to sell.
Most also had self-made charcoal in various sized bags. Some even had milled
flour or rolls they had cooked ready to eat.
The obvious question we began to ask each other was,” if everyone is
selling the same things, who is buying these item?” There seemed to be more
sellers than purchasers. There are almost no industrial jobs here in South
Sudan. One can easily observe mostly older men and women, lots of children, and
very few people in the 20 to 40 range. A few this age, have sewing machines and
have become quite good at “tailoring” Many younger men find employment driving
people around with their “Taxiing or Kubota motorcycles”. Although most people work very hard at the
daily routines of getting wood and water, food or making bricks, only a few
have jobs producing lumber from the
beautiful Mahogany or Teak wood natural to their environment. While we expected the shops to very unique and
specialized perhaps for tourism and local crafts these were very rare if not
non-existent.
In Africa, Time is not so important
unless you are part of an orphanage that depends on the bell to maintain the
day. It was in this relaxed setting that almost without sensing it, the Holy
Spirit began to lead us each at different time to do little things we did not
even recognize at first. Then little by little we became more alert to what was
happening.
It started with a lady with a platter
of bananas ask if we wanted to buy any as she walked by. At first we dismissed her, but retracted our decision
within a few steps calling to her that yes we would make a purchase. Why did we do that? We get our bananas at the
orphanage each day as part of our breakfast. What would we do with these? Then I decided to purchase a bag of rolls-
even though I personally had been Gluten free almost a year and a half. What
would I do with these rolls and bananas?
This continued with Stacey saying
lets go to that stand and buy tomatoes here or then another stand for onions; each
time the small price was so little- Maybe a USD quarter or so.
Once as we bought tomatoes, I said I
would also take a bag of g-nut sauce the locals make. The grandmother aged lady
running the stand spoke out loud. I know she said, ‘We have been blessed by the
Lord Today”. I heard it but then again I
did not really quite hear it either. SO, I asked her to please repeat what she
said…of course she did not understand what I had spoken, but eventually we
agreed she had in Fact said, ” that she and her man had been blessed by the
Lord, God because Stacey & I had bought 3 Sudanese pounds of product from
them. Not being able to resist, I replied in agreement…”Yes, You have been
Blessed by the Lord today….as we handed her a small but generous tip to go with
that Blessing in Hasus name (Jesus Name).”
By the time we turned the corner past
the Taxi park on the edge of town our bags were heavy with little food items.
Soon we passed a tukul that had an
empty platter sitting on a box out front. Two ladies sat in the shade not
noticing us as we past. That is when I heard the Holy Spirit say in my spirit
turn back and give them the tomatoes………It was so faint I almost did not
recognize it at first, yet as I obeyed unquestioningly I knew it was His
voice. Stacey had stopped and turned to
watch as I retraced the 20 feet to the platter. She told me as I turned from the platter to
walk back to her side the two women ran to recover the tomatoes and dances with
obvious joy in delight of the provision.
Yet one more stand stood beside the
path before we turned from the road to walk down the small path to the
orphanage in the ½ mile distance. Why would we stop? Stacey had hoped for a
soda. As she located and purchased it from the man behind the stand, I sensed
an unusually strong desire to buy some beans and dried fish from the lady
remaining outside. I could not imagine what I was doing at the time. Why would
we want these local delicacies?
Yet it was so much like the rest of
the day. So much like the rest of the trip really….very much like the day in
Fairbanks before we left home when we were looking for 64 pair of shoes for the
Orphans At ABBA House in Entebbe…like when we felt we should buy this pair of
shoes “extra” that were not on any of our lists……you just grow accustom to
knowing there is a reason you do not understand so you follow those promptings
and trust the Holy Spirit is speaking something you do not understand at the
moment….something you will shortly realize had a precise target and reason just
a little way done the path.
Having completed 51/2 hours of this 6
hour walk in 100+ degree sunlight with dust from head to foot- Our hearts very
warm with God’s refreshing love from the days adventure in giving- we turned
down the final trail toward awaiting cold water, soap, and a nice cold shower
at our dorm just ½ mile away carrying two bags of food that grew heavy in our
arms; food that we did not knowingly need.
Half way down the trail, it was there
again. That faint voice. Almost not a voice at all, but a growing sense or
desire to do something for no apparent reason or preplanned knowledge. Stacey
wanted to go visit Egba. For some reason I did also so we ventured toward the
tukul; the home of this older lady.
We would never have met Egba except
for our friends Bruce and Joanne Carter. Several years earlier they had visited
this orphanage and during their visit our dear friends had taken the time to
think of us by returning with a special gift basket made by this precious
little lady. Now my wife Stacey & I were standing in the very same African
home of Egba.
Just two weeks earlier, Bruce, Stacey
& I had stopped to visit her family. We found Egba was not in good health
during our prior visit, but she had still managed the strength to sit and talk
to us and take pictures together. Today, at the Holy Spirits leading we were
lead to the same family without any prior plan to check on this dear lady, who
was now bedridden from sickness.
We were able to pray with her and
encourage her with the offering the Lord had supplied along the way. God knew
His widow lady had a need and directed our very steps along the way to bring
supply refreshing her and her family. What a loving special family they are.
Like all Africans were met along the way.
The thrill of this experience was
seeing God walk by our side and Bless many people yet at the same time weave
together a masterpiece of our daily bread while it is called today. Our prayer is that Jesus, our Great High
Priest, can move His whole body to hear His voice each day and be His hands and
Feet to care for those in need and give them the desires of their heart.
