He Guides My Path!

Our new friends

Our new friends house in the village

Drea with the ladies during the celebration

Bryan is honored when asked to dance in their celebration

Their national soup. It was delicious!

Yesterday (Monday) was the best day ever!! We hit the gold mine of the people we came here to get to know. By Gods grace, I wrote you and told you that we met some Americans. They told us about a village about 25 min. from where we were that is an “A” village (A is the people we hoped to find.) Yesterday they were holding a big celebration, so we ventured out by taxi in hopes of …???Once we were there we came in contact with another Peac* Corp. lady Amy. She and another volunteer had lunch with us and were kind enough to answer all of our questions the best she knew how. She has only been in this village for 3 months, but knows enough of the language to get around. While up in the mountains we have not had a translator, but again with Gods grace, we have been able to communicate one way or another. To hear someone speak English was a strange sound. We have also learned several phrases and key words to communicate.In the village the people speak two languages, most only speak their heart language, but some learned people speak their heart language and the trade language. So, it would be important to learn the heart language if one were to live here, although you would have to start with the trade language, for when you left the village, because it is not remotely close with the other, ( just a side note).Amy asked us if we would like to come with her to the town celebration where they were eating and getting ready for some native dancing. YES!! This was truly a village, like none I have ever seen. The houses were made from stone, there is a stream running down the center of town, which is used for washing. They have gates on either side of the main street to keep the cows out, not the chickens. They grow lots of fruits and Hazel nuts. They would like to be able to sell their cows, but only do maybe once a year. The cows, have no meat on them, they are just skin and bones.We were introduced to a 16 year old girl, named Manah who was sort of the MC for the festivities. She invited us back for the “National Soup”, which they make often. So off we go to eat again, we certainly don’t lack food here. The people here are community people (my type) and love to eat, drink cay, and talk. The soup (which is pictured) is YUM!! It is made of homeny and some other type of grain, and lamb, and I don’t know what else. You garnish it with some coarse salt and sumac, mixed with other spices.We drew a lot of attention of course, but also from an unexpected place; the Government Officials of this village! This man sat down next to Bry and poured out his heart to him in his language of course, and Amy roughly translated. He basically said “We hear have all heard of America, but you ask an American and they have never heard of us”. True. “We had other non profit workers here and with out a word they left, they didn’t finish their project and they didn’t say good-bye.” “How are you going to get to know us if you don’t come and stay”. “We want to know you; you are welcome in our town”.He was right, what he said was true. We don’t know this place, not even when we look on the map, does the name sound familiar. (Ro. 10:14 ?) The real sad thing is, is that the workers there with the Peac* Corp. are not followers of Isa. Most of them are agnostic!! But Muslims don’t understand this word. So the workers, to avoid explanation, call them selves Christ*ans!!!! This is from their own mouths. We asked them, and then witnessed it with our own two eyes!! Now, these are nice people and they are doing great things, but they have NO Light. They are falsely representing the Light, stating that they come in the name of Isa!!! Not only is this blasphemous, but it is wrong. They have the right motives, but nothing to back them up. And WE, THE ONES WITH THE LIGHT, DO NOT GO!!! I am not accusing, I am just astonished that this happens. They are motivated by what?? World Peace?? We are motivated by Isa, and STILL REMAIN in our comfort zones.We are all not called to GO, but we are all called to GO in one way shape or form. There are 5 ways we can participate that are vital: GO, SEND, MOBIZE, PRAY, WELCOME! I thought that this was a perfect demonic plan of the evil one, send someone who does good, but has NO Light, then the body will think that there is already something happening there and will divert their attention some place else!After we ate, the dancing began. The people crowded around in big circle. We were way at the back where we could not see, but were ushered right to the front. A couple of older ladies offered that we share the rug they were sitting on, it was so sweet, so we all squished in. There was a young man on key boards playing native music, and the Mayor of the village started the dancing, the rest of the government officials joined him. Then the official dancers in costumes danced, there were 3 total. Then a few young men were invited to dance and they had a sort of manly dance off, with other men their age. The whole time the older ladies were egging me on, but I needed to be the professional photographer. HOWEVER, Bry popped up and gave the Native dance a try!! That was awesome. If you look closely in the pictures I took of him you can see others are taking pictures too!! The ladies I was sitting with were so excited to see him up there, he is so…brave.Of course I made friends with the little old ladies and the kids. But we ended up being invited to the house of The History Teacher. He spoke great broken English, far better than we could speak his tongue. He was quite shy, but wanted to talk and learn and ask questions. NOW, just a reminder that this is a completely unengaged people (the people we set out to meet) we are talking about, that are Muslim. He invited us to his home!! His house was deep in the village and we sat over Cay (Chai). The even greater thing was that this was not orchestrated by us!!We talked and talked, about political things, prop*ganda and beliefs. We talked about difference in cultures and how things work in America vs. this village. We talked about school and what this particular people needs, or where they would like to grow. They would love people like us to teach English in their village. Or just to work along side of and learn about the culture. In this culture, they don’t let you leave easily, so we stayed for dinner and desert. We were way out in the country and our host didn’t have a car, so we almost stayed the night too! He really wanted us too, but he found a friend with a car that was willing to drive us into town and back to our hotel.One of the highlights for me was when the father introduced all of his family. He was a strong religious man. His sons were named Islam, Ramadan, and Miriam (another name for Mary, mother of Jesus). Once our new friend, asked if we had any questions for him, and Emily said yes, “I really love the name you named your children, especially your daughter. You named her after Jesus’ mother, and I love Jesus very much”. He agreed with her comment. However, Bry said once to him that we had a lot in common and his response was that we were still very different. Many strongholds were broken this night. Many questions answered just by us being there. It was a great honor to be in their home and make contact. We plan on writing Amy so that she can keep in contact with them for us.I get so excited to see God at work in His nations. He doesn’t need us to accomplish his purpose. He will use whom ever he chooses to accomplish His will. A donkey, us, you, and non-believing P*eace Corp. volunteers. We would not have been invited had it not been for Amy and her friends. I will pray that she and her friends will find the Light while there, so that they can shine!Is. 6:8 is a great vs. for this. May it be our prayer.