Where do I see God?

Last Sunday I was supposed to skype with my church in Canada.  Unfortunately, the Internet here does not work well in the evening.  I did prepare some thoughts though that I sent by e-mail ahead of time.  Some of the stories are ones I have blogged about before others are new.  However, all the stories are still relevant to my life here, and I hope you enjoy reading them.

Here are some reflections and stories with you related to some questions my pastor sent me.

The first question was ‘what do I see God doing around me’ and my first thought was ‘what do I not see God doing around me?’ In this place there are so many things going on, so many people working to try to help others, so much community care, so many people trying to understand more of who God is that I wonder ‘where is God not at work?’

But here of some specific instances.

I see a school that is trying to teach conservation agriculture skills to students.  Agriculture is a part of life for almost everyone who lives in Lesotho. Whether people live in a village in the mountains or a house in the capital city everyone has a garden in their yard and in every village families have a field of maize somewhere close by.  However, the yield from many of these plots is poor.  There are a variety of reasons for this, that would take a lot of time to explain, but the poor yields are a problem. The teachers at the primary school know this and want to teach children skills so that they can help their families grow good crops.  There are fields all around the school that the children plant and tend.  The other purpose of these gardens is to provide income to the school.  Primary education is free in Lesotho.  The government pays for everything from teacher’s salaries, to school books for the children.  However, the supplies are very sparse, and there is very little money for infrastructure and furniture repairs, sports equipment and many supplies that would increase the quality of teaching.  So selling produce from these gardens would be a way to provide more money to pay for these things.  This is the vision that the principle and the teachers have for these children, and I see God in that.

Here are some of the kids at that school

I see a mother, who is also a teacher, who took in a female student so that she could finish her education.  This mother was already caring for 3 children, who were not biologically hers, although they were family.  She had already raised 2 children of her own and many relations, and she is now 52.  However, her heart continues to care for those children in her school.  This girl was already 18, but still in grade 7 (the last grade in primary school).  She lived with her Aunt and Uncle in a nearby village.  Her mother passed away when she was younger and her father had been off working in the mines in South Africa. Recently the father also passed away, leaving the girl a double orphan.  The Aunt and Uncle continued to let the girl go to school, but they had been talking about how she should get married since she was 16.  The teacher at school was concerned this girl would not make it all the way through grade 12, if she continued to live at home, so she did the only thing that seemed right, she took another child into her home.  I see God this heart whose love has no boundaries.

I see people who’s attitudes and practices are changing.  Change is hard.  When you have done things the way your parents and grandparents have you are often resistant to change.  That is the way it is with the farmers here in Lesotho as well, they are resistant to new ways of farming.  The project I am a part of is trying to teach people better farming practices.  We are growing crops, which are doing very well compared to the people around here; in order to show farmers, not just tell them about better methods. But it takes time for people to trust and believe that a new method works.  And it takes God working in people’s hearts for them to be ready to change.  However, I do see God working, I do see people trying something new.  One example is our language teacher.  He has never attended training at the project, but he has seen what is happening and talked to people in the village that are using conservation agriculture.  This year he has started using conservation agricultures methods on a small portion of his maize plot.  He has neighbours that think that the new method is ridiculous, but his plants are looking good and people are continuing to change.

The second question was ‘What do I see God doing in me?’  I know I continue to grow through my experience here, but sometimes it is hard to see that while in the middle of things.  I am sure it will be easier to see with perspective, but here are a couple of things I have noticed already.

I am a very independent person that grew up in an individualistic culture.  I am now living in a group culture that is very community minded.  I see this in many ways every day and I have to continually choose whether I will do things my way, on my own, or whether I will let the people around me interrupt ‘my’ way of doing things myself.  As an example here is one story.  Washing clothes by hand is a physically demanding and time-consuming task; I try to resist help, to show that ‘I can do it’.  I like to think of my laundry as a private matter, it is my problem how many clothes I wear and how dirty I get them.  However, as when I brought my wash outside one Sunday morning those around me had a very different lesson to show me.  As I started to work independently, in my little bubble, my 4 year old host sister appeared and started ‘helping’ me soak the clothes.  Just as she was pulling out my underwear 3 small faces appeared smiling and staring, looking at what I was doing.  Two of the children do not even live at my house, but after 8 am on the weekend is fair game for friends to come over.  So my washing had become a community matter.  As I continued doing my wash my 11 year old host sister came over and told me (not asked, just told me) she was going to help me.  When she saw Zane hanging up my underwear she mentioned how when she was little she loved when her mother let her help wash the handkerchiefs.  I have been learning that helping out, and letting others help, is not just about the person doing the task (ie. It’s not about me).  You are letting someone feel valued by letting them be part of your task; to tell them you can do it all alone is saying their help is not appreciated.  This is a communal culture, and your problem is never just your problem or task, as much as you may want it to be.  I feel like interdependence is something God is continuing to teach me.

Another way God is working in me is ‘breaking’ my heart over things I have become callous to.  Here is another story.  America bo pelo ha bo thata. This is a phrase we worked on in our Sesotho lessons.  It means, In America life is not hard.  We were talking about how life is hard in Lesotho these days because of the lack of rain.  When we were asked about what life is like for us, this was our first response.   However, these phrases led to an interesting conversation with our language teacher. We talked about how there actually are problems in North America, how life is difficult for some people there, but our problems are different.  The problem of poor crops, and the effects on people was one major difference.  In the village it is common for people to only eat 1 or 2 meals a day.  If the drought continues this year there will be even less to be and there may be starvation, because people are subsistence farmers.  We contrasted this with the farmer in North America, who can still feed their family in a year with poor crops, because the family does not actually eat the maize.  In fact, we started to talk about how maize is used to make ethanol in North America.  At this point in our conversation the disparity and absurdity of the situation made me cry.  The fact that people in one country barley have enough to eat, while we are burning the very thing that could fill their stomachs, just so that we can drive our vehicles, made my heart feel so heavy. I have thought about the problem of using maize for Ethanol, while in Canada, but the problem never made me cry.  It was not until I came here and was sitting beside the households without enough to eat that the problems became real to my heart.

Prayer is something that is always appreciated.  I have a few things you can pray for, for the people, the project, and for me personally.

Rain in on everyone’s mind these days.  We had late rains this year, we did not plant most of our maize until the first week of December, which is about a month later than usual.  After the rains in December there was almost no rain in January.  This week it has started to rain again, but many of the crops have become quite stressed.  Hopefully the crops will recover, but prayer that we would have good crops, so that the people in this valley are not hungry this next year continues to be on my heart.

You can pray for acceptance of the message we are sharing and people to be willing to change and work with us.  As I said before, this is something God is already at work at here, but it is something we continue to pray for as well.

I would appreciate prayer for wisdom and understanding to work well in such a multi-cultural, diverse setting.  I continue to learn more, and understand more about the people I work with, but there is still so much more.  I feel like I am just starting to get a feel for how things work here and I want to work well within that setting, and help things work even better.

I love hearing from people, and knowing that people are following what I am doing.  I try to post fairly often on my blog about what is happening here. However, life gets busy and blogging often gets left behind, so always feel free to send me an e-mail if you want to hear how things are, or let me know what is going on at home.  If you are interested in sending an old fashion letter, there is a post box in town and letters eventually get to me J

Thank-you for all your support and love and prayers

Sala huntle (Stay well)