Newton February 2025

“Only fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you” (1 Samuel 12:24).

I learned from some of our graduates that they do not really know how to cook. I thought they were learning how to cook from their extended families since they go home four times a year. Some of them have not learned for various reasons. So the Rafiki mothers are now teaching the resident students how to cook with charcoal and also with wood. They are cooking the traditional foods. It takes a long time to cook this way, but they are enjoying going to the market and then prepping everything. I do not know if they enjoy the wait time for cooking, but there’s no getting around it.

Here Jane is keeping the fire going while something cooks.

Unfortunately, Adam has appendicitis and needed an appendectomy. While we were at the hospital going through the process to get a transfer to another hospital, we were waiting for his turn to get blood drawn. I noticed a sign that indicated no phones. So I told him he could not take his phone in the room. He said, “No, that means you can’t talk on the phone.” Then he noticed the sign next to it and chuckled. It read, “no smorking.” “Smorking?” he asked. “What is smorking? Oh, smorking must be smoking lightly and smoking is heavy smoking.” We had a very good laugh over this. Adam is quite a character so his personality made this so funny. The man next to us was trying to get comfortable on the wooden bench to sleep. Our laughing was disturbing him, probably more than trying to sleep on a wooden bench. As we were taken with a group of other patients to the radiology area, we saw another “no smorking” sign and laughed a hearty laugh again. We are probably not allowed back at the hospital, and that is okay. It is not a place we want to be anyway.

As the widows worked on their large order last year, I was wondering why our local church does not have a group of ladies participating in the program. So I inquired and learned they do not know how to weave, but they can sew. I thought, we probably do not need anything sewn; why can’t they learn to weave? Bottom line is the ladies found a trainer and learned to weave. I gave them an order to work on that one of the other groups did not finish. It is a simple item. Good for beginner weavers. The pastor and I went to visit and check the progress of their work. Also at this location there are a handful of treadle sewing machines, and women come to sew things from aprons to bed covers.

Occasionally, I take Claire to visit her mom. On the way home, we always enjoy a late lunch at the Imigongo Café.

As you go through this week, remember God is faithful and no smorking.

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