Christmas Retold...

It is Christmas Eve. In an hour and a half I catch my ride to the airport. I am headed to Europe for a couple weeks. It will no doubt be quite an amazing trip. But it is so odd.

As I packed I played Christmas music. I stopped to open a few presents. I left one unopened. I know what it is and know I want to take it with me. I'll open it tomorrow. My mom sent me some stuff. I should see it around January 2.

Had a bad stomach day again today. A true African Christmas!

Wanted to give you this link. This guy writes some pretty cool stuff. Be warned it is not as sweet as we might hope. A couple cuss words slip in...but it seems pretty true to tale. I've only read part of it...I'll finish tomorrow in my personal Christmas celebration.

Real Live Preacher - Christmas Story

I'm a bit worried Santa may not know where to find me.

Special thanks to Jason and Christy and the gangs at First Waco and S. Russell. It was such a blessing to open your mail tonight. Glitter is everywhere! Love you guys! Thanks! Also got some great gifts from Dad's side of the family. I am blessed!

Merry Christmas!

The Phone Call...

I just got of the phone with the family. It was so good to talk to all of them. No really I think I talked to all of them. Sure enough breakfast had just finished. They were about to start the morning presents. T. told me she got in trouble last night. She was waiting on me to take my turn. I missed out.

They shared with me it snowed. Almost all of them told me it snowed. Dub, my granddad loved it. They got 14 inches or 12 depending on who was talking. I guess some people talk about snow the way they do their golf score or the fish they caught.

It was a tough call. I miss them. I love them. It is neat how being away can do some fun things for bonding. The phone call was tough because the connection was bad. Somedays it is great. Tonight it was awful...big delay...lots of static. I felt like I was six talking on those old walkie talkies that had more static than voices.

It was so good to talk to them. It ushered in Christmas for me. We tried to do so here. We put up decorations at a house. We watched Home Alone last night. But my Christmas was ushered in with the phone call from my family. Dad's side will get together soon. I am blessed.

I am blessed to have family that loves me. I am blessed to be making new family in Africa. I am blessed.

Almost Christmas...

Christmas Eve is in about 5 hours. That seems so strange. I am sitting in my apartment waiting for the phone to ring. I think my parents plan to call in the next few minutes. It has been a while since I have talked to them.

Today has not been fun. This is the first time I have really sat for a break. I ate once today...no twice. The first time I had three cookies at an appointment. The second time I had a cinnamon roll at another appointment. I guess to be honest I should add that I had another bite of food. My friend Christy visited here with me a year and a half ago. She lived in Mali for two years before that. While here she told me she thought she could eat anything...until she came here. Well, the food isn't that bad, but it isn't great either. Those who know me know I am what you might call a "meatarian" (okay so that isn't really a word). But I dont eat veggies. Well actually I eat lots of potatoes but somebody keeps trying to tell me they aren't a vegetable. I don't think he knows what he is talking about.

So they have this strange tradition here. They like to force feed you. They call it a gorsha (bad spelling) and claim it is to show friendship. Honestly I think it is because they either don't like the food themselves or are full. So tonight my friend, a priest, gave me a gorsha. Yuck! I have no idea what all I ate, but sure enough I ate it. I also quickly moved for a Pepsi. There wasn't a bit of meat in it though. i'm still burping peppers or something of the sort. So if you count that I guess I have eaten three times none worthy of being called a meal. All that to say; it has been a busy day.

This is a tough time. Christmas is in two days. Tomorrow I leave for Europe. Tomorrow fellow Americans and I are having a Christmas dinner. I miss my family. It seems I should be home at my grandmother's. This morning (night here) they likely had a big breakfast complete with sausage, bacon, biscuits, eggs, gravy, maybe even country ham. After breakfast they will gather in the den. All...I can't count anymore...will gather around the room and rip into gifts. As always my grandparents spent too much money. Afterwards everyone will try on clothes and play with any items not to be worn. They are possibly all wearing matching pajamas since that is what we all get the night before. If it is a good year, several cars will head towards the movie theater and they will fight over what will be the movie to watch. They skipped lunch so they'll get sick on a giant tub of buttery popcorn.

I miss my family.

But I have a wonderful opportunity. If in the midst of traveling I don't forget to recognize it is Christmas I will have a chance to celebrate the holiday like never before. Thus far I have four unopened presents. I was already told what one of them was but nonetheless I am saving it. Usually Christmas is spent with far more presents than are necessary. Even four sounds like too many living here. I am not with my family I rarely see; I am not gorged with food. I am here alone. Sure I have made great friends, but at this time my Christmas is between me and the birthday boy. If I slow down and pay attention I will have the chance to celebrate the birth like never before this year.

I will miss the traditional Communion at LOFBC. I will miss the hugs and the gifts. I miss my family and my friends immensely. But I am here in the midst of living into the Kingdom. I am in the midst of a call that is bigger than gifts and family and food. It can only be described as a call to eternity.

Merry Christmas!

The Countryside...

Tuesday I returned from a trip. It was my first trip to the countryside since I have been here. The town is about two hours from the city. Thankfully the pavement goes all the way to this town in which my friends live. Just beyond this town the pavement stops. However the only paved road in the town is the main road. All the others are dusty dirt roads.

I don't know the best way to explain the vast difference that exists between my city and the countryside. It is almost like living in two different worlds. My friend Mark moved from Baltimore to Texas to go to school. He talked as if the transition was pretty tough. It was hard for him to adjust to a knew way of life, new assumptions, new traditions. The countryside here is even more extreme. There are more languages in this country than I can count. And there are numerous different tribes or people groups spread across the land. On the two-hour trip we took I was in the midst of four different peoples. That means they would each have different traditions and ways of living. There is some overlap but also great distinction.

Life in the countryside is peaceful. The pace of life is slower. In the city it is easy to go back into an American fast-paced lifestyle, with of course some differences caused by the third-world. Most of the time I was out there the electricity was out. I was in one of the last towns were electricity stretches in that direction.

It was a good visit. It was peaceful. It was refreshing. It was needed. I wish I could have stayed longer than the couple of days I was there.

I rode out in a car with my friends. I came back on the bus. I was terrified. I had heard only nightmare stories about the buses. My adventure on the bus revealed so much about the people here.

The buses don't leave on an exact schedule; they leave when they are full. We got to the station a little before nine. I had been made aware some buses are much better than others are. We tried to scout a decent looking one that was yelling the name of my city. I bought a ticket; it costs just under $2 USD. It looked like it might be a while so we told them we were going to go across the street to a café and wait. My friend Ben told me they would come get me when they were ready to leave.

We sat for a while and talked about what it looked like for people there to join our family. There are so many difficulties. We saw the bus start to pull out. It came around to a gas station where they loaded some large burlap sacks on top. The bus still didn't look full though. We waited a few more minutes and decided to go ahead and go wait at the bus.

When I bought my ticket the seller promised to reserve me a front seat. This isn't because I didn't want to sit near people. It is because typically the only open window in the bus is the driver's. All of the other people are terrified the wind will make them sick. Actually many of them vomit riding this way. We got on the bus and waited...and waited...and waited. We watched two other buses to the city pull in front of us, fill up, and leave. It wasn't looking like my bus was in much of a hurry. We chatted with nationals for a while, played with kids, bought a bottle of water. Actually we sent a kid to buy the water for me.

Eventually the waiting got to be too much. Ben went to see if they would put me on a bus that was actually leaving. He came back quickly and said, "Get your bags, hurry." We ran up to a bus that was literally pulling out. But they had one more seat. After a brief argument between six people of whether I could get on the bus, I climbed up the stairs and away we went.

That whole front seat thing...didn't happen on the new bus. I was in the very last seat. It was a bench stretching from side to side of the bus. It was five or six feet long and six of us were crammed in it. Buses here aren't made for Americans. We are typically both fatter and taller than they are. The seat in front of me sat so close that even sitting exactly upright my knees were up tight against the metal backing.

As we pulled out I had to buy another ticket. Somehow the transfer wasn't completely successful. As we pulled out there were about three windows open. One was right in front of me. Everyone started yelling at them and the windows were closed. Interestingly one man then turned to me and I think asked me if I wanted it open. Of course I did, but I also wanted to suit their culture. I said it was no problem. Just after that they chose to let the man in front of me open it again. It was a Godsend. I even got cold on one piece of the trip.

The man who wanted his window open seemed to be a bit more educated then most. He was in a blue oxford shirt and dress pants. He had brought a newspaper with him. He was pretty friendly. I assume he spoke some English but I never heard it. The two guys to my left were pretty quiet. I never heard a word. One slept. The other gnawed on sugar cane. It looks like a small piece of firewood. It is about 2 inches in diameter and about a foot long. He would peal the outside off and chew on the innards. Then he spit them into the floor after all the flavor was gone.

To the right sat a guy who was actually with about four or five who sat in front of me. At least two of them were Muslim, I could tell by their attire. They were all clearly together because they shared the local narcotic with one another. It is a leaf that they chew on. The numbers that partake in it here are overwhelming. It takes a lot of it to get a buzz so many spend all the money they make and then some trying to suffice their habit.

On the far right were two guys that I think must have been brothers. They looked a lot alike and shared a bag of traditional snacks together. They even shared some with me.

I tried to speak with them a bit. But my ignorance limited the conversation. I tried to sleep a bit. At one point I even pulled out my iPod. Imagine, not only are they staring at me because I am the only white guy. Now the white guy has a little white box with earphones in his hand.

The guess was that the two-hour trip would take about three and a half by bus. Luckily it was uneventful; I made it home in two and a half. It was a fun journey. I think I'll go somewhere by bus again sometime soon. This time I might take a friend though.

I love this place. I love these people.

Sacrifice...

[Listening to: She Must and Shall Go Free - Derek Webb - The House Show (3:16)]

Tuesday I was with a national friend. He is an amazing man. He started his own business, led almost all his employees to the family. Now he has a piece of the body meeting each week in his house. He does incredible things.

They just finished Acts and John. Now he wants to lead them towards the OT. I have been pondering on his words since he mentioned them. I asked what books. He mentioned two different ones based on their call to sacrifice. He said that no believers here are willing to sacrifice anything. They are all taught that joining the family is about blessings you receive.

This land is desperate. I wonder if we (Westerners) did that blessing thing to them. I don't remember many sermons on sacrifice. I didn't preach any either, I don't think, it is a good way to not get invited back. All of our favorite books in the Bible and at the bookstore deal with all the great things we get by believing. Not many tell us that God might decide to kill off our family (Job). We aren't often told we might get so frustrated with how different God is than what we expect him to be we might kill ourselves (Judas). We aren't told that we have a good chance of being hated by everyone and eventually killed (most of the disciples). We aren't told God might ask us to kill our son, only to change his mind at the last minute (Abraham). We aren't told that we may get run out of our own home and have to live in the desert for a while (Moses). We aren't told that it may mean we have to wander in the wilderness our whole lives (Israelites).

Instead we read that we will have peace in all things. We read that our inheritance will be multiplied. We focus on jewels in crowns and blessings from above. Now I am not making the claim that there aren't wonderful blessings for us in the kingdom. My claim is that they don't look the way we expect them to. My claim is that it seems clear in the Bible that believers get more sacrifice than blessing. In the annals of our tradition it seems that a mark of faithfulness was persecution. Many of the great bearers of truth sacrificed their life, their family's lives, their freedom, their respect, their power, their authority, their wealth, etc. for the kingdom.

My friend is upset because no one here sacrifices anything to be called a child of God. It hurt me to think of how much more they sacrifice here than I ever sacrifice...here or at home.

After all of that, is it bad to say I got a new refrigerator this week? I was pretty excited about it. It has a freezer. I can actually fit Cokes and leftovers in it!

Good Intentions and Dinner Guests...

I have been meaning to write for a long time. Last week was a great week, for so many reasons. First the runs were gone...nough said! Second I have had some great conversations with old friends and new ones. Great things are happening here. I continue to say that, because I don't know the words to explain the wonderful things that are happening in the hearts of people. Great questions are being asked by me and by the nationals I get to spend time with.

But tonight I decided I had to write. Let me apologize, this isn't a story original to the country, it is just kinda neat.

Just before leaving the states I met a girl who was headed here. We had a chance to share together and encourage each other in the states. Now here we hang out every now and then. She lives with some people doing some great work here in the city. They have been great to welcome me into their home.

So tonight I am headed to one of my regulars for dinner. It is close to the house and reasonably priced and good food. As I was walking down the street I thought, "I need to call Jess and see how her trip was." Before I did so I saw Linda (the lady she lives with) at the restaurant. Since I was alone Linda invited me to come join them at their house for pizza, they had guests. Come to find out two of them are a bit famous. They were on this fairly popular TV show...The Bachelor 5. One of them won.

Jessica won and Jenny was the spy. They became friends. Now they are spending a couple weeks over here. Now is that strange or what?

I'll write some more original stories soon. Thanks for you faithfulness!