So thanks to a book that the Solvig's brought down to prayer retreat about West African snakes Lisa and I were able to finally ID our snake!
He's an African tree cobra. They're pretty rare and hard to find a photo of, but we found some info and a photo here. It makes more sense, because they yellow belly didn't fit with a mamba and neither did the fact that he was black (Black mambas are dark grey, the black is from their mouth). African tree cobras have a false hood, so they don't look like your traditional cobra, but ours had a little bit of one, which made him stand out, so did his big eyes and yellow stomach, and now we've pinned it down. We're also pretty sure he came in via a tree that was up against our house, he climbed that and then crawled in through the ceiling. The tree is gone now, hopefully so are poisonous snakes, as great of a story as that is, the potential of dying in your livingroom from an angry little snake isn't really something I want to encourage.
Just thought I'd share that,
Jess
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Flotsam and Jetsam
Here's a little bit of bullet-pointed goodness. They're bits and pieces from here and there with some photos. None of it was really a whole post on its own and so now it's just a bunch of random things from the past few weeks:
Till next time.
Jessica
- Teaching some kids dominoes.
They look really serious, but we were having fun. Really. They came over the other day. Lisa was busy and left me to talk with Davis for a while. I'm not really that good at small talk especially in French. Although he wanted to speak in English anyway. So we asked random questions, and tried to decipher what the other person was saying with a mix of French and English and some translation by Lisa. Anyway, after that I got out the dominoes to show the kids how you can line 'em up and knock them all down. Then Davis wanted to play a real game. Somehow through my awkward French instructions and demonstration they learned Mexican train dominoes. It was fun. The first round probably took at least a half an hour and I decided to not tell them you're supposed to play another 12 rounds :-D
- I keep dreaming in French. Almost all my dreams are partly in French. Half of them are tri-lingual because my brain likes to throw in German to the mix. At least when I'm asleep I can keep them all straight..
- More kids came over and they kept giggling and they were singing us songs in Nzebie, so I went and got my camera. Here's a pic of me with some of the kids:
- Saturday I went with Renee (a doctor here), Megan (a 4th year medical student doing a rotation here) and Jeff (Megan's husband, he does Graphic design) to the river. We floated down it on innertubes. It was a lot of, but 3.5 hours laying in the equatorial sun on reflective water during the sunniest time of day = one bad sunburn. It's finally turning purple and starting to hurt a little less. I never realised sunburns could be quite that painful. The point? Make sure you realy put sunblock on all exposed skin, even if you're in a hurry.
- Huub and Margariet and Rebecca are all leaving to goto Guinea. Huub was here to get some experience in different areas of medicine at a hospital in Africa and now they're off to a developing hospital (I've heard it's more like a clinic right now, but it's heading towards hospital-hood). Anyway, I'm super sad to see these great new friends leave, but very excited for them since they are heading to there own field now! Here's a photo of Rebecca and Me (I took it, so it's not that great):
- Amy, Megan and Jeff are leaving too. They were out here for rotations during Amy and Megan's fourth year of medical school. They were all super fun. We had lots of game nights with them and general craziness. I'm so glad they came out here during these past months and that we got to do so much with them! We're already forming plans for reunions in the states!
- This week is prayer retreat (starting Friday I think). All the C&MA missionaries are getting together here at Bongolo and a pastor and team came out from Cleveland to lead the weekend. We're going to pray a lot and we are having a potluck, so far this is about all I know about it. So I'll fill you in more later, once I know more!
Till next time.
Jessica
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Love
Yesterday I was thanking God for love. And I was trying to think of a way to express my love for him. What I thought of was something akin to thirst or hunger, like the verse in Psalm 42:1, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.”
But then I realised that that wasn't my love for God. That's my need for God. That's my soul and bodies inability to live without him. And it's true. I need God like I need oxygen. Yes, I could hold my breath and deny that need. I could convince myself that it's not necessary and say, “see, I don't need to breath” but soon I will. Soon I would find myself gasping and my lungs and every other part of my body would be screaming out for oxygen. And if I could hold out long enough, still ignoring it, I'd pass out till my body would take over. If I found a way to thwart my body then I'd die, because really, oxygen is necessary. We know this. It seems silly to even type it. Of course we know this. But it's the same thing when we ignore our need for God. We watch the world crumble around us and still say it's not true. Some turn to him early, some wait until they collapse and finally see their need for God. Others ignore and ignore and stop their souls from crying out to him till they die.
Somehow that fact is hard to see than the fact that we need oxygen, but it's the same thing.
I pondered this and then wondered, but if that's not love, what is?
Then it hit me. The love is in the fact that God saw us all standing here on earth with out blue faces and pillows over our noises mouthing the words: “I can do it on my own!”
And he didn't laugh. He cried for us, and then he sent Jesus to move our pillows and show us the way out.
That's love. He created us, we ignored him and tried to kill ourselves and he rescued us. He gave us life by dying himself. So now “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). I can't say I ever really understood that idea until last night. When I realised that before we know Christ, before we realise what it is he's done, we have no hope of loving him. We can't even see that we're suffocating our own souls. And then once we realise that he's taken the burden off of our shoulders and placed it on his own, and that he's opened up our airway so we can breathe, then we can finally love him. It's through that that we can fill our lungs up with oxygen and sing him songs about our love, because first he loved us enough to give up his dignity and get down in the dirt with us, to put his hands in the mess and fix what we'd mucked up.
No God's love for us and our love for God isn't expressed in our need for him. The love is that he decided to save us from ourselves. And our love is giving everything he saved back to him.
So there's my valentine's day thoughts this year.
Jessica
But then I realised that that wasn't my love for God. That's my need for God. That's my soul and bodies inability to live without him. And it's true. I need God like I need oxygen. Yes, I could hold my breath and deny that need. I could convince myself that it's not necessary and say, “see, I don't need to breath” but soon I will. Soon I would find myself gasping and my lungs and every other part of my body would be screaming out for oxygen. And if I could hold out long enough, still ignoring it, I'd pass out till my body would take over. If I found a way to thwart my body then I'd die, because really, oxygen is necessary. We know this. It seems silly to even type it. Of course we know this. But it's the same thing when we ignore our need for God. We watch the world crumble around us and still say it's not true. Some turn to him early, some wait until they collapse and finally see their need for God. Others ignore and ignore and stop their souls from crying out to him till they die.
Somehow that fact is hard to see than the fact that we need oxygen, but it's the same thing.
I pondered this and then wondered, but if that's not love, what is?
Then it hit me. The love is in the fact that God saw us all standing here on earth with out blue faces and pillows over our noises mouthing the words: “I can do it on my own!”
And he didn't laugh. He cried for us, and then he sent Jesus to move our pillows and show us the way out.
That's love. He created us, we ignored him and tried to kill ourselves and he rescued us. He gave us life by dying himself. So now “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). I can't say I ever really understood that idea until last night. When I realised that before we know Christ, before we realise what it is he's done, we have no hope of loving him. We can't even see that we're suffocating our own souls. And then once we realise that he's taken the burden off of our shoulders and placed it on his own, and that he's opened up our airway so we can breathe, then we can finally love him. It's through that that we can fill our lungs up with oxygen and sing him songs about our love, because first he loved us enough to give up his dignity and get down in the dirt with us, to put his hands in the mess and fix what we'd mucked up.
No God's love for us and our love for God isn't expressed in our need for him. The love is that he decided to save us from ourselves. And our love is giving everything he saved back to him.
So there's my valentine's day thoughts this year.
Jessica
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
"He who argues with God, let him answer it."
Job 40:2 (Read this book, you won't be sorry for it. It's all worth it for chapters 38-42)
I know I'm out of it when I forget to even come and check comments.
Oh well, I'm back now. I've been filling up my free time with a bit more conversation and reading some books in a decision to try and spend more time more productively than on my computer. I decided I should use my time to read my Bible more (or just read something, it seems better than pining for emails or something) and praying more. Both have been going better. I made it my only "resolution" for the new year to read the Bible everyday. So far, it's going well.
I'm in the middle of Psalms. Sometimes I wonder if reading psalms isn't a little like sitting down with a hymnal and just reading through all those verses. It seems weird to me. But they are great. They're better out loud. Plus it makes me focus more, which is good, since I'm a little ADD sometimes and since I've been flaring some (nothing too awful, thankfully) I have a way of just zoning out of anything and everything. Still, I like them. They make me want to write. And then I decide I still have nothing new to say and no variations, so I just keep reading.
Speaking of things that say everything and more than you could have thought of...I remembered a prayer the other day that seems to express exactly what it is that I'm never sure how to say. In college I learned a lot about the Eastern Orthodox church and the way they worship. The people I read and met and talked with about it were deeply in love with God, and I learned a lot from them about various ways to grow closer to Him.
One thing I had learned, and never considered much before were praying pre-written prayers. These can come from a lot of places. The Bible (Psalms is full of them!) or from other Christians. When I came here I asked those of you supporting me to pray the prayer that Paul had written down for his friends in Colossae (Colossians 1:9-12).
This prayer that I remembered is one from Metropolitan Philaret (a bishop, poet, and teacher from 1800s):
O Lord, I do not know what to ask of You.
You alone know what are my true needs.
You love me more than I myself know how to love,
Help me to see my real needs which are concealed from me.
I do not dare to ask either for a cross or for consolation.
I can only wait on You. My heart is open to You.
Visit and help me, for the sake of Your great mercy.
Strike me and heal me; case me down and raise me up.
I worship in silence Your holy will and Your unsearchable ways.
I offer myself as a sacrifice to You.
I have no other desire than to fulfill Your will.
Teach me to pray. Pray You Yourself in me.
Amen.
That prayer says so much that I have tried to say before. It reminds me that God lets us hurt sometimes, and sometimes he heals. But he does it for his own glory--we can't understand it sometimes, but he does. And it reminds me to joyfully submit to him. I want more than anything to do what he wants me to do. Sometimes I don't know what that is. But He always knows, and when I don't know what to do, I need to remember to simply turn to him, offering myself to him as a living sacrafice. I need to turn to him in worshiping him. He's Holy; He knows; and He controls. I really haven't anything to fear, not pain, not uncertainty. If i follow him, nothing will happen to me except what he allows so that he can be glorified.
It also reminds me to try and let my struggles turn into his glory. I know I have a choice of how to deal with the surprises in life that I face. Bitterness, anger, jealousy...those won't glorify him. But if I can still smile, because I know that he is with me and praise him because I know that he will always walk beside me, and simply continue to seek after him, despite whatever gets in the way, then he will be the focus, and that is how it ought to be.
Recently I've been frustrated because I have more time then I know what to do with but I don't have the strength to do the things that are available (like working up at the school, it's a walk up a huge hill, and right now with this flare I can't seem to make it very fare without paying for any exertion with exhaustion and more pain). I prayed, asking God to make me stronger so I could go do more. I prayed and asked him to heal my body. I asked him what I am supposed to do. Why am I here if I can't do anything? But, then last night, God showed me that this time is a gift from him. It was as if he was saying, you have always longed for more time to focus on me. More time to study and to pray. And now that I have it, I get frustrated and try and find a way to fill up my time.
I felt dumb after hearing that. But I also felt glad. At least he got through to me before my time is up. Joanna and the kids will be back before the end of the month, and I will be busy again. Till then, I'm glad for the time I have left, and I ask you to pray that I use it well.
Love,
Jessica
I know I'm out of it when I forget to even come and check comments.
Oh well, I'm back now. I've been filling up my free time with a bit more conversation and reading some books in a decision to try and spend more time more productively than on my computer. I decided I should use my time to read my Bible more (or just read something, it seems better than pining for emails or something) and praying more. Both have been going better. I made it my only "resolution" for the new year to read the Bible everyday. So far, it's going well.
I'm in the middle of Psalms. Sometimes I wonder if reading psalms isn't a little like sitting down with a hymnal and just reading through all those verses. It seems weird to me. But they are great. They're better out loud. Plus it makes me focus more, which is good, since I'm a little ADD sometimes and since I've been flaring some (nothing too awful, thankfully) I have a way of just zoning out of anything and everything. Still, I like them. They make me want to write. And then I decide I still have nothing new to say and no variations, so I just keep reading.
Speaking of things that say everything and more than you could have thought of...I remembered a prayer the other day that seems to express exactly what it is that I'm never sure how to say. In college I learned a lot about the Eastern Orthodox church and the way they worship. The people I read and met and talked with about it were deeply in love with God, and I learned a lot from them about various ways to grow closer to Him.
One thing I had learned, and never considered much before were praying pre-written prayers. These can come from a lot of places. The Bible (Psalms is full of them!) or from other Christians. When I came here I asked those of you supporting me to pray the prayer that Paul had written down for his friends in Colossae (Colossians 1:9-12).
This prayer that I remembered is one from Metropolitan Philaret (a bishop, poet, and teacher from 1800s):
O Lord, I do not know what to ask of You.
You alone know what are my true needs.
You love me more than I myself know how to love,
Help me to see my real needs which are concealed from me.
I do not dare to ask either for a cross or for consolation.
I can only wait on You. My heart is open to You.
Visit and help me, for the sake of Your great mercy.
Strike me and heal me; case me down and raise me up.
I worship in silence Your holy will and Your unsearchable ways.
I offer myself as a sacrifice to You.
I have no other desire than to fulfill Your will.
Teach me to pray. Pray You Yourself in me.
Amen.
That prayer says so much that I have tried to say before. It reminds me that God lets us hurt sometimes, and sometimes he heals. But he does it for his own glory--we can't understand it sometimes, but he does. And it reminds me to joyfully submit to him. I want more than anything to do what he wants me to do. Sometimes I don't know what that is. But He always knows, and when I don't know what to do, I need to remember to simply turn to him, offering myself to him as a living sacrafice. I need to turn to him in worshiping him. He's Holy; He knows; and He controls. I really haven't anything to fear, not pain, not uncertainty. If i follow him, nothing will happen to me except what he allows so that he can be glorified.
It also reminds me to try and let my struggles turn into his glory. I know I have a choice of how to deal with the surprises in life that I face. Bitterness, anger, jealousy...those won't glorify him. But if I can still smile, because I know that he is with me and praise him because I know that he will always walk beside me, and simply continue to seek after him, despite whatever gets in the way, then he will be the focus, and that is how it ought to be.
Recently I've been frustrated because I have more time then I know what to do with but I don't have the strength to do the things that are available (like working up at the school, it's a walk up a huge hill, and right now with this flare I can't seem to make it very fare without paying for any exertion with exhaustion and more pain). I prayed, asking God to make me stronger so I could go do more. I prayed and asked him to heal my body. I asked him what I am supposed to do. Why am I here if I can't do anything? But, then last night, God showed me that this time is a gift from him. It was as if he was saying, you have always longed for more time to focus on me. More time to study and to pray. And now that I have it, I get frustrated and try and find a way to fill up my time.
I felt dumb after hearing that. But I also felt glad. At least he got through to me before my time is up. Joanna and the kids will be back before the end of the month, and I will be busy again. Till then, I'm glad for the time I have left, and I ask you to pray that I use it well.
Love,
Jessica
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