It has been a weird month. It opened with the news that missionary
friends of ours had lost their 5 year old son in a tragic accident. We
then had a week of checking, still reeling from the news. Then we were
down in Parakou the week after, giving us the opportunity to see our
friends (who are coping well and trusting God), and Marc and I led the
kids' programme for the SIM Benin-Togo Day of Prayer. That was
exhausting but fun!
I thought last week would be "back to normal life" ... but of course
normal life here is anything but predictable, and last week brought some
surprises.
And in the middle of all of this, I was asked to start teaching the
church ladies' group. This isn't something I have sought - I don't
really feel it's my priority - but it is hard to refuse people saying
they want to study the Bible. Though when I asked them yesterday why it
was that they are so insistent that they want me teaching them instead
of going to the church Bible study, the answer of "we got used to having
a woman missionary teaching us" was not the most inspirational! (And
it's been over 8 years since they had a woman missionary teaching them,
so it shows the strength of tradition!) Still, I think there is
something about being among women which they like, and I'm going to make
an effort to give them spiritual food they can digest. If I could also
make it possible for them to see that the group could continue after our
departure in 2020, that would be even better!
Mind you, I'm not sure how yesterday's meeting would have been able to
take place without the help of my placement student, Léa. She's here as
part of an obligatory work placement for her Masters in Translation, but
she chose to come here, and she very much wanted the experience of
missionary life too. So she helped me clean out the "paillotte" - an
open air structure - and looked after my kids during the meeting, since
Marc was in Kandi-Fô leading *his* Bible study. She's a real blessing to
have here!
And this morning I have finished what has been the majority of my work
over the last six and a half years, checking our Monkolé translation
against the Hebrew text, with the help of various resources. I finished
with Psalm 150, whose last verse seemed a fitting conclusion:
"Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Hallelujah." Psalm 150:6
Of course, my work is far from finished, but this feels like a big
milestone to have reached! Praise God for His faithfulness in getting us
this far!