The "M" Word

"Do you keep the fast of Ramazan?"

A few days back, we went out to the village to check on the outhouse project.  The project is about finished.  Tomorrow, Mark will go out and pay the workers their final wages.  In total the project will come in just a little over $1500 for a three hole outhouse.  We are pleased with the project.

The main benefit of this project is that it gives us access to the people of the village.  The director of the school has been very friendly and has shown us hospitality on a number of occasions.  The school teacher has also been very friendly to us.  We call the school teacher Gilligan because he looks like Gilligan with his white hat on. 

The next benefit has been time to visit with the one believer in the village.  Over the last few weeks we have visited with her many times.  Each visit, we try to pray with her, encourage her, fellowship with her, and open up the Word togethere with her.  This last visit was a true encouragement.  While laying at the table sipping tea, our sister asked us if we keep the fast of Ramazan.  This is a question I passed to Mark, our resident expert on all things Islamic.  He explained the why we don't keep the feast and she was satisfied with the answer.  What blessed us the most though was the way she answered the criticism being leveled at us while she was out in the cotton fields.  When asked if we keep the fast by her neighbors, she took them back to scripture and showed them how Jesus fasted for 40 days.  And it was a complete fast, not just during the day time. 

People have a way of deflecting the reality of their situation by focusing on others.  Our sister took them back to the person they really need to be looking at, Jesus.  I think she is on to something.

Village Work part 2

After two weeks of intense activity, I am taking some me time and updating the blog.  Having visitors is a fun and intense experience; however, it leaves you wiped out.  That is the way I have felt the last two days, wiped out.  Now, I want to catch you up on what we have been doing.

We went out the village to help them dig a hole for an outhouse project.  Twelve of us loaded up and made our way about an hour and half from where we live to village we are working at.  Like all other things in Central Asia, what should only take an hour and a half turned into 4 hours and we did not get the village until mid-afternoon.  Knowing that digging this hole could be time consuming, we were nervous.

When our group showed up, the director of the school, the main teacher, and the village leader were all there to great us.  Immediately, a discussion developed on how big to make the hole and where to put it.  Again, anxiety was the emotion of the moment.  Will this work?  Can we build an outhouse?  Can we dig a hole deep enough by hand?  How much will all this cost? 

An hour went by and a decision was made where to dig and how big the hole should be.  Finally, the digging began.  Anxiety made itself present in a real way at this point.  There were twelve of us out there, a village leader, a school teacher, a school director, not to mention the growing crowd of young people watching this spectacle; and they were all looking to me for guidance.  It was at that point that we stopped the digging, publicly bowed our heads and prayed.  I prayed for the Lord's protection, the Lord's guidance, the Lord's speed, and most of all the Lord's presence in this dark place.  A translator put the prayer in the local language so that everyone knew what we were praying for and in whose name we were praying.  And the digging went on....