If don’t read all of this, at least skip to the BOLD section below.
Today, we were visiting a Church 3 hours north that JJ helps and coaches. The road had a ton of pot holes and we were bounced around like crazy, but it was a beautiful drive. It was very lush with palms, banana trees, mountains, etc… Great view!
When we pulled up to the church, they had just started and I heard “IT”. Someone in this church got their hands on enough instruments to form a small marching band. When we walked into this small church building, we were blown away with the sounds of about 4 trumpets, 2 or 3 trombones, a tuba, drums to makeup a small drum line. It was AWESOME. Some of them were borderline yelling to try to sing over the music… but they loved it. I did too! Lots of churches complain about worship bands… I’ve never seen a church with a “Marching Worship Band”. If you don’t believe me, check out my pics on facebook.
Another great story for those that partnered with me financially. I want to make sure I let you know another place that your money went. I found out that one young man in the church was currently in school, and the school had changed some policies mid-semester on him. They were going to kick him out unless he came up with $14.00. I was able to meet that need for him. It doesn’t always take much to make a huge impact. Meet them at their deepest needs!
We found out that one of the families that came to church this morning had walked (with 3 small children) 4 miles to come to church. They were going to have to walk another 4 miles all the way back home. By the way… these were new believers. How’s that for commitment? How far would we go to connect with other believers and study the Word? Luckily we drove a van today and had the privilege of driving this family home. The kids were so excited to not have to walk all that way in the hot sun. I’ve got a pic of the family on my facebook page.
When we left the church, we visited a cocoa bean and coffee bean plantation before lunch. It hit me as we were walking towards the jungle atmosphere that I’m wearing flip flops and that this probably was a poor attire choice. Too late now. Right as we entered the tree covering (which felt like walking into air-conditioning) I heard such a great sentence. ”Watch out for the cobras and mambas… they like to hang out in the trees and drop on you when you walk by”. #getmeouttahere #Idon’tlikeshadethatmuch One of the guys on the plantation gave us a cocoa bean to try later. It was quite tasty. We didn’t eat the bean part, we just sucked on them… They were covered in a sweet fruity type goo that was delicious.
After our excursion, we went back to the pastors house for lunch.
THIS WAS ONE OF THE MOST HUMBLING EXPERIENCES OF MY LIFE! I’m going to try to explain the emotions I had here, but I know in advance I will fail. We walked into his home, and sat in what appeared to be his living room. There were a few padded chairs with a coffee table in the middle. His young son came and cleared it off and put a cloth down to make a table cloth. He was grinning ear to ear to serve us. Shortly, the pastors wife came in with two water basins (one for soapy water, and the other for rinsing) to clean our hands. The she served us our meal with 2 colas. The meal was comprised of a corn mash that was wrapped in husks and cooked. You pull off the mash with your fingers and dip it into a tomato/salsa type paste on the side. She also served us a few small pieces of fried fish. They didn’t eat with us. They just served us their absolute best. I knew they wouldn’t be eating as well as we were, so I wanted to share it with them… then JJ explained that in their culture, they would get more joy out of seeing you enjoy their food than they would eating it themselves. In America, if someone came by, you might say… man, I’d love to serve you something, but we just don’t have anything in the fridge, and you’d continue on. Here, that would be considered a travesty. They made sure to put out more than we would eat, because it would be better for us to be full than to ask for more or to be hungry. After this, they cut up our cocoa bean to share. Then they tried to give us bananas to eat, but we were too full already. They also went into the village, while we were eating to get us bottled water. They had made it a point to get some ice for their ice chest to try to chill our two sodas. While we were there, a man from the village stopped by during our meal. He had a large sack with him and he said “I noticed you were in town and I knew you’d be having lunch here so I got this for you”. He had gone into the jungle and found us fresh bananas, climbed up in the tree and cut them down for us. He also found us some inyam (a root… like a large potatoe). We thanked him so much for his generosity, and he exited our lunch experience. This family also made sure to send us off with even more bananas that they had gathered for us. They truly gave us their very best, and they were so happy to do it. As I prayed over our food and this family, I started tearing up and was trying to compose my words. I felt so selfish and greedy compared to this Godly man and his family. They have found joy in giving and being selfless. He has been cut off from his family as well as his inheritance because of his choice to accept Christ and surrender to ministering to others. The only thing that I know of that this pastor wants, is a small piece of land that he can build on. In their culture, land is a big deal. He want’s something to leave to his children when he passes. If you’d be interested in contributing… hit me up. Even if you can’t, please stop and pray that God would pour his blessings out on this family right now!
Some of you have already hit me up on how to support directly to causes like the ones you read about today. If you want to know more, shoot me a message on facebook.
This seems like a great place to end todays blog.
To find out more about this ministry, visit: www.togopalms.org
For pictures from today, visit: Bryan Tabb’s Facebook
