These will have to be word images since the photos aren’t gong through yet.

Each afternoon our yard is filled with the shouts and laughter of between 20-40 village kids, enjoying active games of football (soccer) or quietly intense Lego building. We have set out a large table on our back porch. Each afternoon we set out one of our collections, perhaps our big bag of Legos, or Playmobil - we don’t have many others. One day I taught two bright children who spoke some English, how to play checkers. They also enjoy Uno, once they catch on. Our yard it quite big and full of grass, such open space is a rarity in this jungle village and the kids take full advantage with games of chase and football. They are enamored with our bright new soccer ball and even more so, the pump that fills it fresh each day. They come for the pump when the ball begins to have the tiniest bit of softness!

The kids are so creative with what they have. Thick, long branches are quickly pulled down from trees by collective energy to serve as goalpoasts on each side. Someone has brought an old cracked but functional whistle which makes the game “real”. When thirst hits they find another long stick and working together they knock down lemons from a nearby tree. People here seem to go most of the day without drinking anything, despite the heat. The little children, too young to enter the game, have wandered to a palm tree against our back fence and are digging out some kind of nut from its roots. They set up a nut station, digging, pounding the shells off with rocks, then eating the nuts. These nuts seem to have very little in them that’s edible as the children chew and chew them then spit out copious amounts of chewed up but indigestible nut.

After the nuts are exhausted and the football players as well, the children all come to rest on our back porch. They sit and sit. The attention spans here would amaze any American. Culturally, sitting together in silence is highly valued. Even the smallest children sit for hours with nothing to do at all. They will sit there even while we are in the house, with nothing particular to look at or listen to. Just waiting.

If Daniel has come I will head out to the back porch to sit beside him and tell some Bible stories while he translates. I ask lots of questions. I am trying to get past the stories and to the heart of God, and their own hearts. They all listen eagerly for as long as I will talk. The little one year old nodding off right their on the cement floor. I pull one or two onto my lap. They unwashed little bodies don’t smell so good, and they don’t feel much like the soft children I am used to holding and touching in America. Their bellies huge and hard, their legs with several festering ulcers. Their clothes filthy and ragged, their teeth often small dark stubs. I sit enjoying, they are HIS precious jewels, I am so privileged to touch them.