I apologize for the lack of communication over the past week - I spent about half of it in Kampala for a conference on the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (with the foremost doctor on the subject in the world), and didn’t have my computer with me, and I’ve been very busy since getting back. That being said, I’m in a rush now and this will be short!
Yesterday was the Kwejuna Project food distribution, which takes place every three months, and 230 HIV+ women gathered, along with their babies and relatives. We weighed the women and their children, gathered medical history information, talked to them about coming to the clinic for treatment, and Skip, Barb, and Kisembo (the local pastor) prayed for and lent a listening ear to women who are struggling with rejection, blame, and fear. It was a fascinating, depressing, long, fun, and challenging day. Just like everything I write about, the emotions I feel don’t fall neatly into any one category. At the end of the day we distributed beans, oil, and salt to the women who had come - all in all, we gave out over 5 tons of beans. It was good to experience, as I had been working on planning and preparing for this event, and I slept very well last night after carrying dozen of bags of beans.
I have a lot of stories to share, but no time right now. Will update soon.
3 comments:
Nathan:
Five tons? You might want to think about eating some of those beans yourself. The pictures don't lie: you're definitely not getting fat.
My blessing on you...
Dear One,
I had know idea that you would distribute all 5 tons of beans that had been delivered. No wonder you slept well.
What a wonderful way to become exhausted -- loving others.
I pray for you throughout my days and nights.
The Lord bless you and keep you...
Maybe it's better that you take a little break from frequent corespondence and immerse yourself there. By now you have been there over one month and the shock factor would overwhelm me. I imagine (without to much presumption) that a few days of isolation from us could be a good thing to acclimatize you to the incredible sense of remote isolation and powerlessness which you may feel. Nevertheless, you sound and look as though you are taking advantage of your youth (and God is too) while you may be comparing your childhood with the experience which those children around you may be experiencing... I was reading Oswald Chambers the other day...you might like this-
Beware of allowing yourself to think that the shallow aspects of life are not ordained by God; they are ordained by Him equally as much as the profound. We sometimes refuse to be shallow, not out of our deep devotion to God but because we wish to impress other people with the fact that we are not shallow. This is a sure sign of spiritual pride. We must be careful, for this is how contempt for others is produced in our lives. And it causes us to be a walking rebuke to other people because they are more shallow than we are. Beware of posing as a profound person— God became a baby.
To be shallow is not a sign of being sinful, nor is shallowness an indication that there is no depth to your life at all— the ocean has a shore. Even the shallow things of life, such as eating and drinking, walking and talking, are ordained by God. These are all things our Lord did. He did them as the Son of God, and He said, "A disciple is not above his teacher . . ." ( Matthew 10:24 ).
We are safeguarded by the shallow things of life. We have to live the surface, commonsense life in a commonsense way. Then when God gives us the deeper things, they are obviously separated from the shallow concerns. Never show the depth of your life to anyone but God. We are so nauseatingly serious, so desperately interested in our own character and reputation, we refuse to behave like Christians in the shallow concerns of life.
Make a determination to take no one seriously except God. You may find that the first person you must be the most critical with, as being the greatest fraud you have ever known, is yourself.
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