28 June 1996

From my journal...

The cock’s crow broke the night’s silence like an annoying alarm clock. As I looked out the window I noticed that it was still deathly black outside. I hit the trusty “Indiglo” button, 3:00. What was this retarded rooster doing at this ungodly hour? And why did he have to wake me up? Than it decided to break the silence again every time I was just on the verge of sleep. It was kind of like my snooze button in the mornings. Of course, it was the beginning of a beautiful day, and the close of a night of strange and unwarranted dreams. I kept dreaming over and over that there were huge snake-like creatures at the foot of my bed. Every time I would feel the air touch my feet, I would awaken in terror.

When I finally got out of bed, I looked at the dim silhouette of trees preceding the palette of the sunrise. Although the sun could not yet be seen, the colors of the morn announced its coming as the liaison of a king. It was beautiful.

The first thing we did was go to chapel [at the Nhowe Mission School]. Chapel at Nhowe begins at 6:45 a.m. (The students get up between 3 & 4 a.m. to get ready and to do their daily chores.) Chapel was a neat experience. The songs were sung in Shona. Tim gave a short lesson, and then we presented the soccer team with shirts and a new ball. In return and as a sign of their gratitude, they gave us Nhowe t-shirts. We then followed the head master around on a tour of the campus grounds, farm, and brick field, followed by a tour of the primary and secondary classes. They were wonderful. The children are very intelligent. They were already dealing with simple organic reactions as related to sugars.

The children’s grade 1 & 2 classes were so adorable. When the primary head master, Mr. Makayi, would come into a room and tell them “good morning,” they would all reply in sing song unison. Then at their break, when we went to get our morning tea, we were flocked by the most adorable children in the world. We taught them how to give high fives. It was one of those precious, priceless memories.

We also went through the Nhowe village and met with some of the people on our way to see the dam that will provide the hospital with its water. The owners of the dam are the Waikley’s. They were wonderful people, who invited us over for tea. We discovered that they had a worker who had been injured in a truck accident. He had a cracked vertebrae and an ear infection that was probably caused by a basal skull fracture.

The people in the village were wonderful. They are so friendly and willing to share a smile and a kind word. The women must have incredibly strong backs. They often carry heavy bags of food and grain on their heads, while they have a baby strapped to their backs.

After lunch we visited the old clinic at the mission. It is still in use now, but will be moved to the hospital once it is functional. Steve unloaded a ton of medicine that was donated by pharmaceutical reps. We stayed there a while as he explained all of the drugs to the nurses in charge. When he was done and we were about to leave, the people from the mission crowded around us and sang him a song him Shona. The melody hit all of our hearts and brought tears to our eyes. It was wonderful.

Once we got back to the fields on the campus, we played some soccer with some of the kids. We got in a huge clump and headed the ball around. Every time we hit the ball, we would all say “YEAH!” and when the ball fell to the ground the would say, “OHHHHH!” It was so great!

(Before that, we took some corner kicks with the senior high team and all of the kids gathered around.)

All day long students have been both giving us their addresses and asking us for ours. It is going to be pretty busy, I guess, writing all of these kids. Of course, they may not all write, but who knows? If they do write, then God grant me the time and the will to write them back.

The night sky here is amazing. There is no problem with smog or air pollution, so the starts are everywhere. They stick out for the world to see as diamonds across the ring of the Milky Way and other galaxies of precious stones. Some of the diamonds have fallen out tonight and glittered in the light of the moon. They leave a streak behind so everyone can see from whence they came. I had to walk Brian back to Emmanuel’s house tonight. It is quite a distance on the other side of the campus, so I did not want him to fall prey to the misdirection of the night. After I dropped him off I walked back in the quiet of the night, marveling at all of the beauty around me.

It is amazing what God has done around us, and scary how Satan has used even such things as smog and pollution to take them away from us in America. The night was beautiful and brisk. Upon my return from the chilling walk, I sat by the warmth of a fire and some hot tea at the Makayi’s. It was absolutely wonderful. God is here in this place. May the hearts of the men and women here invite him to stay.