Of Baseball and Birthdays

Elizabeth is ‘old’ according to the kids. Here she is with a couple of birthday cards from them.

Happy Birthday!… but when?

Here in Pal, things have been going a mile a minute  for the last few weeks – with our second literacy school beginning Monday the 20th, large sections of Genesis and Exodus needing final checks before being sent off to consultants, and drafts of the first 8 evangelistic lessons needing to be completed by the first week of February.

All those things as well as the normal daily life in the bush – maintaining relationships, living in community, trying to spend quality time as a family, and working to keep the critters at bay*.

So when do we celebrate a birthday? (For a kid – we’d just do it on the day… it’d be that simple) For Elizabeth’s birthday this week, we had planned to make the day special until our translation helpers pigs got into their garden (the all-day project that Elizabeth had planned with them was then shifted to the only available day – her birthday). No worries, we’ll just celebrate the following day, right?

Not likely. The community scheduled a workday at the literacy school to get it shipshape for the launch of the second class. Oh, and then some folks called ahead (this is rare – usually they just show up) to let us know that they were on the way for a friendly visit. On top of that some other folks came up to offer us an umbilical cord in accordance with the Pal belief that one’s life skills and abilities can be enhanced by ritual associated with the mother-baby linkage.

So what about the birthday? In the end, we came up with  - weekend of birthday – a special time on Saturday at noon, some special food on Sunday in the morning, and whatever we could fit in the middle. Not elegant but such is life here.

Elizabeth works at comprehension testing our translated materials; an essential step in the translation process. We do this four times with different people every time for every passage we translate. It is so important that the translation is clear, accurate, and easy to read/hear.

Baseball

Have you ever played backyard baseball with a group of 5 year olds? If you have you probably found yourself playing something more akin to tag than baseball. The base path is often forgotten and the chase may lead around obstacles randomly zigging and zagging away from the ferocious holder of the ball. (“Oh were we supposed to stay inside the fence?’) I’ve often had to stop the chase because I’ve been laughing too hard.  Its my favorite kind of baseball.

So, what a reward then to (for the first time) teach some guys baseball here in Pal. There were no innings; just the basics of hit, run, chase.  Maybe because the pitcher was new to the sport, the preferred style of hitting was very much the overhand method – something akin to splitting firewood. Pounding the ball into the dirt, the batter would take off for first leaves base chuckling at his success.  Trying to tag for an out was the most entertaining for all of us. The chases would go off the side of the field, down the hill into the bush, and back again. Most of the time, both participants were laughing too hard to keep going. Spectators would be sagging together, gasping for air. Oh it was glorious.

It makes me long for the days ahead when we will have much deeper joy and fellowship in the gospel with our friends.

Pray:

There are two things that we would like prayer for this week.

1. One of our village leaders who was slated to participate in the new literacy school has backed out at the last minute. We are concerned that the message that is being sent to the community is that the school is not all that important.

2. Our new literacy school is starting this morning. We have folks from the last class that we are training to be teachers for it. Please pray for them and  us as we seek to teach, encourage, and build excitement for reading and writing in Pal.