We are creatures of habit so as we work our way through the Lenten season, away from home, it magnifies how much we miss our home communities – home, church, work etc. This was highlighted this morning as we attended CSI Redeemer Church for Palm Sunday.
The morning started with the bus driver not arriving to take the girls and us to the service, until 2 minutes before the service was due to start.You should realize how this made Gary feel (refer to story on “Time”). Half of us arrived about 13 minutes into the service and the rest another 15 minutes later because someone in their wisdom decided that we would take the 28 seater bus for the 95 people that were attending the church service. Please note it only takes two trips with a 28 seater bus to transport 95 people. In 37 degree heat that is not a very comfortable trip.
We think the reason for the decision to take the 28 seater bus was that the 28 Standard 10 (Yr 10) girls were not allowed to stay for the procession that followed (because they had to come back to study for their government exam tomorrow) and were transported home straight after the service. Gary and I naturally assumed that they would bring the large bus back to pick up the 67 remaining people, after the procession. WRONG!! The 67 remaining “easily” fitted into the 28 seater – in the now 41 degree heat. Praise the Lord for our air-conditioned house, after the bus trip. Gary struggled a bit with the logic of this but in the end it worked and all got there and back.
After the 7:00 am service there was a procession of palms for a couple of kilometers around the poorer areas close to the church.
The whole church congregation walked and sang, accompanied by a small truck with a very tiny, tinny Casio keyboard being piped through the largest speaker they could fit on the back of their truck. The volume on everything was turned up as high as possible so the distortion achieved was absolutely magnificent. We marched and sang and handed out palms and crosses made out of palms – a quite incredible time for us. It covered over our struggle during the service of not being able to keep our minds on what was happening because we were thinking about what we were missing by being away from home.
The whole church congregation walked and sang, accompanied by a small truck with a very tiny, tinny Casio keyboard being piped through the largest speaker they could fit on the back of their truck. The volume on everything was turned up as high as possible so the distortion achieved was absolutely magnificent. We marched and sang and handed out palms and crosses made out of palms – a quite incredible time for us. It covered over our struggle during the service of not being able to keep our minds on what was happening because we were thinking about what we were missing by being away from home.
We had a special Palm Sunday celebration lunch with the girls - the first meal we have eaten with them. However, our expectation was that we would eat with the girls and eat what they ate.
But that was not to be. Cook prepared special dishes for us and the girls set up a lovely table for us. We sat at the table while the girls sat on the floor. The food was lovely but there was a mile too much for the two of us and we weren't able to eat it all no matter how hard they tried to press us to.
The girls eat huge amounts of rice for every meal and couldn't believe that Gary and I between us couldn't eat the large bowl of rice set before us. In fact we didn't even eat 1/4 of it.
At about 3:00 pm we decided to take a walk down to our favourite coffee shop about 2 km away. Before we left the school grounds we met another two families of the girls, who were there visiting. We spent time having a chat, then off for coffee and home later for a little rest.
At 5:30 pm we went down to chat with the girls before evening prayer. Some had noticed Lynn crying in church so we went into the “why does Lynn cry” explanation which they found hard to understand but led to a good conversation about emotions and feelings and how we deal with them. After prayer the Yr 9’s (now called Yr 10’s, even though the new year hasn’t started) invited us to their prayer session that they have every night after group prayer. We were not aware this occurred. It was the most uplifting time. They shared memory verses. They learn a new verse, or several verses or whole psalms, every day. They sang, then shared prayer concerns and requests, then prayed for each other and us What a great finish to the day. Just when we thought we were missing out on something back home, God provides a group of 13 year old girls to bless us.
PS: We have found that it is best to keep our minds on what is actually happening and discovering God in that event, rather than wishing we were somewhere else.
The girls eat huge amounts of rice for every meal and couldn't believe that Gary and I between us couldn't eat the large bowl of rice set before us. In fact we didn't even eat 1/4 of it.
At about 3:00 pm we decided to take a walk down to our favourite coffee shop about 2 km away. Before we left the school grounds we met another two families of the girls, who were there visiting. We spent time having a chat, then off for coffee and home later for a little rest.
At 5:30 pm we went down to chat with the girls before evening prayer. Some had noticed Lynn crying in church so we went into the “why does Lynn cry” explanation which they found hard to understand but led to a good conversation about emotions and feelings and how we deal with them. After prayer the Yr 9’s (now called Yr 10’s, even though the new year hasn’t started) invited us to their prayer session that they have every night after group prayer. We were not aware this occurred. It was the most uplifting time. They shared memory verses. They learn a new verse, or several verses or whole psalms, every day. They sang, then shared prayer concerns and requests, then prayed for each other and us What a great finish to the day. Just when we thought we were missing out on something back home, God provides a group of 13 year old girls to bless us.
PS: We have found that it is best to keep our minds on what is actually happening and discovering God in that event, rather than wishing we were somewhere else.
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