Musing on the walk to the meeting

Sometimes I just have to sit back and reflect on just how special the friends here are.  I think about how difficult it would be for me to serve here with out the right gear -for example good quality hiking boots.  Our territoy is very rugged but with my boots I don't feel the rocks heat rivers etc.  The sisters here are always laughing and smiling but its not until I say hey are you shoes comfotrable that they tell me with a casual smile no not really.  They never ever complain.  I was walking with a sister the other day and it was paticulally hot and I wondered why she was walking slower and slower.  She finally asked to stop in the shade.  I thought she was tired but it turns out that the gound was so hot it was pactically melting the rubber on the bottom of her shoes!  We had to wait for them to cool!  She never complained and I neve would have know if I had not asked.  Often times the sisters carry cazy glue or a piece of string because they know eventually their shoe is just going to open all the way up.  We all laugh and make the shoe "talk" then tie it back up and keep on going.  They have such a geat sense of humor.

A few weeks ago, there were no buses running due to a holiday so I got to see what some the friends do everyday.  With no bus, we walked to the terrtiory about 13 miles away.  We are in dry season so we only have water every other day.  So the night befoe we went to a neighbors house to get water from the well to bathe in the moning.  We all woke up at 3AM to cook and get ready and leave the house by 5.  When we walked out, it was pitch black dark.  We walked by the light of the moon until the sun began to rise.  Then, the most amazing thing happend.  We had the moon high in the sky on our right and on our left was the sun rising over the mountains with all kinds of pinks, reds, and oranges.  We arrived several hours later all smiles and ready to preach.  It was so nice to see eveyone getting to service anyway they could.  Some of us on dusty roads by foot, some on motorcycle.  Others still by horescart.  And my pesonal favorite the bicycles.  The family head will pedal with his wife balanced on the bar holding a baby while the older child stands on pegs on the back wheel!  THis is for miles!  Once at the hall we all wash off the dust and laugh and talk and you'd never know.  Despite all odds the friends here love our great God Jehovah!