u know what rules??

having my husband back from the shamba!
He arrived back on his piki piki last night, minus some bananas and with a wicked sunburn and a shirt covered is fish blood after an impromtu all day fishing expedition with his new friends. Word traveled fast he was back and soon lots of watoto were outside peering in. I missed him so and when he returned we sat down and he told me about his trip. We talked about everything he experienced; about his fasting with his friends to show that he also follows God and that he prays to Jesus and that Jesus hears and loves us, getting woken up at 3am to eat, learning more about their faith, seeing up close the cultural practices here, getting to experience the praying 5 times a day, sharing with his friends from the Word, expressing the freedom Jason has not because he has earned it but because he knows who gives it, sleeping on a pillow that might have well been a rock (I laughed for a good 10 minutes at his acting out and description of where he slept and the fact that he had to bathe, and go to the bathroom (both haja’s) about 5 inches from the mama of the house cooking..pole J!), visiting some schools, the hospital, and lots of homes, and lots of just sitting talking and being together. It was at times very discouraging, overwhelming, and difficult but overall as he shared I could see the newness, the understanding, the compassion, and the love growing in him. Awesome to hear about and I think I will force him to write up some of his experience and post it on our family blog soon. He left with many invites to return and some new stirring that maybe we can all travel back to help at a school there and to visit some of the people he met.

As he was sharing Anni was happily running around outside with her friend Fatuma playing “gather dirty rocks, and chuck them at the fence” and the ever popular “pretend to cook futari (the breaking the fast meal)”. While he was sharing we were interrupted a few times by shule kids hoodi’ing and asking to use a ball to play or tattling on someone for not sharing the swing and once by one of my students who shyly came over to where I was sitting to give me a zawadi: this barua (letter) and drawing made with the crayons she got last week. It touched me so much. Jason shared about the fishing trip he had and how the next day he was so blessed by one of the fishermen. We both got misty eyed just sitting, sharing in the midst of the hum of kid commotion and the LIFE surrounding us. The experiences we have had are so changing us. It is hard to explain but these little things mean so much here. In a place where we often feel so exposed, so raw, so real. These moments of sharing, learning and growing, seeing God at work, of being part of our friend’s lives, of loving each other in the daily mess of life matter.

They really matter.