Monday, January 27, 2011

Monday, January 17

It’s very difficult keeping this journal up, knowing I can’t post to my blog on a daily basis.

There are several things that happened this last week that I must write down. They were moments of precious power and significance.

At the close of one day of hard, hot work, Saunders, one of our translators, came to me and said, “Sam is a very kind man. I like him. And every time he looks at you there is love in his eyes. I can see it. I can tell that he loves you very much.”  We chatted about marriage for a time. I said a long marriage is partly gift from God and partly hard work. He said he hoped to find a love like we have.  He is a fine young man, a journalist for a radio station here in the city. His beat is health issues. He will do a story on WEH, and he says he will stay involved. I think he has been moved deeply by our work in the villages, and by all he has seen of village life. Sam and I both like him a lot.

Another story is of the nursing student, Natalie. Last week the team had seen a blind 2-year old with cerebral palsy. She doesn’t look that old because she is so small and slight of build. She cannot sit up on her own, or hold her head up. Natalie indicated that she had experience with cerebral palsy. She has a young niece with it, and takes care of a 19-year old with it. So she wanted to visit this child and her family personally. So later last week the family brought her to see Natalie. I was in the car by stroke of luck. So was Ruth, who served as translator. Natalie lovingly lay the child in the back of the SUV and patiently showed the parents some physical therapy they should do with the child. She showed them how to stretch each of her limbs three times a day to keep them from pulling up tight, and she told them how important it is that they sit her up and keep her back straight so she will be more comfortable as she grows. She learned from them that the child eats only mashed food, but does eat well. And she told them that she could see they love her very much. She said the child is lucky to have them for parents and that they can give her a comfortable life. Natalie herself exhibited so much love and compassion for the child, and for her parents and their circumstance. (The brain damage was a result of some medications given to the mother early in her pregnancy.)  She assured them that it does not mean their next child will be like this. After it was all over, Natalie said to me, “You were there watching me, and the warmth and encouragement in your face helped me to do what I was doing.” Natalie is a fine nurse!  The students had me pick up a blender and basin for bathing for the child to give to the family. Though the family had been hoping for a miracle from the nurses, or a major intervention – like taking the child to America for healing – I could see that they were grateful to Natalie for the time and care and attention she gave them and their baby.

Another most moving experience was church yesterday and the lunch that followed. Sam was the preacher. He had taken a whole day to prepare his sermon but he was not at all confident about it. He said it felt like there was too much reiteration of the Gospel reading in it, and that there was not enough additional substance. And he felt constrained by having to actually write down the sermon –  which he rarely does – and by the knowledge that he would be pausing often for the pastor to read the translation in French. Ruth and Raphael translated the sermon and Raphael delivered to the pastor on Saturday night. Sam was very sermon going to bed on Saturday night, and on Sunday morning. But, of course, it went well. The people clearly enjoyed it, even applauding at the end! Sam included a song in the sermon, and all the people joined in.

Following the service, the pastor and three elders came to dinner at the Titis’.  The conversation at the table was rich beyond compare. They all said the sermon was great, and that the congregation was obviously fully engaged. They liked Sam’s point that the Church is the people, not the building, and that we are all called, like the disciples, to minister in Christ’s name. In spite of the fact that the pastor made an error in translation, those who understand English said they liked Sam’s point that John the Baptist had been a messenger and that Jesus was, himself, the message.

Ruth asked Sam if he would change anything in his sermon were he preaching at home. He said he would not. Then Ruth confessed to the whole assemblage that when I had become an Episcopalian she had felt that I betrayed our Baptist heritage. In the last three years since we were reunited she has asked me many questions about that transition in my life and I have assured her that I did not have to renounce anything, that my life was richer for that change. So Ruth said she is now confident that I did not betray our heritage, and that she is learning that the differences among denominations are pretty minimal. They all agreed. I said to Ruth, “I forgive you,” and to the others, “we are all the Church of Jesus Christ.”

At the conclusion of the dinner, the pastor asked one of the elders, a lay woman named Berthe, to say a prayer. Though it was in French, Sam and I both felt that it was a profoundly powerful prayer and that we were all united around the table in and through it. At one time during the meal I said, “When people truly want to understand each other, they find a way.” Indeed, in spite of the language barrier, we had understood one another.

And the pastor confirmed that he wants me to preach at some time before I go. I wasn’t sure but that some sexism might prevent that from happening, so I’m very excited about the opportunity. Perhaps I will be able to read my own sermon in French.

Today the students are off for the first day of their last week of work. They are going all the way to Penja, a two hour drive. I stayed home to go to the dentist. I have had my jaw dislocate! But it has improved a great deal and Raphael and I decided I probably didn’t need to go the dentist. So I had a day to go to the Internet café and to work on some ideas for the bakery cooperative. So be it. And thanks be to God.

Sam leaves on Thursday night. I have so enjoyed having him with me this time, to see all I have seen. I will miss him as I enter a new chapter of stay here this weekend.