African Adventures With Sarah...

I just read Mark’s blurb and had a good laugh. How tragic. As of this writing the bananas have turned yellow and Seth is all into it again and excited about having his picture taken with Jodie and the bananas…still bandaged above the eye.

My kids are doing very well… the thing I’m enjoying most is how well they get along and sincerely enjoy each other. They have their scuffles but often I will hear one of them start to giggle and then the other and then they shriek and carry on with some rough house tumble or climbing game. Jodie is no sissy! She’s going through a bit of defiance…I think she would like to be events coordinator of our family and having her diaper changed or washing hands for dinner is surely not in her program. We’re working on it and she actually seems to be remembering she’s not the boss. Seth is getting much more social… he used to mostly want to stay home and play with mom. Monotonous! But now it’s all about friends and play time. I love it! I’m so glad he has good friends!
Seth and Jodie with their best friends Jalil and Adelle.

I really wanted to share something with you that has impacted me this month and I hope it speaks to you as well. We’re in the rainy season here. So almost every day there is a good bit of rain and there can be hours of steady, heavy rain that makes almost torrents of muddy water on the streets. And since the roads here are full of pot holes they fill up with the dirty water. A pot hole full of muddy water is very difficult to guage and a miscalculation can lead to a severe jolt and the emptying of the puddle in a huge spray.

On a rainy day recently I was driving somewhere and struggling with watching so many people walking in the rain and mud… some with umbrellas, some without… just trying to get somewhere. They don’t own a car and some can’t afford a taxi (which is extremely cheap) so they have to walk. Anyway, I was wanting to give people rides but I know that is very unwise and have only done it a few times. I started praying for many of the people walking and then I started to look at their faces. And I was very interested to see that most of them were looking directly at me as I drove by (there is seldom any fast driving in town… especially on a rainy day). And I started to notice they were watching the road very closely… watching my tires. They would then look right at me. I realized they were watching for pot holes. They were concerned that I would go barreling through a pot hole and spray them with water, spoiling their clothes for the rest of the day. And I was reminded of that scripture (which I can’t find right now but I think it’s in Proverbs) that says we should ‘consider’ the poor. That’s exactly what I saw on their faces. They didn’t expect me to pull over and pile them all in the car… they weren’t presuming that I should start handing out umbrellas or taxi fares. They just wanted me to consider them. And though I continued to pray for them I felt free from the guilt I’d been feeling for driving in my dry car. God sometimes directs me (or I’m inspired) to reach out with significant or minor acts of kindness. But on this day the lesson was, ‘Sarah, consider the poor. Don’t spray them with dirty water. And by the way, be thankful for your car.’