Louise has done it. She has made the house a home. We have had a “homeless” feeling since packing up last November. Now, though, at the end of April (five and a half short months later) it is looking like home.
Louise, of course, gets all the credit. It helps when you marry an artist with a practical side and a real gift for interior design and space management. She can turn a dump into a palace on a non-existing budget. She threw some light colored chocolate’ish paint on the walls, forced me to arrange furniture with her, and shazam! We have a house that has become a home.
Today, I even got to set up my carpentry tools in the back room. What a comforting feeling to arrange all my hand tools on the wall. Tonight I came in from working on the shop and she was in the kitchen cooking spaghetti, candles were giving a soft glow to the living room and dining room, the boys were doing a four-player game of battlefront II on the x-box and I stopped dead in my tracks. It was so homey. It was so comforting and normal feeling. We were settling in.
Dangerous, though, I know. Settling so often means complacency is right around the corner.
Isn’t that what so often happens? The crisis passes, the comfort and peace arrives, the daring rescue by God’s hand becomes a ‘remember when’, and we drift off and begin to fall, again.
Well, I can promise to try not to. I can promise to seek Him in my comfortable and homey setting. I can hope for it to be a refuge and place of refreshing and recharging in between ministering. But, I will sure have to purpose to do so.
As for now, I am just so thankful to have a house that God has allowed us to enjoy as a home, for now.
Thank you for all your prayers for us. Please continue to pray that even with all the “settling in”, we somehow are able to reject complacency and stay connected to Jesus.
Blessings
Uncategorized
April 25, 2009
April 23, 2009
Well, as you might expect they are different. Today I chaperoned Tucker’s field trip to none other than the nearest game park. Not your zoo variety, mind you, but the real deal where you are looking for a leopard in every overhanging tree and a giraffe, elephant, cheetah, or whatever in every opening space. We did in fact see hippos, an elephant, cape buffalo, giraffes, and …. (you get the picture). Still, though, I personally love that as one of those freebies from living in Africa. Especially since I got to observe him interacting with his teachers and classmates. It was deeply pleasing when he walked up to the game guides and greeted them. His momma taught him right! Tomorrow, the younger ones go to the National Museum of Rwanda and they get to see where the King used to live and all that good stuff. Too bad for me that Murphy gets to be the parent for that trip.
April 17, 2009
Christmas, no that won’t work. Anniversary, no it’s the first time for something of this magnitude, although it is the 19th anniversary of my and Louise’s first date.
How about Happy Container Day!
The last needed signature was given today. I actually watched and then they did the verification of contents. Pretty impressive. It only took five weeks!!
So, tomorrow morning we will wake up go to container jail and watch our stuff / junk (after eleven years of use in Togo) be loaded onto local transport trucks and brought to our house! It will be a great day of much needed closure and one that will allow us to put away the chairs made from banana leaves that we’ve been sitting on. Yes, I know, it sounds wonderfully exotic, but it is not so easy on the buns.
So, wish us Happy Container Day and thank God with us that he had mercy and is allowing us a sense of home with the presence in our house of our stuff.
April 13, 2009
We were out beyond Nyanza, Rwanda in a small village with over sixty genocide orphans and some really neat things were going on. I started to clap after a choral had sang some songs. Charles, my good friend and founder of Xtra Mile ministries, leaned over and said, “You can’t clap during the time of mourning.”
I was dumbfounded. It made sense because of the aims of this time in Rwanda of remembering the victims from the genocide, but it kind of became like that moment when you were laughing in church and your mom reached over and thumped you telling you with that look that this was unacceptable and then it was impossible to stop. I wanted to clap. Here were orphans of the genocide standing before me having seen their parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and siblings hacked to death before their very eyes singing beautiful songs of healing and God’s mercy. I wanted to clap, but no, I obeyed the rules and didn’t.
You can, though. You aren’t here right now. Clap for these brave young men and women who have continued on. Many of them are outperforming their peers in school and are having to fulfill all family roles for each other while bearing the physical and emotional scars of the tragedy of fifteen years past. They have bad days, don’t get me wrong, but they still know how to smile, sing, pray, and be thankful for life even in all their confusion and trauma.
It was a great Easter weekend and although I am tire of hearing, reading, writing, and speaking Ikinyarwanda, it seems I was able to cross a threshold of sorts and am finally, after three months more comfortable. I was able to preach and give devotionals through the weekend without translation and was so thankful to God that he has made me able to speak other languages in order to share his love. That is definitely not worth clapping about though.
My heart was broken yet again as we visited the worst of all the memorials as I have been told. This memorial near Nyamagabe was a technical school where around fifty thousand were killed and later the French soldiers of Operation Turqouise played volleyball by the still open mass graves. You can see a sight with many photos from it, but I warn you it is very graphic and disturbing. http://homepage.mac.com/stevesimonphoto/Murambi%20Memorial/index.html
We met with those orphans on Easter Sunday and I definitely wanted to clap for them. By God’s grace they have come so far in the last fifteen years, but they bear the telling signs of the journey in their tired looks and solemnity. They smiled, though, as I stumbled through my sermon, even encouraging me with amens and thank yous. They smiled when we handed out T-shirts, calculators, and dictionaries for those who performed well in school and they smiled as we ate a meager lunch of one meat pie, two pieces of bread and a soda of their choice.
So, as you pray for Rwanda and those scarred by the genocide, please remember the orphans here and lift them up so they can hear the applause of heaven.
April 3, 2009
Well, it has been quite a while since I attempted the ten minutes of musing. In fact, it’s just that I was musing so much that I didn’t have the time to actually blog it. We have landed and all the rawness that I experienced in Togo eleven and 1/2 years ago has washed over me yet again. Sorry for the paralysis. It is just all of the figuring out drives me not only insane, but to withdraw until the fog begins to clear. By the way, I did learn why Rwanda is so foggy in the mornings. It is not related to the altitude, but instead I was told by my language instructor that traditionally it was taught that it was from the frogs in the valleys smoking tobacco. That was a freebie, and you can do with that information whatever you please. So, here are some things that I have figured out so far.
We have a wonderful house. The first moment we were in it Tucker exclaimed that this was the house for us, saying something like, “this is the house that God wants us to be in.” We resisted, looked and looked, considered, and wound up just where our 13 year old and God wanted us to be, taking over the lease of Caleb and Jenny Beck, wonderful two month hosts that they were. The most painful aspect being that the rent is 7 times what we paid in Togo!
The boys are in a great school. That has been an interesting transition. I can’t think of a more intense social setting nor more intimidating group of students to be thrown into the pot with than the “international” set our boys are in. But, once again, they thrive. Especially after the highly acclaimed performance of the 4 T’s in the school’s talent show that had them doing Tae Kwon Do routines to Kung Fu Fighting with Trevor “break-dancing” in the middle of it to bring the house down. Would have loved a video of it, but hey, the camera was in a storage facility jail across town.
We are still in Africa. The process of acquiring our work permits, having to leave the country for a weekend so we could get new visas on re-entry along with our goods being held hostage for over three weeks now has reminded me that we are still in a place that plays the game by a whole different set of rules and I must learn in yet another language how to wait on God and be patient. Things work out, this I know, for my God has shown me so! We just pray and wait and try and pray and wait and try again. By the way, good news Africa Transformation Network now has registration with the government for the next twelve months. Yeah!!
Our work will be different in Rwanda and yet the same. The end result is the same as it always was and will be. We will work to bring others into a discipled relationship with Jesus the Savior and King of all. It is just that there are constraints on us and requirements that I never would have imagined for our work here. We must prove ourselves to the government, even with annual accountability reports that we are benefiting the people of Rwanda. Therein lies the function and purpose of Africa Transformation Network. It is the vessel by which we shall share the love of God with the Rwandans. It has lots of neat projects and wonderful works that we are using to bless the people here, make contacts for disciple training, as well as giving us a venue to grow in language and cultural understanding.
I think that the more languages you learn the easier the process becomes and the dumber you get. That may not make sense, but that is how you feel. “Oh, this again, been here before. Try to say, I need to use the bathroom. Oops, I said I want to stop a train.” note to self. I am such an idiot.
Have truck, will travel, and feel like a man. Crazy isn’t it. Since the time I was 16, I felt like a set of wheels, particularly if it included six or more cylinders and was a 4X4 added a great deal to the feeling of manliness. For our first nine weeks here, I was pretty low. Now, I got me a truck and things are so much better. Thank you to all who helped and broke open piggy banks to aid in this pursuit of a vehicle. It only cost twenty nine million, one hundred and thirty thousand francs and the locals here call it the car with the ugly face. But, it will definitely get us there and back again. We pledge to baby it and use it well.
These are the significant things I have figured out, there are plenty of insignificant ones, that I have no time to muse with you about and sadly I am not including any pictures today, but, I am back in the blogging business, so tell your friends and we can muse together about God’s great grace and his love that compels us to move to places like Rwanda to bless those who have been so cursed with calamity.
Peace.
September 30, 2008
Well, that title hasn’t ever been used, surely. I’m back in Togo again. You probably didn’t even know I had left, did you?
Two Saturdays ago I received a call from my dad that my cousin’s husband had been killed in an accident. My wonderful bride, knowing the closeness of our family looked at me and said, “Go.”
Thirty-six hours later, I was in my car dodging goats and chickens as I passed the two thousand mud huts between our village and the Ghana border. Thirteen hours after that I was hurtling through the air leaving my third world behind heading for civilization. It was all a blur, but after forty-two hours of travel I arrived in Arkansas.
I have never been hit so hard by the contrast of those two worlds as I was on this trip. I think it was because on other visits, I was prepared to go, months in advance. I had my list of restaurants to eat at, things to see and do, all planned out. This was “next day” travel. It was such a quick trip. I spent four days traveling and only five days there. How odd is that?
My time there was incredible. Sad, intensely sad but, also meaningful, and in the midst of it, there was laughter. I would have never imagined. Emma and Katherine did that. It is always good to see family. That is a price we pay that I try not to think about often / never!
Now, I’m back again. I passed back by all the same mud huts and here I am and we are ready to pack up and move to Rwanda.
July 31, 2008
I apologize for my lack of blogging. It has been three weeks of extraordinary events that I’ll attempt to relate to you over several ten minutes of musings. In the meantime here is a recap:
We finished our time with the interns who had been joined by former teammate Frank Bunner. It was so right for him to be here and so unnatural for him to leave.
I accompanied Dave Reeves, Matt Miller, and Murphy Crowson to Zambia via South Africa for a conference on church planting methods.
Being late for our flight out of South Africa we had to overnight in Johannesburg. It was a not in Kansas (Africa) anymore moment for us as our eyes popped out at the level of development there.
Finally we made it to the conference in Livingstone, Zambia for our week long study about church planting movements only to have my missions’ paradigms squashed a bit after just coming to terms with being a missionary.
Took in the sites of Livingstone: Zambia’s only rhino, Victoria Falls with a lunar rainbow, and a Subway restaurant.
After the conference we then took a brief trip to Botswana for Chobe National Park. This included a river crossing back to Zambia without my passport (back in the safari truck in Botswana). That was almost more exciting than seeing a leopard that same morning just thirty yards from our truck. Did witness an elephant dung toss, though, at David Reeves while he was in the shower (it was a direct hit in the chest — ooohhh.) as well as got to know the Pat Fanning family really well of Dublin, Ireland (an unexpected treat!).
Now, I’m back home, trying to teach what I learned and helping local people build rocket stoves so they will burn less wood. By the way, we are naming the stove Adokpo (stove in Eve) Frank after Frank Bunner because there isn’t a word for rocket in Eve! Thanks Frank for encouraging it.
That’s the recap, may delve deeper into some of these things and may even put photos to it. Blessings.
May 4, 2008
Living Word
Posted by koonce under Faith Stories, Spiritual Growth, Togo Life, Uncategorized1 Comment
One thing I love about the Bible is the way it comes to life in dramatic and very undeniable ways creating within us an experience that deepens with time and has far reaching effects.
There is a leader in Ahepe named Feli who for many years was at best a churchgoer. About six years ago, Feli became the default leader of the church in his neighborhood. He was still selling lottery tickets and riding the fence of sincerity. He wanted to believe, but just wasn’t sure if he could depend on God to really take care of his family.
About two years ago a gracious opportunity presented itself to Feli that upon giving up the lottery he would have ownership of a corn grinder and begin a new chapter.
He took it. This is equivalent to a loss of at least 50% of his income. Since then he has vaulted the fence and has really grown in his love for Jesus.
There were two “Bible come to life” events for Feli last week that really encouraged me. Two ladies had missed worship on Sunday morning. So, in the afternoon Feli went looking for them. He found them in their fields grinding and cooking cassava to sell at market on Monday. He began encouraging and working with them and before he left they sent him home with a huge bowl of roasted cassava which his family ate throughout the week. Then on Thursday, Togo’s labor day, Feli was called to a feast. Upon arriving, there were several men gathered who were decked out in their festive garments ready to eat. Feli was invited to bless the meal. After the meal was over the group requested for Feli to share a message from the Bible. He taught from Matthew chapter six about how God blesses us and takes care of all our needs if only we will seek him and his will. His message was well received and he went on his way.
It hit me as I sat with him this past Friday, how dramatically his life has changed and how even the cynical population of his village has taken note of this transformation. What happened? What made the difference? He took God at his word and God is faithful.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33
December 9, 2007
Four years ago, we had decided that it was enough. We were coming upon our seventh year in Togo, which was our original commitment. Yes, there was more work to do. Yes, we were being used effectively in a fruitful work. Yes, things had gotten better over the course of time in Togo, but we were tired; we were beat up; and we were ready for the easier road. So, without asking God what we should do or what He wanted us to do, we made the decision that we were going to come back to the US for good in 2006. Upon our visit to the states that year we made our annual trek to Harding to teach in some classes and encourage students to consider missions. God had arranged two encounters for us on that trip. One was with missionary veteran, Fielden Allison of Kenya. He was the missionary in residence at that time and I was teaching a class with him. After the class, he asked me what my plans were beyond Togo. I revealed to him the Marty planned return of 2006 to domestic ministry in the states. At this point I must clarify that there is nothing at all wrong with that if that is what God has planned for you to do. On the other hand, if He has called you to something else, and you are making that decision then hopefully someone will ask you the same question Fielden asked me. ”Why?” There was a lot to this very simple question. Why do missionary veterans return to the states after acquiring language and cultural assimilation skills and after learning to share Jesus and mentor leaders so effectively? Some are called to, but surely not all. All the reasons that I had in my bag of justification melted before Fielden in an instant. Yes, I was speechless. I knew then what I had done and I stood rebuked. It was for my own convenience that I wanted to come back to the states, definitely not in answer to God’s call. Then later that day, we met with our friend Dr. Carr. He then, in his very excitable and charismatic way, began sharing how wonderfully effective for the kingdom some African missionaries are and have been, literally touching thousands through their ministry and potentially hundreds of thousands through several generations of growth. This was it, the moment where Louise and I were pushed over the edge and humbly brought back to the “why” of our being in Africa. It all began with a desire to be effectively used by the Master. Here we are, now, about to return to Africa and finish up our work in Togo and begin a new work in Rwanda. It has been an incredible ride with God and promises to only get better. Upon our visit to Harding this last November, we seized the opportunity to share all of this with Dr. Carr. It was a wonderful awakening to a moment of serendipity from years ago when he, by God’s design, turned our hearts back to not only Africa for Christ, but more importantly to the acceptance of God’s will for our lives. Little did he know.
November 24, 2007
Among the Watchi the name you receive is usually based on what day you were born. That is, until the fateful day when
you first “need” major assistance from the voodoo spirits. On that day your name usually changes to reflect whatever voodoo you have been linked to. This name then becomes who you are in more ways than one. There are, of course, other trappings that go along with the worship, but it is the name that really establishes your identity and reminds you of whom you serve as you are hailed daily by that new moniker. One of my dearest friends I have called Houndzo ever since I met him over six years ago after he began serving Jesus. About two months ago I noticed that those closest to him began calling him by the name Bertin. Upon some investigation I found out that the name “Houndzo” had been his voodoo name and that he was getting rid of that. Bertin had received his new identity in Christ six years earlier and has worked selflessly to plant five other churches in these last years, but had somehow forgotten to change his name. So, all of you out there who have regularly prayed for Houndzo, please stop. Don’t pray for him anymore, pray for Bertin, Houndzo died over six years ago.
Praise God for his grace that renews us daily and the frequent reminders of that renewal.
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come.” (II Cor. 5:17)
