You have seen the pictures of our house. We live inside a fence, with a gate that we close at night or when we are out of the district. (”the district” refers to Bundibugyo District which would be similar to any state in America.) In through this gate come our next door neighbor children to visit, play or just watch us whenever possible. To them, our lives are fascinating. There are about 25 kids in the family group next door, so it can get to be quite a crowd. Right now there are about six outside playing with the kids which seems like a nice, manageable number. They, of course, speak no English. The play is quite entertaining to watch. They will hover around Naomi and Quinn as soon as we walk in through our gate or out of our front door. Today they are repeating over and over “Magezi” which is their word for “wise one” (Quinn is an unknown name in their language, but means wise so they call him Magezi instead.)

Naomi and Quinn enjoy the chance to spend time with these kids. They ask to stay out and play with them. Since I have time to sit and supervise, I say yes. Naomi gestures widely to them as she suggests a game. All the kids imitate her perfectly waving their arms around and giggling as she grows even more animated in her explanations. They are not mocking her, merely doing their best to join in when they know nothing of what she explains. Soon, she starts running and they all chase after her shouting with laughter. This seems to be their only real game together I discover, after much watching. Naomi and Quinn run, the Ankolimpe children chase. At the end of the afternoon they turned it around and Naomi and Quinn were finally chasing some of them which was fun for all. They will copy anything N and Q do, such as falling down and rolling up into a ball - soon there are seven children rolling with their feet in the air! Or hopping like a frog . . . .

We ended our afternoon by offering them to come sit up on our porch. They were so honored to sit in chairs. The families here usually have one or two “chairs” or stools or something resembling that are saved for honored visitors. Today the Ankolimpe children were our honored visitors and I enjoyed sitting on the floor while they took the chairs to their great surprise! We passed each one a piece of small origami paper and I showed them how to make an origami cup and how to pretend to drink from it. There was much slurping. I pretended to pour them all tea and they slurped it up. They are all dirty and many have horribly runny noses. None have complete clothing and one small sweet little girl wore just a towel tied up around her neck - pray for her, her name is Jabelle. We brought out our pitcher of fresh, cold clean water - such a treat for them - and poured them some in their origami cups and sat and drank together in silence for a long time (this is cultural). Then I used my one new Lubwisi phrase “Li na wi nigai noui” (not the right spelling, I am spelling phonetically!) to as what their names were and we went around saying our names until I had learned some of theirs. It is surprisingly difficult to remember their names and keep them with the right faces. They enjoyed this game quite a bit. After a long time we said “webolai” (thank you) and weisaloe (see you later) and calle calle (bye bye) and they all silently left the porch and walked out of the gate with their small origami cups tightly in their hands.

And this is my question for the day . . . . What is it to show love, and how can I be Jesus love poured our for the lives I touch in passing this day?? Here I am at the edge of the world, here for them, because He asked me to walk beside them. Now how do I show His love, be His face in the midst . .
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