We walk out the gate. It is already dark. There are no clouds, and the stars look
like diamonds way up high in the sky.
Even the white swirls of the Milky Way appear above us. We make our way in the dark with
flashlights, carefully avoiding the puddles full of water and the wet mud that
lines the path.
Our
friends from the school hear us, see our flashlights, and run to join. We continue walking to the
village. I duck slightly as we
enter the village through the door in the fence. Here we watch extra carefully where we step; the cows are in
the village for the night and there is manure. Everywhere. Mud
mixes with the manure, and no amount of vigilance can keep it from our
shoes. We make our way through the
houses and goats and granaries and fences.
I make a wrong turn, and my Toposa
friend’s voice calls out in the dark, “You always forget the way, Nakai.” We laugh. Someone else leads me between two houses; I duck again under
a stick that protrudes from the base of a granary. She needs no light.
I follow until we make it to Lino’s nakwal,
his area in the village where he lives with his four wives and many
children.
We have come to share stories from
God’s Word. It is Tuesday night,
and they know it is time for the Story Cloth. Women—those who have already heard all the stories and
desire now to teach others, schoolboys and girls the same age, little ones that
love to greet me over and over again, and even some men gather around in a
circle. Lino brings his plastic
chair for Carrie, and Maria brings one for me. Maria worries when Mindy is left standing. She brings a big jerry can, and Mindy
sits. The flashlights turn off.
I smile as I listen to the laughter
and greetings going on around me.
Lokoyo begins to clap his hands.
All clap to his beat. He
sings. All sing…
“The power of Jesus is strong.”
“I want to follow Jesus, no turning
back. The world behind me, God
before me, no turning back.”
“My good friend Jesus wakes me
every morning.”
“God, who made the stars, is
greater than all things.”
“There is no other person like
God.”
We clap our hands, snap our
fingers, jump up and down, march in celebration, and lift our hands, because
“Jesus is Lord.”
Then, Lokoyo stops clapping. Silence.
Lokoyo asks someone to pray. Lopio quickly volunteers. All are quiet. He prays, asking God to heal and
provide food and protect the people at cattle camp. He thanks God for his power. He prays in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Carrie unfolds the Story Cloth, a
cloth with forty-two pictures representative of forty-two stories from God’s
Word. Lokoyo holds the other
side. Davis positions the
flashlight from where he sits in front of the cloth on the ground. He turns it on and points the light on
the pictures. His friends, the
schoolboys, closely surround him, side by side, sitting in the dirt. Beside them are the little children,
some of them already nodding their heads and trying to keep their eyes
open. Behind them are the women
and the men, forming a ring around the younger ones.
Carrie tells them she wants them to
tell the stories they learned on previous nights. It is a chorus of voices. This week, the young men and the schoolboys tell story after
story after story. The women chime
in when they falter. Details. Names. Reasons why God did things in these stories are told and
retold. We are on the second
line when a goat pushes through the cloth from behind. Loud laughter ensues. Carrie and Lokoyo say, “The goat wants
to pray with us!” More
laughter. Someone smacks the
goat’s side and shoves it out of the circle.
The group finishes retelling the
stories. Mindy switches seats with
Carrie. Mindy tells of the
tabernacle and of God’s desire to dwell among His people. She points to the pictured altar where
the people brought sacrifices and explains that only the family of Aaron could
go into the place where God was.
The group answers the review questions well.
I switch seats with Mindy now. I remind the group of God’s promise to
Abraham of many descendants and of a land belonging to all of them. I share of the spies that went into the
Promised Land. I explain that ten
of those spies saw the size of the cities and the people and were afraid. I then tell how Caleb and Joshua
believed the word of God and wanted to go forth. The group understood, again answering review questions.
Finally, Lokoyo asks someone to
close in prayer. He prays for
healing and for good memories of these stories and for rain. We sing another song and then shake
hands good night. “Sleep well, toper ejok.” The flashlights come on, and we wander back through the
sleeping goats, between the houses, around the cows and the manure.
At the school, we wave to our
friends and wish them good night once more. I glance up again at the sky as I avoid those puddles and
deep places of mud. More stars shine
now. Many, many stars. Uncountable stars. I think of Abraham and of God and His
faithfulness. We reach the gate
and enter.
