As Summer Hits Us...

...Winter Hits Lesotho!

What Will It Be Like?

What will it be like in this land God has called me to?  To these people He has always loved whom I never knew existed until recently?  I am thrilled to have my country assignment, but in my excitement, I  can't help but wonder...

What will they be like?

How has this land shaped their hearts?

Maybe they'll be hilarious like so many of my friends here...

 I'll undoubtedly have much to learn.

What new things will I learn about Him who loves me and them so that He sent His own Son?

And here in this town where I'll live, I pray that He'll grant me a love for their souls and the discernment to know when I'm hindering and when I'm helping them and myself to know Him more.

Tempered by the unknowns.  Propelled by His love.

"I am under obligation both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel..."
The Apostle Paul

When You Kiss Him...

"What does Daddy taste like when you kiss him?", she asked, 8 years old.

Hmmmm.  What does Daddy taste like when I kiss him?

Mmmmmm.

Beautiful Girl of our Union, Daddy tastes like Safe and Secure.  He tastes like Brave and Strong.  Daddy tastes of Adventure, Fun, Excitement, and Wild Love all bundled together.  He tastes like Honest and Vulnerable.  Daddy tastes like Pure and Good and Integrity.  He tastes like Faithful and Humble.  Daddy tastes like Gift from God.  Daddy tastes like Honor, Valiant, and Respect.  Daddy tastes like Hero and Comfort.  He tastes like Everything Will Be Ok.  He tastes like Home and Wonderful.  He tastes of Gentle, Trust, and Sincerity.  He tastes like Man of Prayer and Selflessness.  Daddy tastes exactly like the man God made him to be.  He tastes like CrazyFun and Laughter.  He tastes like Kind, Peace, Patient, and Mature.

Sometimes Daddy tastes like Sad and Tired.  He can taste like Anxious and Worried.  He can taste like Confession and Repentance and Forgiveness all at once.  Daddy can taste like Human and Troubled.  He can taste like Sorry and I Love You.  Sometimes our kisses are sad when he tastes like Growing Pains and sometimes they are glad when he tastes like Being Sanctified.

However Daddy tastes, which is different on different days, he is the taste God gave me.  He is the taste that I prayed for.  He is the exact taste that I love and that I choose.

You see, Beautiful Girl, Daddy's taste comes from Refinement by God, which is the very best taste.

His taste of Gentle comes from 1 Timothy 6:11.  His taste of Strong comes from 2 Timothy 2:1.  Daddy's taste of Kind is because he pays attention to 2 Timothy 2:24.

God made Daddy to taste like Pure from Titus 1:15-16a.  His taste of Respect comes from Titus 2:2 while his Integrity comes from Titus 2:7.  God is refining Daddy's taste of Peace and Humility through Proverbs 19:20, Jeremiah 9:24, and Titus 3:2.  God can make Daddy taste like these things because His Word is living and active in Daddy's heart.  God says so in Hebrews 4:12.

From Hebrews 6:1, Daddy gets his taste of Mature.  God stirred in some James 1:19-20 and Psalm 37:8 when He wanted Daddy to taste like Patient and Humble.

Sometimes Daddy's Sad and Troubled tastes come from Romans 7:14-25, but Daddy believes God can work in his heart, so Daddy also tastes like Man of Prayer, Confession, Repentance, and Forgiveness from James 5:16.  God added a measure of James 3:17-18 so that Daddy's taste would be Sincere. Daddy tastes Redeemed because he believes that Romans 3:23-24 and John 8:34-37 are true with all of his heart.

Daddy tastes like Honor because he pursues what God told him to in Proverbs 21:21.  Daddy tastes like Trust because God scooped some Proverbs 16:3 and Psalm 54:3-4 into his life.  Daddy tastes like Everything Will Be Ok because he pays close attention to God's words like Proverbs 4:20-25 tells him to.  Daddy tastes like Home, Adventure, Wild Love, Excitement, and Gift from God because of Song of Solomon 3:4.  He tastes like Safe and Secure because I believe Song of Solomon 6:3 to be true.

Daddy tastes exactly like Anna Danforth's Chosen One and God's Gift because God is making him that way.  Beautiful Daughter, when you look for a man, make sure that his taste is one Refined and Redeemed by the Excellent One, the Father of Heavenly Gifts.  Make sure that when your own Beautiful Daughter asks you this priceless question, that your God-given man you leaves your mouth full of answers that bring your heart joy at God's handiwork when you look into her eyes and tell her what her daddy tastes like when you kiss him.

Orientation at MAF...

MAF's staff does a phenomenal job of preparing us pre-fielders for life on the field.  We have completed Orientation, which is two weeks of training on life on the field.  Sessions ranged from culture shock, team dynamics on the field, spiritual warfare, managing stress, proper forms of communication with your team, marriage building, a closer look at Islam, child safety, and learning to say meaningful goodbyes.  Outside of the classroom, we also had the opportunity to visit a farm and get some hands-on time with butchering and cleaning two goats and a chicken.  We are thankful for MAF's professionalism and foresight and bringing in highly trained and equipped instructors for each of these sessions.  We learned so much and we know that God will use these tools in our lives for the effectiveness of our testimonies.

Orientation class led by MAF staffer Deb Scheuermann.

Orientation Class

The "Draw How You're Feeling" session.

Indonesian Meal

The kids were in classes each morning learning about what it means to be a TCK (third culture kid), about MAF,
 and about processing differing cultures, and about their respective country assignments.

Training outside of the classroom.  Food Provision.

Chicken processing

An Africa "Brai" (BBQ) with the Africa pre-fielders.

This has nothing to do with Orientation, but on our time off, we refined some of those outdoor family skills :)

A necessary skill for a Danforth MK :)

Prejudices in the Pew...

Sterile Worship.  I am so uncomfortable.  Let's just jet. What are they doing?  What are these lines they stand in?  Why are we all facing the back right now?  Where is my family supposed to sit and are we breaking some kind of tacit cultural rule if we sit in the wrong spot?  Why are we standing up and turning around while singing this song?

Ethnic Church Visit was our MAF assignment for the day and here we were trying to fulfill it.  My discomfort level was at an all-new high.  Our class was given a list of ethnic churches to visit today and we all had to choose a different church.  The Danforth Four chose one and we were excited to worship with our brothers and sisters in Christ across ethnic and linguistic barriers.

Until I walked through THOSE doors.

I didn't get the system.  I didn't want to offend anyone.  I didn't know if my simply standing there breathing was the very offense I didn't wish to cause because I simply didn't know what the rules were.  I had never been to a service like this, one of Sterile Worship, with this game of religious acts to which I didn't know the rules.  I scribbled a note to my husband in French, "I am SO uncomfortable.  This is definitely a cultural experience for me."

Let's back up about an hour.  The pre-requisite to this assignment was a time of meditation on Psalm 139 and searching my heart before the Lord as to my attitude towards those different than me and an invitation to have Him show me how to respond to these people.  Flashes of different ethnic groups I have worked with, played with, sung with, traveled with, and lived with flashed through my mind. These flashing faces didn't make me uncomfortable.

But then, you see, I stepped through the doors of THIS church.  We got the wrong church, thanks to our trusty GPS, and all of these people looked just like me.  They spoke like me.  I understood their words, but not their ritualistic religion.  I know this denomination, but it is different than my home church or any church I have visited.  I know they are family in Christ, but I did not know the rules to their Sunday Morning Game and I felt like an idiot.

Here's an MK tip of the day.  Being surrounded by ethnic minorities and languages you don't understand are hardly paramount of "discomfort".  For an MK, the crowning moment of uncomfortable cultural experience is being thrown into a room of people who look and speak like you but where you haven't been introduced to their tacit rules.     

In that moment, God took my prejudices and my discomfort of Sterile Worshippers and stuck them right in front of my nose.  We could have left.  We were, after all, at the wrong church.  We could have driven off in search of the Hispanic church we were SUPPOSED to visit.  But my discomfort intrigued me and I knew God was surfacing the offensive way in me before my very eyes so that He could lead me in the way of understanding.  Sterile Worshippers, I don't understand your ways.  Nor would you understand the ways of Unrestrained Worshippers.  Yet we ARE brothers and sisters in Christ.

My discomfort intrigued me to the point of needing to stay for coffee and to speak with at least a few of these people who look like me, speak like me, and worship not like me.  They weren't so scary after all.

I don't know what my MAF instructor will say tomorrow.  The assignment of attending an ethnic minority church is not fulfilled.  But that particular button doesn't drive me to face my discomfort.  I am comfortable NOT looking like everyone nor speaking like everyone because they don't EXPECT me to know the rules.  It is the Me-Mirrors who peek out of the corner of their eyes at me in the pew and expect me to know why this congregation turns and sings at the same time who drive me to examine the offense in my heart and to recognize that my prejudice preys mostly on a faces that LOOK LIKE me but ACT differently than me.  I am a sinner short in the area of grace and needing a Saviour to test me and know my anxious thoughts and lead me in the way of understanding.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart,

Test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there be any offensive way in me,

And lead me in the way of understanding."

-Psalm 139:23-24

April Prayer Letter...

Check out our April Prayer Letter if you aren't on our mailing list:
Danforth April Prayer Letter

MTI at a glance today...

Sam's Russian class with instructor Henry.  They seriously aren't posed, they just have that much fun :)

Some fun phonetics drills

Instructors and creators of MTI, Dwight and Barbara Gradin, imitating a drill using Pidgin. 

Barry (on staff) went over Sesotho-specific phonology with us after class.