Stifling Heat
The heart of dry season .. it is hot. Temperatures of over 40°C (110°F) during the day and barely any cooling down at night drain your body. But God has really brought us through and sustained us in this exhausting time.
Noisy hymns
I hate all your show and pretense— the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings. Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living. Amos 5:21-24 NLT
Such strong words! “Away with your noisy hymns of praise”, with your show and pretense. God does not want our big shows, our loud speakers, big stages and complex dance choreographies. God wants to see justice and righteous living! God doesn’t want our sacrifices, He wants our heart. He doesn’t care so much about neat clothes, light shows and empty words. God wants us to live righteous lives. We shall be holy, because He is holy. We are temples of the Holy Spirit. We are a new creation. We are His children. That’s worship. How often do we really worship God and how often do we just produce noise? Singing our favorite worship songs, but not with the right heart …
Dry and Hot
The last month has been incredibly hot and I can tell by how tired I am. For about 3 weeks, we had daily temperatures of around 40°C (110°F) and little refreshment during the night. It’s like you’re living in an oven without a way out. Sleepless nights, sweat and low energy.
In dry season, the Lopit usually prepare their gardens for planting. They clear the land, build a fence of thorns and burn the grass, bushes and trees. They also work on their houses. It’s the time of mudding your compound (like they did on mine), building fences and renewing roofs. I tackled some more house projects, fixed my gutters for the rains to come and cut a fire break, so that when people burn their gardens, the fire doesn’t jump the fence. But through all this time, God has really given us the strength and energy to keep going.
Because of the lack of rain, people are struggling to find vegetables and greens at this time. The women leave early in the morning to look for eatable greens and climb certain trees to harvest the leaves. Last week, we got shocking news. A pregnant woman in her 30s fell off a tree trying to collect leaves and passed away … what a tragedy! Let us pray God’s comfort and love over this family!
And then yesterday, it finally started to rain! We were together as a team, shouting for joy and praising God. It was so nice! May people recognize the one true God who is able to bring rain. Pray with us that He would get the glory!
A special visitor
Otherwise, I had some visitors this month, celebrated my birthday (with pizza!!!) and got to go to Torit to receive a very special visitor …:) After over 4 months of waiting, my fiancée finally arrived in Torit. It has been such a joy to see each other again and to show her where I lived for the last 1.5 years. After a few good days in Torit, we had around 2 weeks here in Lopit. Everyone was super excited to meet her and showered her with compliments. It was a good chance for us to model to them a biblical way of engagement and marriage by staying in separated houses–quite to the surprise of the village. We had many good conversations, visited and sat with many people, did theological training and bible studies and had many good evenings as a team together. In a few days, we get to go on a short break and I I’m very ready for that.
What’s next?
After a week in Kenya, I will be starting with my video projects. I’m quite excited for this shift of work. I will be finishing my online course about missions this week and shifting more towards media for this next season. But after my break, I’m also just left with 3 months in South Sudan .. time is running!
May God bless you guys! I’m so thankful for all your support, enabling me to be here on this adventure with our great God. Thanks for all your prayers, messages and donations!
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