The Difficulties of This Work

On the left is a picture of the bathroom we use in Ler. It's separate from the tukul hut where I live. And here's a picture of the inside of the bathroom . . .



Today I'll answer another question I'm often asked . . .

What are the difficulties involved in your work?

Ah, where do I begin? Please don't think I'm getting negative, but I want to give you a realistic picture of what's it's like to work here.

I think the most pressing difficulty is to do this work without a "community;" often, we are solo in the field, or the only non-native person among the natives, and this can become wholly taxing! We need to go out in two's at least (very good Biblical example for this, I dare say; and even the UN sends its people out in twos), but Across does not yet have the human-power to do this, so… it seems that too many of us get wearied quickly, complain a lot, get negative without realizing that is what we've become, and become sick in mind, body and spirit…I pray against this for myself, and trust the Holy Spirit to keep looming larger and larger with/in my daily living/activities in the field.

We do have a half hour "devotions" every morning (on most of the bases) on the bases, where all the local and seconded staff come together, sing praise/worship songs in either English, the mother-tongue of the people or else in Arabic, read the scripture with some exposition, and we pray for whatever needs are raised; this pretty much serves as the means of "community," mostly, and apparently is working, for even when people leave and go else where, what they always say they miss are these devotions; so far, they have not meant a whole lot to me, except for when the people sing in their mother-tongue or when they sing in English, but the patterns and rhythms are in their own language. Then, I usually experience (yes, experience because the Spirit of the Lord Jesus can be experienced, the same way we experience love/loving each other in any/all of our love relationships as human beings) the presence of the Lord and the oneness of the Body of Christ.

Practically, everything u can imagine is a "difficulty:" the lack of maturity/maturing Believers; the lack of trained pastors & evangelists; the lack of people to train and help equip them; the lack of training places for this to be done; the water we drink; the water we bathe in; the bed we sleep on; the hut/house we sleep in; the roof over our heads; the lack of permanent structures to live in; the toilet we use; the food we eat; where & how the food is cooked: the people who cook (lots of times, they're sick!), the flies; the mosquitoes; the snakes; the scorpions; the roads and lack thereof that we walk/travel on; the too much sun/heat at times.

I'm not finished yet! There's also the lack of electricity or solar power; the cost of everything always so high; the place of worship; the cultural and lack of cultural exchanges; the flagrant, destructive (satanic!) tribalism, even in the Church; the flagrant, oppressive devaluation of women and their overburdening work! The physical and verbal abuse of women; the sometimes disregard for children and animals; the way even the smallest child, girl child especially, is expected to begin working from very early in life; the paternalistic, still overly colonial attitudes of "Christians" we work with; always this inability to see ourselves as are in relationship to others as well as to ourselves; the lack of funds and donors to support or help us to help the people with basic, but dire needs, like healthy drinking water that is near to where they live, and so and so on…

Certainly in the midst of all these difficulties I have to remember to "Rejoice in the Lord always." The circumstances often don't give reason to rejoice, but I can always rejoice in the Lord who loves and cares for me. Please keep me in your prayers!

That's it for this post. What you you think about what I just shared? Leave your comment by clicking the link labeled 'comments' below.