7/08/2007

kneeling for Nayahue

Well, it’s been pretty frigid here lately. We’re grateful we have a small cabin to try to keep warm as opposed to a big, spacious house. To the right is a picture of our little wood stove.
We got back earlier this week from a week-long trip to the village of Nayahue on the island of Butachauques. Things didn’t go quite as
expected, although i’m not really sure just what expectations i had. We went to teach in the school and have English and Bible classes with the children there. Also, we were to meet and visit with people. We arrived Tuesday afternoon. We taught Wednesday and Thursday, but the children ended up not having school on Friday OR Monday. Friday i played with a couple of the girls. Saturday, we had a make-shift English and Bible class in a small little empty house by the soccer field with some of the children. Monday, a couple of the girls came over and we colored Bible coloring pages after talking about Jesus and who He is.
We didn’t meet and visit a whole lot of people. We tried to make ourselves available, but this time of year, people generally just stay inside their homes, so when walking around, we didn’t see many people.

It was a challenging week. There is no plumbing or shower or running water and there is no electricity. But these things are just a physical challenge, and i didn’t mind them too greatly. It was the spiritual challenge… it was not having much to do all day, and at night sitting and watching 4 hours of t.v. with the family (families all use generators to watch television). But, this shouldn’t be a spiritual challenge…
Travis and i processed when we got back home. We can point out all the different things that weren’t right or that made it a challenge to serve there, but ultimately, the issue was that we didn’t bathe it in prayer as we ought to have. Oh, we prayed before going. And we prayed every morning we were there,
But did we intercede?
Were our hearts burning
for Nayahue and the people there?

Were our knees sore from kneeling?

We repented of this negligence and we are learning. Praise God for His grace and His renewed opportunities for all of us, His humble and weak children!

***
But we did enjoy our time with the believers there, and hopefully Tito and Sara will be coming to visit us and stay at our cabin for a couple days this month.
***

No comments:

"IF GOD CAN DO MORE THAN WE CAN IMAGINE, WHY NOT ASK FOR MORE IMAGINATION?" Dustin Kelm