While we waited for the trucks to arrive in one village…an extra few days…we took advantage of that time to join the women in a baby naming celebration. We took a journey through the village greeting people and visiting the family of the man who was leading us to the ceremony and translating for us. We arrived and groups of women were all sitting around doing different things. The woman who had the baby that was being named was sitting with her friends inside the house…the dark, hot house. Most of them had their own babies and they were enjoying their time. After greeting them, we were led to an area where most of the older women were sitting. They were talking while some were stretched out on the mats and others were getting henna designs on their feet.
We greeted them and they gave us places to sit among them. Then the real greeting and the talking began. It was a sweet time of honesty and talking. After the ladies greeted us they expressed their hearts to us. It was a powerful moment in my life and my understanding of what it is like to be on the other side of entering a v!llage as a stranger. I have prepared many teams and individuals to enter a different culture and be prepared to become like them in order to make Chr!st known among them. The thing I guess I had never really considered was what was it like for those to whom we go to visit. What do they think about these strangers who crash their village, spend the night in their courtyard, and bring a message to them. As they talked with us one lady spoke for the group, “We are so glad you have come, but we do not know if we can touch you, what we can say to you, if we will hurt you. We do not want to hurt you with our words or our actions.” It made me stop and think….we are the same! Those are the very concerns we have as we enter and seek to make J.s.s known. Will we offend, will we hurt, will we close the door by our words and actions. It seemed that the honesty of these women broke down the barriers.
As we continued to talk we had the opportunity to tell the story of how Elizabeth and Zechariah named their son John. We talked about the story some and then the floor was opened for us to pr@y for them. It was a powerful time where G0d’s Spirit was obvious, where a oneness had developed, and where women from very different cultures were bowed before the Father.