Sunday, March 17, 2013

Buildings that Crumble

Warning: this post will be all over the place. Be ready.

A mosque about a 20 minute walk from my house.
I had never experienced so many mosquitoes in my room at one time than I did this one night after spending the day coming in and out of my open room door  (opens to the outside of the house) with my 12-year-old sister and the 8-year-old son of my "Mom"'s coworker. We played long and hard with a quickly deteriorating orange foam/sponge ball in the limited space of a patio-type walkway in front of my room. That night I entered my room to discover over 25 mosquitoes lazily flying around or hanging out on my walls, just waiting for me to settle down for the night. My sister couldn't believe how many there were and grabbed the mosquito killing spray which then fumigated my room. The great thing about this process is the pungent lingering smell of the spray that has become as much a part of my life as the dust on my feet each day. That night, however, the other great perk of the spray was that when I entered my room several hours later, I found the mosquitoes dead all over my floor, bed, table, and chair. In fact, I could not walk through my room without stepping on them, and I had to pick through my bed sheet to avoid sleeping with them. They made a nice little black pile when I swept them all up before bed. Definitely looked like more than just 25 in that form.
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I have been attending International Baptist Church with some friends of mine who are fellow followers of Christ. The first Sunday I went I was overwhelmed by the richness of being together with a body of believers like that. It had been about a month since I had been able to go to church, and I had been missing that community. The family that sat behind us used to know a family we knew in Ethiopia, and since then we have eaten at their house and spent time getting to know them a bit better. The pastor is from some other African country and preaches in English, the songs being a mixture of French and English. Most of the congregation are from various anglophone African countries. It takes me about an hour to get to church each Sunday, and I enjoy every minute of it. I never feel alone when I walk or take the public transport-- I sorta slip into this place of quiet communion with God as I take in all the sights and sounds (and often, smells). More about the walking: I have started walking home from my study center twice a week when my classes finish early (at 16:15). The walk home takes about an hour, unless you stop for ice cream or beignets on the way.

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I haven't really slept on a real pillow in 2 months :) My bed didn't have one, and I didn't wanna go buy one. I have discovered that my jacket and my fleece blanket work really well as pillows! My bed, like many Senegalese beds I have heard about, is dipped in the middle giving an almost sleeping-in-the-hammock feeling. I'm a fan. I sleep under a mosquito net each night, and each morning I tie it up like you tie up the ropes at the rock wall. I'm mastering this daisy-knot business. 

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Last Friday I starred in a French film. Well, maybe not "starred" but the movie was called "Des Etoiles" and I was an extra in the airport scene. One of my friends, Austin, and I made up a whole story about how we were siblings arriving in Senegal to visit our sister in the Peace Corps. There is chance I made it in the background of a 2 second clip, but that might be stretching it. There were a lot of extras from my program who did this too! The movie producers fed us breakfast and lunch, and though we did a lot of standing in lines or sitting around, we had a great time. When we returned that night to Ouakam, we discovered a huge crowd of people just down the street from my house. Turns out a building that was under construction (5 stories tall) had collapsed that morning because it was not safely built. They had built it about 3 stories higher than they had the permit to built it, and the cement blocks being used were not a good composition. The rebar reinforcement was also not a good quality, thus creating the unstable building that I used to run past several times a week. About 2 workers died, 4 were injured, and several cars who had been driving past got smashed. My family didn't want to talk about it when I got home.


View from the nearby lighthouse. 
Unexpected things happen every day. It is such a comfort to rest in the knowledge that God is in control. No matter how "safe" or "unsafe" our lives may seem to us, we are as safe as we will ever be when we are in God's hands. Safety itself, then, is really a matter of perspective. Eternal security trumps all earthly safety nets and door locks. I feel like Jesus could make a parable about this house, about how the composition of the building, the essence of its frame, is more important than how firm or pretty it looks from the outside. Our lives need to be built with blocks that won't crumble when they are pressured, with what won't be destroyed by the passing of time. Reading Jesus's teachings in Matthew always reminds me that the God we serve and the Kingdom of Heaven is worth so much more than anything we might "give" on this earth. The Treasure of unfathomable price. And yet it can be scary to pray that we would seek this Kingdom no matter the cost. We love our comfort, we love feeling like we are in control of our lives. We don't like pain. But if we truly believe in God and His Kingdom, isn't the logical next step is to give all that we have in the pursuit of this Kingdom?

1 comment:

  1. Jodi I enjoy reading so much! you are like your Dad in writing.. and I always looked forward to his letters. Stay safe in Jesus...we love you so much!!

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