Bible stories, baptisms, black clouds, and bubble-wrapped salsa.

We had a team from America come here for eight days last week.  It was great!  The focus area of the week was Kop, just about a 15-20 minute walk from Nudwa (where I live).

Mornings consisted of the telling of Bible stories, 42 in all, going through pictures on the Story Cloth.  These stories are all part of the BIG Story of God, and it was such a blessing to sit amidst the crowd as the team opened even my eyes to see how the thread of God’s desire for a relationship with His people goes throughout the Bible.  From the garden, God had a plan to bring His people back to Himself.  To His prophets, He declared the arrival of the coming Messiah who would rescue His people.  And when Jesus came, He died to undo the curse from the garden.  The Bible really is one story.  I now have such a desire to read through His Word from cover to cover and see it all again from this perspective!

Every afternoon team members helped me out in Nataragat by sharing the AIDS stories from the REAP Life curriculum.  I would introduce each story and lead the discussion.  It was great to see people respond to questions and ask their own!  They understood all we taught about AIDS and really enjoyed hearing the information come through folktale stories relating directly to their world. 

In the afternoons, we returned to Kop where a Bible story would be told and a discipleship lesson, such as one on fruit of the Spirit or what church looks like, would be taught.  One night included the showing of the “Jesus” film.  I actually grew up watching this film (I can anticipate the next musical interlude and yes, sometimes I still picture Bible characters the way they are portrayed in this film!).  But I have asked that God would open my eyes during the movie to see something I have not before.  He did!  This time I sat there in awe of Jesus who would pour so much of His life and ministry and time and love into Judas Iscariot, even though He knew from the beginning of time that Judas would betray Him and hand Him over to be crucified.  Love without expecting anything in return.  In Luke 6, while Jesus taught, He must have been thinking of Judas when He urged those listening to “love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back” (v. 35).  This is grace.  This is mercy.  This is real love.

At the end of the week, the choice was put before the group that had gathered that morning.  The choice to stay in their lives of sin, walking under Satan’s power, not listening to God or obeying Him, OR to walk away from their sins, trust in God’s power alone, listen to God, and obey Him by following Him with all of their lives.  A few men surrendered their lives to Christ!!!  One man even cut off his witchcraft bracelet!  And when taught about baptism, and how it is a symbol of dying to the old life and being raised to a new one in Christ, they wanted to be baptized!  A few of the young guys who come to many teaching with us also spoke up saying they also wanted to be baptized.  We walked down to the flowing river, and our translator for the week, Robert, baptized the first man, Lokware, and then Lokware baptized all the rest!!!  It was beautiful to see hearts turning back to God and to see faces of those who went so far as to declare publically through baptism their decision to follow Christ.  Beautiful.

The team has gone, and now it’s time to keep telling stories out in Nataragat.  Lucy has been helping to translate there so the work has not stopped.  {Our language tutor/translator, Emmanuel, has disappeared without a word.  Please pray that he runs to God, for God’s protection, and that he knows he is always welcome back here.}  But yesterday, when I went to try to tell story number 11, the gospel, the story of Jesus (for the third time—stopped by rain another time), Lucy was not there.  She is off at cattle camp. 

I hope to try again today, that is, if the rain stops.  I woke up to a serious downpour of rain on my tin roof accompanied by ear-splitting thunder and non-stop flashes of lightning.  The storm stopped in time for us to have our team devotional and meeting, but as I type this, the clouds have circled back.  It is so dark at 11:40am.  Looks like 7:30pm.

It is discouraging when things don’t go as I have planned.  But the Lord is teaching me to lean on Him when something gets in the way of my plans and instead to surrender it all to Him.  I love rain, and the ground here needs it desperately.  But they also need Jesus, and much more so than the crops.  God stopped me mid-step on the way to my tukel, “Alyssa, who sends the rain?”  Whoa.  “Well, You do, Lord.  You do.”  He gave me this song, “Reason for Rain,” as I thought through all this sitting again inside my tukel while it poured rain outside:

Here it comes again

Dark clouds overhead

Goodbye plans

Hello wind

Stayed up so late last night

Trying to get it just right

Lesson number three

I was on my way to tell

A Bible story I know well

Memorized wonderfully

Really wanted to go share

And come back and prepare

Lesson number four

But that is when

The breeze kicked in

And it started to pour

So I cried out

I said, “Lord, why now?

There goes all I’d planned

With the rain that’s fallin’”

And You answered gracefully…

CHORUS:

“Who talks to the sea

And set the boundaries for the tide

Who holds the key

To the storehouse where the waters reside

Child, for now, you must refrain

From telling that part of My story

Cause there’s a reason for this rain

It’s always for My glory.”

Got up early this morning

Still can’t stop this wondering

Why am I here?

Your truth I long to tell

By this waiting I’m overwhelmed

How will they hear?

The rain keeps on coming

The only sound is thundering

What shall I do?

Lightning across the sky

Keeps me asking why

Are you through?

So I cried out

I said, “Lord, why now?

There goes all my work

Crushed in the dirt”

And You answered patiently…

CHORUS

Bridge:

Every raindrop has its purpose

When it falls to the earth

Cause the God who lets it fall knows

How much each is worth

And even though each raindrop makes work

Nearly impossible

The God whose hand makes the rain come down

Is still on His schedule

He is still in control

And You answered me…

CHORUS

Cause there's a reason for the rain
It’s always for His glory

Here it comes again

Dark clouds overhead

Goodbye plans

Hello wind

When I got back yesterday evening, after finding out Lucy is at the nyawi (cattle camp), the Lord led me to recite His Word as I walked around the compound.  Soon after, the Lewis car pulled into the compound from town with action packers that just arrived from the states.  My wonderful grandparents, Gigi and Bobber, in Beaumont packaged up some goodies for me and sent it with the team.  I opened it, pulling out each piece with joyful tears in my eyes.  Some things smelled like my Gigi.  Made me smile.  I hugged the box of Honey Bunches of Oats.  I kissed the pretty paper.  I screamed when I saw the bubble-wrapped salsa.

Thanks be to the God who loves like our God loves.  Who knows each of us like He does.  Who went so far to gather us from wherever we were to bring us back to Himself.  Celebrate the new believers’ decisions, and pray for courage as they will face persecution from their families still in the darkness.  Pray for the young guys who took the next step and were baptized; that they’d be filled with the desire to hear more of and then follow His Word.  Pray for a language tutor/translator (or two!) for our team.  Praise God for the little things that you take for granted. 

Thank you for praying.  Those Bible stories were heard, the baptisms took place, the black clouds will leave when He so desires, and the bubble-wrapped salsa…well, it will be eaten and enjoyed down to the very last drop.

Here's some other great pictures from the week:

Elimu sound asleep

Fresh scarring

Me with some kids on the Lewis' porch

Lorum in Lolepan

Little boy in Nataragat

Carrie and I teaching the "hand jive"

Stares from the cutest faces

A game of "Nyateng, Nyateng, Nyemong" ("Cow, Cow, Bull")