It's been awhile, my friends. Things always seem to be quite busy around here. Here's an update on some of what I've been doing in the past two months.

Kids:

Preschool: The preschoolers are getting so big! They are all the way up to their T verse (Proverbs 3:5, about trusting God), and their favorite verse is K (Psalm 34:13, Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies) because the song involves doing funny things with your tongue. They have started to write letters on chalk slates, they enjoyed learning about the senses in science, we’re reading a book about kids from all around the world, we get to act out stories together (mainly Bible stories and fairy tales), and they frequently go around trying to rhyme words. Please pray that the Holy Spirit would transform them with verses like these: “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” or “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” or “My little children, let us not love in word or tongue, but with actions and in truth.”

Preschoolers and Toby helping me carry supplies from McLaughlin's to my house.

Ben and Alma swinging double. New school house featured behind.

Alma and Sammy. Alyssa's house to the left, Fader's to the right

Easter: For Easter, my roommate, the teacher, and I put together a play of the resurrection story from Peter’s perspective. The kids did a great job memorizing a TON of Scripture, being motivated to practice, and learning to work together. The girls also got to perform an Easter dance to Andrew Peterson’s song “All Things New.” I first learned to dance from a woman who saw it as a way to praise God, so it was super fun for me to follow in her footsteps and to see my pupils pick up on the theme of glorifying God through movement. I must say that it was slightly challenging to include fun and fitting movements for girls ages 4-12, and I also wasn’t sure they’d pull it together in time for Easter and an audience, but man they did amazing!!!

My older ballet students in class

Performance in the school house :)

Crossing Cultures: Living in a large compound with so many other missionary families has its ups and downs for the missionary children. At the moment, they each have 11 cousin-like relationships, they get to go to school and have classmates, there are tons of group games they can play (namely Capture the Flag, Run for Your Life, Eagle Eye, etc.), and they keep each other in check sometimes. However, one thing they don’t get to do super often is interact with Burundian friends. This past January, Jess started a Kirundi-English class with a balanced number of American and Burundian kids, a great solution to the past interactions our kids had with either no Burundian kids or a ton of kids from the next-door primary school swarming them all at once. I’ve also gotten to share a few fun interactions with our kids and Burundian kids: One Sunday afternoon, the kids tried to round up a game of ultimate Frisbee outside the compound in the field by the church and the primary school. Not too many of us showed up, but a large crowd of kids did. Anna had the idea that we could play duck duck goose with them and change the words to oya, oya, ego, which means no, no, yes in Kirundi. With all the shameless spectating, I was a bit surprised at how hesitant the kids were to jump in and play with us. When some of them did (others still preferred to watch), it was fun to see the kids using the universal language of play, as well as to hear some of our kids using their Kirundi! A few weeks later, I took the preschoolers up to the field again to climb trees. A few Burundian kids came up to us and asked to play “oya, oya, ego.” They remembered! So we got to have a small game that for a while. Please pray for the missionary kids especially as they grow up in a different culture. Some seem to be blind to/appreciative of (I’m not sure what yet) the many differences between them and the Burundian kids they see. Others have hesitations or strong oppositions to interacting with these kids. None of them chose this environment to live in, but as they are here, please pray that they will have healthy and fun interactions with Burundians vs. overwhelming and traumatizing ones, that they will learn to love Burundian culture, and that they will form friendships and develop a passion for cross-cultural ministry.

A few kid quotes. I haven’t been able to write nearly enough down, but they do keep coming in a steady, substantial stream:

Ben: Sammy, the apricot crayon is over there. Sammy: I don’t like fetching things. I’m not a dog.

The B Bible verse has become a favorite in preschool (Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. Matthew 5:9). One day I reading Toby a book. Toby: I want to find the peacemaker! Me: Toby, this book doesn’t have a peacemaker in it. Toby: *finds a picture of a baker*

Langa langa is a spinach-like vegetable, which I have grown to love. Here are the preschooler’s opinions: Ben: Langa langa makes me have a headache. Alma: Langa langa makes me have a tummyache. Sammy: Langa langa makes me grow!!

Sammy: Ladies and Genalton

Alma, how was ballet class? Alma: It was educational

Me: Toby, what shirt do you want to wear? How about this one? Toby: It doesn’t match my shorts

Hospital:

Med student lectures: I didn’t expect to attend lectures for the med students, but the team has been gracious to let me attend them. They’re super helpful for practicing French, and I’ve learned a lot from them too. Some of the most interesting were the med student presentations on ethical cases. These included cases like: which patient do you give your one bag of blood to? Do you take oxygen off a patient who will necessarily die soon anyways in order to put it on a baby who might actually live because of it? What do you do when a lady wants her tubes tied but her husband doesn’t want the procedure done? What do you do when a 16 year old girl whose parents you know from church comes to you asking for birth control? Hard questions, many of which would be applicable in the states (for instance, the oxygen question is much like our ventilator dilemmas), but often the students looked at the questions differently than I would. For instance, the tubal ligation turned into a birth control discussion, whereas I would have discussed the rights of the woman. And for the birth control question, they agreed that they would “tell” the parents about the kid’s behavior by holding church-wide gatherings, one for parents and one for teens, to talk about these issues, but if the kid were a few years younger, then they would tell the parents directly. They talked way more about their methods for educating the church and parents than about whether or not they would provide birth control for the girl and how they would interact with her and her lifestyle. So though I wish I knew more French so I could learn more about Burundian culture through the student’s presentations, I am thankful for what I am getting to see.

Med students: On Easter, I got to sing in church with the med students and Nicole, the team’s hospital finance person and a dear friend. For any BCM people reading this, this part really made me think of you because some of the English songs we sang were ones I learned at BCM15 and Ignite! Anyways, dancing in front of the congregation was pretty loosening for me, a lot of fun, and humbling because we sung in English, French, Kirundi and Zulu. For the med students, seeing their professors and (wonder of wonders) their dean, Dr. Bond, get up and dance was by far the best part.

I also got to attend an outreach to the hospital that the med students planned on Easter (It was a busy day). The outreach was all in Kirundi, so I couldn’t understand it, but it was still really fun and encouraging. I think I got used as the sinner in an illustration of how God sees Jesus’ righteousness when He looks at us because we’re covered with Jesus’ blood. Anyways, I was in the men’s post-op ward, and after a preaching of the (hopefully) gospel by one of our anesthetists, a prayer which the patients repeated after him with index fingers pointed sincerely to the sky, passing out of fantas and mandazi, and some singing, I had never seen the ward so joyful and energetic. Super fun. Please pray that the med students would increasingly understand the gospel of grace in contrast to the religion of works, and that they would be able to see their job as a ministry of words and actions.

Unexpected stories: The two contrasting stories I’m about to share remind me that the doctors treat people, but they don’t control the circumstances or the patient’s lives. One is about a patient who unexpectedly lived, and another about a patient who unexpectedly died. Baby B had a double cleft lip and palate, and she came into the malnutrition ward when I first arrived in January. Jason is super amazing and versatile and was going to give her cleft lip surgery once she gained enough weight and completed the necessary prep steps. She gained enough weight after a few weeks, but while waiting for surgery, she got sick from the other kids in the hospital. Frustrating and sad. In fact Baby B got so sick that I thought she would die, but she did recover, and it seemed like a miracle when I saw her on the operating table on March 31^st. Jason did a great job, and hopefully she can have her cleft palate surgery later this year. In contrast, N was a 12 year old girl who had been burned on 40% of her body when she got caught in the middle of a case of domestic violence between her parents. She was scheduled to have a few rounds of skin graft surgery, and the med student in charge of her had asked if one of us could get to know her and play with her during her 6 week stay. I had hopes of a mutually beneficial friendship with a Burundian kid for me, for some of the older missionary kids, and for some of the moms. I met her the day before she was scheduled to have her first surgery, and she seemed weak and timid but sweet and resilient. The next day, when I went up to see her with Heather and some of the kids, we found out that she had died unexpectedly the night before, after her first surgery, which seemed successful. The med student told me it was hypothermia, but I haven’t confirmed. Why these unexpected results? When we expect that someone will die, it’s because we don’t have enough oxygen or blood, or because we don’t have chemotherapy. When we don’t expect someone to die or to live, it often ranges from difficult to impossible to determine why they did. But the outcomes cause us to hold on to God’s promise to make all things new, to be humbled by our limitations, and to persevere in investing in patients. But they also cause discouragement, feelings of futility, and the need to wrestle with the present presence of suffering. Please pray for encouragement, strength, and perseverance for the doctors. It is a busy season where it seems like everyone in the world has malaria. Every service has way too many patients (for example, Alysa set a record of 89 patients today, which means ~3 patients and their families to a bed). Please also pray for Susan, who has pioneered the beginning of a child life program in the malnutrition ward. Many kids would just lie in bed letting the flies gather, but now they (and sometimes their moms and siblings) get to color or blow bubbles or pick a sticker when Susan visits. And when they “graduate” from the malnutrition program, Susan has organized a going away bag with clothes and food! Her work is super valuable: it is stimulation, development, fun, and relationships, all rolled into one. But it is hard and frustrating work, with some happy departures and some deaths, so please pray for sustenance, direction, and healing.

Thanks for reading! Please enjoy this view in Bujumbura of the sun setting over Lake Tanganyika with Congo mountains across the lake.

I lift up my eyes to the mountains--where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip--He who watches over you will not slumber. Indeed, He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD watches over you--the LORD is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will keep you from all harm--he will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forever more. 

Psalm 121