Village life

So we just returned from our first village visit. Both exciting and frustrating at the same time, for sure.

We went to Uleppi on Tuesday evening and stayed through Wednesday morning. We taught all of our sessions and some of the other people with us and pastors contributed as well. Something I learn more and more every day is that I should never think that anything will go as planned. That is the opposite of the culture here, to actually stick to a schedule or plan. We started about 5 hours late, and went to bed about 2 hours late. But all in all, I believe the teaching went well, considering we were talking to people from the age of 3 to 45!

The biggest frustration for me was the fact that we were treated like celebrities in this tiny little village. They gave us seats in front of everyone, gave us our own latrine to use, and we ate when no one else did. They fed us the most expensive food they could have gotten (sheep), even though they only had the money to feed us twice. There were many little children and I so badly wanted to play with them and hold them, but they were so scared by me being a "mundo" that all I could do was shake their hand. I didn't feel like a real person, and I don't know how to love on people when there's that big of a distance between us. Please pray for us, that we would be able to connect with people in spite of the large gap that naturally occurs between us.

Overall, things are going very well. We love the people that we're working with, and are so blessed with their fellowship. Praise God for godly leadership, and the ministry he's already doing. I'll get back with you all soon :)