Poker? I don't even know her!

You may be confused about the title of this blog for two reasons: you wouldn't expect missionaries to encourage gambling or you don't have my dad's sense of humor. To clarify, we did indeed gamble, but only to decide who would have to wash all the dishes. And my dad is the funniest man I know. I'm not usually such a flatterer (Flatterer? I don't even know her!)

While we're on the subject of playing unexpected games with the missionaries, I feel the need to confess that we also played quarters one night... I've never seen people drink so much in one sitting in my life. Water that is. Nor have I known someone to get up 16 times in the night to go to the bathroom. Good news was that it hydrated me enough to survive the 7 mile cross country run/hike through the hills (and prickly plants) of Geita with Brett and Gunnar the next morning. It was one of my favorite adventures we've had here. Partly because it was the first time we've seen Brett scared. With good reason- he saw a giant, probably poisonous snake on path. We all survived and got to enjoy God's creation midst the tiring journey.

Another one my favorite adventures in Geita was when the Groen girls took Brooke and I and some of the kids from Neema house on a walk to a spring near their house. The bigger adventure was helping bathe all the kids when we got back. I admire the patience of all the house mamas after doing that. Trying to keep track of nine kids under the age of 4 while half of them want to play in the tub and the others just want to get out is not an easy task. Those women sure know what they're doing.

One day last week the gold mine school invited us to have lunch with them to thank us for putting on the tennis camp. 10 year-old Rachel came out again and got to play on the monkey bars and see-saw with the kids. I even tried to teach them a little frisbee which was somewhat successful. One girl named Jahsgreat (pronounced Jazz-great. Or Jazz-grate...) became my pal and helped teach me a little Swahili. She's not the first person to ask to come back to America with me, so mom I hope you're okay with having lots of visitors.

There is a church that meets right outside Neema House that we went to this last week. Calvin works more with this church than Brett does and some of his workers even go to it. It was nice to see some familiar faces. Especially to see them all sing and dance in praise without speakers getting in the way. Unfortunately this church feels the need to raise money to buy speakers before they can invite another church from the area to join them for worship. The missionaries hope to help them see that the church in scripture is a group of people who meet together regularly to hear the Word and encourage each other to be obedient to it. So with or without speakers, they can take the opportunity to share in this purpose with another church. Us (We?) interns talked more about this while looking at how the pharisees chose to follow tradition over obeying God's commands (in Matthew 15). I think we run into this just as much if not more so in American churches when we become obedient to norms and expectations instead of being obedient to The Lord. Being the hands and feet of God is not a set routine of church attendance and acts of service, but a life of knowing and loving our God. Only then will we desire to meet with other believers and to serve others in love. Even when loving them goes against tradition. If you haven't seen the original Les Miserables-with Liam Neesin- you must. I myself haven't seen the new musical, but I can imagine it is an equally beautiful displayer of grace (displayer? I don't even know her!)