Orientation Monday

Sitting at dinner tonight, Tim said something that sums things up..."I feel like I've already been here for a week". He explained that he had seen and done so much already, that it felt that way.

Today was a sleep-in day (breakfast was set for 8 am) because we would be starting the day by meeting the chief of Tinga as is customary for us to do since we'd be working in his village. The drive to Tinga was only about 30 minutes north of Carpenter, and I must say that I was very surprised when we entered the town!

David called Tinga a place of commerce...our Ephasus. As we entered the town, there were many attractive new buildings being built with brick and tin...much like what we would be building. Cell phone towers were part of the landscape and we saw a beautiful mango tree being cut down with a chain saw to make room for another build. Along the very busy main street, it was very unusual for us to see young children (aged 8-12) exchanging money with the vendors as they bought their rice sauce lunches that they carried in plastic bags or steel or plastic containers they brought with them. Familiar were the goats, sheep and chickens running around, but to see stores selling 'authorized chemicals' (whatever that meant) and most anything else you could think of, along with cars, motorbikes and trucks lining the street, was very different from the northern villages we have spent time in. One store was selling machinery used for crushing rocks into gravel, and the biggest surprise was that the vendors were Chinese!

Quite recently gold has been discovered just east of the town of Tinga, so it acts as a gateway to many getting in on the action. It really reminded me of the fictional historic novels I read long ago about the gold rush days with pioneers and settlers coming from all over to find their fortune. In this true story, the settlers are the Chinese who have rented space and built neighborhoods to live in.

All of that being said, it makes Tinga a very important town in the region. It is growing and developing quickly, and the church we are building and the people we are affecting through both building the church and in the time we spend with their kids in the schools is very important. The town is very Muslim, and the chief himself has just returned from Mecca... An Alhaja. That being said, I must say that meeting this chief was the best chief meeting I've been to yet! They were very welcoming, and his admiration and respect for David was overwhelming. He repeatedly shared how David is a caring chief who works hard for the people in his villages and doesn't do anything for his own benefit. The amazing thing to David is that although David is a higher ranked chief in this area, this highly influential Muslim chief had David, a Christian man, sit in his chair...a chair that no one else not of the Muslim faith should even touch as it is considered very sacred. Not only had this same chief and his elder invited David to stay in their best accomodations last April when David held a Christian conference there, the chief also offered that the church be built on some of the best land in town...right beside the river that divides the two sides of town which makes it very accessible to everyone there. The chief also spoke of driving through Subinso last May when we were building the church there, and when he was passing back through on his way home only a few days later the building was almost complete...he was very impressed and is thrilled that we we're now doing the same in his village and even said something about throwing us a party! Think about this for a second...a Muslim chief is happy and welcoming of us building a Christian church in his town. God works in mysterious ways!

Heading back to the worksite, we first took time to check out the river where not only do the villagers wash clothes, swim and fish the telapia that David (NEA) put in there, it is also home to crocodiles! Despite the presence of the crocodiles, the fish are thriving...again, God works in mysterious ways. These fish produce needed protein for the villagers and are part of the program that David plans to being to many more villages. Although we were warned of the danger of the crocodiles, this morning they seemed interested in nothing else but basking in the sun.

The floor of the church was not yet tamped or poured, so a lot of tamping, forming and hard mixing was done so that many wheelbarrows of concrete could be leveled to finish the floor. About 1/2 of it got done today despite our late morning start due to the visit to the chief.

The 10 of us that are working in the schools (including Brenda), made our way to the school where we met the teachers of not only the primary school that we expected to be working in, but of the junior high school as well (grade 7 to 9). We sat in the classes and asked to observe so that we would know how to set up our lesson plan to start tomorrow, but really we instead were the observed and created quite the distraction to their day. Donnie is of very special interest to the kids seeing as he himself is only 12. We then spent the afternoon pairing up, setting the schedule and assigning the classes. We will have our work cut out for us as there are only 3 teachers for grades 1 to 6, so while three classes are being taught, three classes are unsupervised and apparently doing nothing. One of the teachers who started in September, didn't even seem to know the kids names in his own classes, and another was home sick and never came in at all so we have no idea about what those classes look like or what they know or don't know. On a personal note, I am not a teacher...not my gifting...but I am willing, and very thankful for Bev and Joyce who lovingly prepared lesson guidelines and supplies for us, for Brenda who helped me pick story books to read, for Jacqueline who helped choose and teach me songs to use, and for Shawn (my co-teacher) who, being in his twenties, is familiar with the books and songs we will use with our Gr.6 morning and Gr. 7 afternoon classes!

Whatever work we are assigned to do in this next 2 weeks, we need to remember that the real reason we are here has nothing to do with the actual building or the lesson plans, it's all about the people. As it says in Ezekiel 3:15, "... I sat where they were dwelling. And I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days.". To really help them, we must feel their emotions and respond in love. God will do the rest.

P.S. Tonight after dinner, David shared that Gabriel's (one of the young pastors working with us) uncle died today, so he would not be with us for right now. This uncle suffered of a large hernia and although was on the list for surgery these past two years, fear kept him from showing up for it. It seems that this is what now caused his death. Pray for Gabriel and his family at this time as they deal with his very unnecessary death.

Until tomorrow,
Kim


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