Anna 4 Africa: December 2014

“What are you doing?” How often I hear these words! It turns out many of the things I love to do aren’t considered normal… picking wildflowers on the mountain, reading even though I’m not in school, stopping while walking just to look at the beauty around me.

And, you know, I’ve asked those words of myself a few times recently. One example was while I ushered goats back outside, after hearing a strange noise in the hall and discovering that 3 goats had walked right up the steps and into my office building!

Goats are much cuter outside!

Another time I asked that question was when I ended up doing minor surgery on a chicken’s foot with an ingrown wire! I never know what my days will bring!

A Leatherman is such a useful thing!

Last week I heard those words asked again. As is often the case, a few of the neighbor kids accompanied me on a run. We stopped at a big tree (which we usually race to) and I decided to climb the tree. Of course, they wanted to climb too. Once we were all up in the tree, we started singing “Deep and Wide.” We were having such a good time that we didn’t even notice two highschool boys walk up and stand under the tree. One of them asked, “What are you doing?” I simply answered, “We climbed the tree and now we are singing songs about Jesus” as if it was a very normal thing, totally to be expected. Well, we all started laughing and after a while the boys walked away and we kept right on singing in the tree. I can imagine we were about the last thing they would have expected to see on their way home that day, but at least we made them laugh! And the next 2 days, we climbed the tree again…and now it seems it is quite a “normal” thing that we might be found singing in a tree. J.

Climbing that tree reminded me of Zaccheus, who also climbed a tree. (Luke 19:1-10) What an encouraging passage! I’m touched by Zaccheus’ motivation to climb: to see Jesus! I want to live so as to never stop “climbing trees" - to never stop doing things that help me see Jesus. I want to be looking for Him and to be asking, “Lord, what are you doing?” not just out of curiosity, but to be a part of it. And I want to live in a way to encourage others to look for Him too.

“Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days - you would not believe if you were told." ~Habakkuk 1:5

So climbing with the kids was not only fun, but also a good reminder for me. But, now I’m praying that no one will fall and break anything because it’s a long way from here to the nearest hospital (plus it took 1 ½ hours for an ambulance to come when my host sister went into labor a few weeks ago). Thankfully, so far, I have no tree injuries to report. And I do have a beautiful new little host nephew who is doing well.