Tremor de terra

What have I been doing with my days? Well, I wish that I had miraculous stories to share. Maybe stories of physical healing or manna raining down from the heavens to feed the hungry or a revival of people coming to know and trust the Lord. I don’t have those stories to report. At least, not yet.

I don’t feel I have anything incredible to share as of yet but I can share a few things of what daily life is like.

Some mornings I come out of the bathroom to find a small face with little hands cupped up against my screen, curiosity just overflowing from the mission children wondering what “Sistah Dara” is up to. (Sleeping that’s what I’ve been up too!:)

And this morning I woke to an invasion of bees coming into my screened in kitchen/dining area.

I am not always confident God knows what He’s doing when He sends me off alone on adventures like this. I would rather defer situations like this to someone else. I’m typically okay with a little squirming, maybe screaming, and leaving the room. I did what I knew to do (sprayed Raid and left the room;) Usually a can of Raid lasts longer than 2 weeks doesn’t it? I’ve been busy fumigating). To no avail the bees kept coming. Manuel and Timosse both told me their two cents and assured me “Carlos is coming.” 

Carlos came prepared. Before I knew it Carlos was waving flaming paper around INSIDE the house saying, “They don’t like the smoke, they’ll be gone soon! They don’t like the smoke!” 

Ha! It worked.

If the morning hadn’t been exciting enough, when I finally got settled down to work on some computer stuff I was meant to do this morning, it wasn’t long before something started happening. I heard what I initially thought was some crazy thunder. I immediately looked up from my computer screen to Manuel and Timosse for some reassurance. They looked as confused as I was. It continued for a number of seconds and my table shook slightly. When it stopped, there were some unfamiliar Portuguese words exchanged (most are unfamiliar) and I guess, it was a “tremor de terra,” an earthquake!! Can someone please google and see if inland Mozambique really gets earthquakes??? What was that?

There you have it, some of the “exciting things” that have been happening. As much as I desire to see more meaningful things happen, and as much as I would love my life to be an intriguing novel of African miracles, some days I am just living here. Maybe I’m not here to solve any ones problems. Maybe I am just here to live life with the people, to walk beside them. If that is all I do here am I willing to trust God that that is enough? Is loving people not enough? I am not sure, but I think it may be.

Perhaps spending the afternoon and becoming friends with women who put chickens in beautiful baskets does more that is apparent.

I hope so.