"Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand." Isaiah 64:8
Hahahaha . . . . . It's funny, really ---in retrospect. Two Americans riding in on shiny white horses (OK . . . no horses . . . just AirFrance), swords gleaming in the scorching Sahara sun, ready to change the world! Whack! There go the streets of garbage! Slash! Clean water for everyone! Flash! Young girls have homework, not babies! Whack! Slash! Flash! Our work here is done. Now where is that sunset we must ride off into?! Oh, yeah, it's hidden (just like our humility and our compassion), behind that ever-present, ever-invasive, red desert dust!
Heh, heh . . . So . . . maybe it isn't so funny when I remember how naive we were about life in a third-world country (now called a "two-thirds-world" country), and our power to effect change. That was 2010. We were full of answers to questions no one was asking. Naive is a nice word --- implies "innocence" and "inexperience." But "judgemental" doesn't wear as attractively. So, we closed our mouths and opened our eyes and ears and worked at what we came here to do. I came to teach children. Phil came to cook for me (and work with technology and pray in the hospital, and work with the director in the office). But in God's reality, we came here to be changed - to have our character moulded like clay, to become more like the One who created us. And when we had the opportunity to return a second year . . . well, let's just say that "red Sahara dust" had invaded more than just our home; Africa and the beautiful people of Niger had invaded our hearts, and by the end of 2012, this place we lived felt like home, and the people on the compound with whom we lived and worked, felt like family! And then we left . . . but not really. Our bodies left, but Galmi was never far from my mind and heart. I knew sometime I would return. . . .
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| Soaring Over Galmi |
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So thankful and pleased that you and Phil are able to return and serve there for a bit more. And Happy anniversary. We just had ours also (Dec. 23, 1967). I still remember the shower you had for me 49years ago, and the hand made pillow cases! Im sure the Lord will use you and change you there. He is the ultimate potter! Diane Marks
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