A Paraplegic Prince

Today I helped a family move all their earthly belongings from one house to another. It took less than an hour, and only one small truckload of actual things, the second load was people. The load of things consisted of a table and four chairs, two bed frames (no mattresses), three boxes, three baskets, about four sacks of food (mostly cassava roots, they call it mandioca here), and a few miscellaneous tools. This was a family of six. It made me ashamed to think about how many truck/van loads were required to move my things out of my apartment before I left the states…

And I say that I “helped” but really they wouldn’t let me do anything. It’s a weird feeling to be treated at the same time like royalty and like an invalid. A paraplegic prince, that’s what I feel like… As soon as we arrived at the old house I asked how I could help. They brought out one of their chairs and asked me if I would please just sit down and rest. And whenever I picked something up to load/unload, even the women would rush to take it from me – despite that I was stronger and healthier than anyone else present. Maybe my white skin makes me sickly? I’m never sure.

Yet despite their lack of material things, “blessed are the poor” kept coming into my head as I watched them interact. This family is one of the (relatively) few Christian families around, and even though they had so little, I could tell they were grateful for it. They were loving toward one another, and they were ecstatic that I was willing to help them move. And, of course, kids are kids regardless of language or culture, and I always have a good time with them…

This photo of a house isn’t the one that the family moved out of or into. It’s just a random house so you can see what is the norm around here. Typical houses are dirt floors, mud walls and grass roofs with bamboo frames.

I’m also including a photo here of me teaching about three weeks ago. Yeah, so I helped a fellow missionary teach a group of twenty pastors some of the basics of bible storying. Of course it was all in Portuguese, and of course I again couldn’t have done it alone. Thanks so much for your prayers about my language learning, I feel like I’m always bragging about how well the language is going for me, but I can definitely feel the results of the prayers, and that’s what I’m trying to show.

And these last two photos are of my recent trip to Johannesburg. I just returned from a 10-day trip down there to meet up with other people in the region who are doing this same two-year deal through the IMB. There were sixteen of us, and I only knew one other person previously. I had a great time. Didn’t get a whole lot of sleep, but I had a lot of fun, and that’s more important. The first photo is of me playing with a baby lion. Yeah, don’t know too many people who’ve done that now do ya? The second is of a few of us posing for a serious photo on the last night. Always serious.