surprise servanthood

On Tuesdays Kendall and I have invited the girls we are building relationships with to come to our house for a time of fellowship. Last week was our first one, and there were 19 girls piled into our tiny living room. We prepared a meal for them and spent time talking and sharing stories with each other. As Kendall and I discussed what we would do with the girls tonight, we talked about our desire for these young ladies to begin learning about being a servant. Many of them know the Lord and are excited about learning His Word. Our hope is that we can see these young ladies not only hear and learn the Word, but practice obedience to it. At 5 o’clock when the girls arrived (a smaller group than last week b/c many didn’t realize that this was to be an every week invitation) we gave them an assignment. We told them that we were taking a trip somewhere and they were responsible for putting together a short program consisting of a few games, songs and a Bible story. We told them not to worry about doing it in English, because where we were going English wouldn’t be understood anyway, and encouraged them to be creative with how they did their story. We gave them scripture from Luke 10:29-37 (the story of the Good Samaritain). They put together a short skit depicting the actions of the Good Samaritan and chose someone to explain the significance of the story. 30 minutes later we piled them into the bakkie (truck for all of you non-Namibians) and we drove them to our destination: Victory Camp. For those of you who don’t know, Victory Camp is the name we have given to the Okahandja trash dump. Many people live there collecting clothing, housing material, food, and all other essentials from the trash. It smells, the place and people are dirty, the ground is littered with broken glass and rotten food, and this is home for a great number of people. When we arrived, I looked at the faces of the girls. They were apprehensive, but willing. We prayed together and everyone got out of the bakkie. We sent them to go gather the people and ask them to come and listen to a story. Several girls walked along with me as I approached a group of men who called us over to them. We introduced ourselves and I began to invite them to come and listen. It was evident that although these men knew introductions and basic formalities in English, they did not understand my invitation. Praise the Lord: one of the girls jumped right in there and started speaking their language and told him what we were doing and asked them to join us. Then several of the girls began to talk with them. Another man called us over to his “house” and invited us to look inside. The girls again took initiative to ask him to come listen to the story. He followed us, as did one of them men in the first group. The men joined a small group of children that has also gathered and we gave the time over to our girls. They began by singing some songs, then they shared their skit about the Good Samaritan and explained that Jesus was saying through the parable. I was so proud of them! They did a great job, and they seemed to truly enjoy themselves. We talked t the girls afterward about how they felt about the night and their responses brought joy to my heart and a hope that God just might be stirring a heart of compassion for other in these young girls. I hope so. That is something sorely needed here. There are so many needs. Many of the girls who served tonight may not have much more then those we visited tonight in Victory Camp, but my hope is the God is showing them no matter how much or how little we have, we are all called to give out of the abundance of God’s love in each of us. He calls us to love each other just as we love ourselves. “Who then is my neighbor?” I pray that there are several girls in Okahandja who understand the Luke passage they acted out in a much more tangible way.


The girls leading some songs




The Good Samaritain helping the man who was robbed


The audience at Victory Camp