Dear Cherished Interested’s, September 24th 2024
Spoke with Hilda about 3:am as she was washing up after
supper and heading for sleep. Her day
included checking up on young people watching out for her. Two young people who work out at the Weld
County Airport. They are trying to fit
in finishing high school while working the small restaurant there. They work for a couple who are senior to both
Hilda and I who run the kitchen, the young ones work front of house while
ducking into the kitchen once in a while to help with piles of dishes.
They message Hilda to check on her. She went yesterday morning to check on
them.
Then off to a conservative Presbyterian church that no
longer uses the Presbyterian name but calls itself a community church. It was the eldest Presbyterian church in
Greeley, over 100 years old. Those folks
have TZ missions connections already and Hilda has been there most Sundays
since I left. Who knows where or what
when we are together again. I am glad
she has community that doesn’t look cross-eyed at her or runs away from communication
that includes service so very far away right alongside their welcome of street
people into worship and the fellowship hall.
I was wrong about the wall outside. Only enough rock to become the base of the
footing. Then solid concrete block about
6 by 10 by 20 inches and about 2 meters tall.
Before the gentlemen got here to continue their work this morning, about
a dozen monkeys in a troupe of all different sizes were lazing around here and
strutting along the top of the wall there.
So there is now a rising monkey highway where once was shrub.
About 4 to 10 dollars a day for sun-up to sun-down wall
raising, depending upon age and responsibility for the mafundi, craftsmen.
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Went to a predominantly European enclave, south of Usa River,
where wealthier folks gather for a kind of tailgate market. I went to check on my pharmacist who had no
order to bring me but has had life stuff that he trusts me to talk with. People needing him were waiting for him. So I walked a little and ended up helping a
Malawi-ian woman selling baked goods..
Laugh now.. I helped her for about half a second with her Swahili. And she was grateful.. HAHA!
So, my pharmacist is tending his customers having brought
orders out from Arusha and as this is Africa, he is also free to guide those
coming with medical or psychological troubles on what to try next. As soon as one leaves another one comes for
help.
As I wait in the truck a young little mountain woman
carrying a well fed white baby filling her arms, detours slightly from
following the baby’s mother to come to my window. There she propped her burden on one hip to
take my hand with one of hers and call me by my mountain name.
I don’t know which church.
She knew who I was and was pleased to drop her English and rattle on
with me in super-simple Swahili-Meru.
Prayer was wanted. Prayer was
given. I still don’t know what we talked
about. Comprehension has not been gifted
me. Can you believe that I am seen as
safe? That’s crazy and may be proof that
I am not seen at all. That may be proof
of amazingly accepting hearts of folks for whom Hilda and I may have been the
only white faces ever to be in their church.
While leaving with her white employer she turned steeply around placing
her hand, fingers all spread open, on the car window at her side, to look me in
the eye with a guarded expression. I
returned as best I could with my pale raised one. She looked as long as she could. You never know. Prayer given.
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The working people, guards from campus, send one of their
number, one of the men, over at night while the wall is in process. He walks through the working piles, turns to
look into my window just once with a big thumbs up, then stops on or where the
wall will be. Moving around quietly
some, but looking out away from the little house while hovering in front if
it. He is there until relieved. They leave with daybreak. No, I have never paid them anything. Only shared the same printed message, with
whoever is on duty, at the two gates to campus that the mama’s and children get
each Sunday.
Your prayer does this.
Thank you.
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The book of messages written from Tanzanian Lutheran Church
lectionary in two languages is still in process but nearing completion. I only have three lesser festivals for
December to write. Three more are
already with Hilda for approval before moving on to the editor
translators. These messages are from the
latest American Lutheran worship book, red, with readings as assigned there
from the calendar therein.
Closing Africa house and returning to Hilda I pray will be
easy, no matter how impossibly hard. Deserting the loved ones there is extremely
painful. Perhaps, with today’s tech, it
won’t be as complete a desertion as it was in the past. We’ll see if there is interest here for
connection in the face of perceived rejection.
Long way to go, still.. Your prayer deeply sought for this work
too. Thank You.
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Keep our feet to the fire, please. Thank You!
We may live dangerously, but we are alive. Thank you for praying us the courage to live
this way, if dangerously. We don’t see
it that way.
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You who read and pray and suffer
along with us. Please believe what we
get to see. Thank you for praying our
strength and guidance for each moment with each face. Folks
like you are beyond precious.
Really blessed while deeply
under attack.. all of it is
spiritual.. I wish I could teach that to
everyone so they could truly know it. I
didn’t know it for far too long.
Please keep crumpling us up and
throwing us at God. That is where we
need to be. God will sort us out.
One day at a time.
Just like how you each live. Just
one day at a time.
Thank you, each of you.
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What to Pray for:
Our armed forces families, our leadership, our people, whole
world round, all of Gods kids -
All the tough and blessing expressed above –
The love of folks –
Whatever is on your hearts and minds for us –
For our children and grand-children who miss us?..
For Makumira Secondary School looking to share stories and
partner in some way with a foreign school, Great leaders, teachers, students,
programs, strong backs, minds, and hearts –
For our health to stay ahead of whatever is before us –
For each and every one of you –
Each and every one of your prayers, your precious
conversations with God –
Prayers, Your Prayer, Even your groaning prayers makes all
the difference..
Vern W
May life be as Music to your Heart – May Music be as Heart to your Life –
May Heart be as Life to your Music
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