Just in case you aren't tired of my pictures yet!

Just a few more pictures from Djibo! Be sure to check out my two previous posts from today: A New Child Available for Sponsorship and Ya Souma

I've tried to split up the pictures by category like I described them in my post about Djibo so hopefully you'll have some idea what you're looking at!

The Touareg Village:

Just a sweet little boy at the village. Behind him is a baby camel waiting for mama to come back (I assume from the well).

Below: A shot at the well. One man would toss the bucket and guide the rope while the other rode the camel to pull the water up.

Above: Rice and Sauce at the Touareg village. Note the special spoons!


The Fulani Village:


A little Fulani boy. The french word for Fulani is Peul just for interests sake.

That's me! At the Fulani well. Below is a much better snapshot of the Fulani well you can see them getting a bucket of water, and the yellow container is an old oil can they have cut open to use as a trough.

Above: Niery (Fulani To) and Sauce. The Niery is on the left and the sauce is on the right. Niery is made from millet.
Below: Bouille (liquidy, sugary cream of wheat like stuff). You drink the bouille from those spoons. It is made from millet.

This is where we slept in Djibo:

The Djibo barrage:
What is fascinating about the barrage is Djibo (the desert!) has water, and Yako's barrage is dry. I thought it was interesting and wuite beautiful. It was almost like sitting beside a lake...

Below: The woman in this picture walked through the barrage with baby tied to her back. Once she was on our side of the barrage she stopped to take baby off and wash her feet.

This little boy and his friends came up to us while we were sitting by the barrage and sat down too. They just smiled and were happy to sit near us.

New Child Available for Sponsorship

I've posted a little bit of information about our sponsorship program previously and there is always information available on the Sheltering Wings website:
http://www.sheltering-wings.org/

As sponsor commits to 25$(American) a month which contirbutes to school feees, food, clothes and other necessary items throughout the year. Sponsored children within Yako proper (like Madina) also attend weekly meetings at a local church. They will often write letters and you will be given the opportunity to write back; the orphanage takes care of translation from english to french.





Ouédrago, Madina
Summary of need- Madina was born December 20, 1992. She lives in Sector 2 of Yako, Burkina Faso. Madina’s father died in 2003. Madina is the youngest of 5 children. She has three older sisters and one older brother- none of which are married. Madina lives with her mother and two of her sisters.
Madina’s mother sells vegetables and peanuts for a small amount of money each day for the family but it is hardly sufficient to support the whole family. The home that the family of four inhabits is a mud-brick, one room house. It is probably no bigger than 10 feet by 10 feet. There is no electricity or running water and she has to walk to a nearby community water pump to fetch water for the family.
Madina attends the school Communale in Yako and is in Sixieme (comparable to 7th grade). She lives a distance from the school and walks back and forth each day. At this time, Madina is in good health.

Ya Souma

This week has passed so quickly I can’t believe it’s already Friday afternoon! (Ya Souma is moore for it's good. It was a good week so Ya Souma)

Monday afternoon Liz and I set off for Yako. We walked out from SIM to the Chales de Gaulle to catch a taxi. The first taxi that stopped for us wouldn’t take us to the bus station for any less than 1500f (750f each) which although when you convert it Canadian dollars or American dollars seems like a very cheap cab ride, was outrageous for the distance we would be going and we knew he was trying to take advantage of us. We let him continue on his way without us and waiting for the next one. A little boy selling Kleenex at the intersection heard the exchange with the taxi driver and was sitting at the side of the road laughing at the price he’d suggested! The second taxi suggested the same price but we talked him down to 1000f (500f each, knowing anywhere between 400f and 500f was reasonable for where we were going.)We passed by the intersection in Ouaga that puts up the temperature on a big screen. I usually love passing by there because I never know what the temperature is until I see it. I was in for a big shock when I saw 49C! I realised of course it felt hot, but it wasn’t too hot and it was definitely liveable. I had to laugh though, 49C! When we arrived at the bus station the bus to Yako was ready to depart, so Liz quickly hopped on while I bought tickets. We could have got on without buying tickets and just paid en route but needed better change than we had so we paid at the terminal. Since the bus was ready to go there were no seats to speak of, and since we were taking the after sieste bus the whole isle was full too. We found spot on the steps leading down to the door and stood. Fortunately the ride is only 1.5hours and Mondays ride passed much quicker than it usually does (perhaps because I could see almost nothing..) When we finally got off in Yako Liz and I were joking that we hoped we ran into some of the kids on their way home from school because we had so many bags. We didn’t run into any of our kids, but a lady that lives near us stopped us on the road and asked us to give us some of our bags because she wanted to walk with us. It was so kind, and we had a nice chat with her for the walk home.

Back in Yako I’ve been splitting my time between working with the babies and working on things for the office. I had one really sweet morning with the toddlers: I was coming back from the office when I saw Ibra (like many toddlers he’s curious and he likes to take walks and we often end up chasing after him or calling him back...so I wasn’t surprise to see him walking away from the baby play area) he was walking ahead of Joseph and Tinbnoma and turning around to wave at them and call them forward. The followed me to the house. When they arrived on the doorstep I went to the door and looked out the three of them pulling themselves up on the step and grinning. “Children!” I said to them “when you come to someone’s you must say cock cock cock!” (this is the same as telling them to knock) They immediately all said “cock cock cock!” and I as I opened the door for them the three of them came rushing in. They had a great time sitting on the chairs, trading places with eachother and exploring a little bit the front living area while I finished up what I’d been working on. Then I took them over to the sink to wash their hands. It took a few minutes with each of them because they wanted to turn the water on and off a bunch of times, and I let them. Joseph discovered how to spray water by putting his hand right under the flow from the tap and soaked me. He laughed hysterically which made me laugh too, so it was all good. I gave them some peanuts to eat and then stood at the water filter while they brought glasses to drink water. Finally they felt they had enough water and wanted to sit at the kitchen to drink. The three of them looked so small sitting there I took a quick picture (above.)

Point of praise: We had another child’s paperwork and court proceedings finished this week and he was declared officially adopted! Ibra will be going home with his family very soon.

Points of prayer: We have three children in the hospital currently:
-Jules is back with Doctors Without Borders. He seemed to be improving and his weight had gone up to 5.8kg, but he got sick and his weight went down to 5.0kg. Pray he will overcome the illness that is attacking his body, and that he will be able to consistently gain and maintain weight.

-Rosalie our newest child at the orphanage is at the hospital in Ouahigouya. She has been at the hospital just over a week so we hope she’ll be ready to come back to the orphanage soon.

-Salif is our most recent child to go to the hospital. He left Tuesday evening. He had been sick since Thursday and had been receiving Malaria treatment here in Yako, when on Tuesday (the last day for his malaria treatment) he was still very sick it was determined he would be better treated in Ouhigouya.

Djibo

Thursday it took us just over 5 hours to drive from Ouagadougou to Djibo. Kongoussi (where Liz and I stayed for operation Christian child) was about our half way way point and the town name means ‘end of the road’, after seeing the road after Kongoussi I began to see why: the road after Kongoussi isn`t paved. We were constantly avoiding potholes (as well as goats and cows that seem to flock to the road as soon as a vehicle approaches) and driving over road that felt more like a washboard than anything else. However we were blessed with an overcast day and that in conjunction with a little AC kept the temperatures inside the car cool and the drive was pleasant.

When we were in Djibo we stayed with a missionary family that is working with the Fulani. They were wonderful and planned a full weekend for us. It was a perfect combination of out visiting villages and hanging out doing movie nights, or sitting and chatting learning more about the work in Djibo and people there. One night we even all cooked a curry which was thoroughly enjoyable.

Thursday afternoon we went out to a Touareg camp. The Touareg are not native to Burkina Faso they are a nomadic tribe but here in Burkina for the most part they are refugees from Mali. We drank tea with them and then rode camels. I enjoyed the camel ride; it was short but sweet. Camels are so much bigger than I thought they would be, and make the strangest noise (almost a cross between a growl and a purr- it’s a very guttural noise). After the camel ride we drank another cup of tea and then went down to the well. The well there is a very shallow well (only 30m deep) but it looked plenty deep to me: most of the wells are closed wells so I don’t get a chance to look down in them but this one I could look right down as they dropped the bucket (an old petrol container) down. They used a pulley and a camel to draw the water from the well which was fascinating to watch. After our visit to the well we had dinner with our Touareg “guide" Mohammed.

Above: A Touareg man, an behind him one of their homes. The refugees that have been in Burkina for a long time have built mud brick homes, but the ones that have come more recently have a shelter like you see in the picture there.

The Touareg were a fascinating group. I didn’t have the opportunity to interact much with the women but I saw a little of the difference in how the male/female relationships work in the work as opposed to other people groups in Burkina. The Touareg men will serve the women food first, the men will do work like drawing water, the men and women eat together- I like it a lot! For dinner we had rice and sauce and a small amount of guinea fowl. We ate with traditional wooden spoons and out of a communal bowl and of course when it started getting dark it just got dark because out in the village there is no electricity to speak of. After more tea Mohammed offered us camel milk. It was still warm but the warmth didn’t bother me (I thought it would). It was a creamy milk, I thought fairly comparable to cows milk and I thought it was very delicious.

Friday morning a few of us went on a tour of the hospital. There are 3 hospitals or clinics in Djibo but the one we visited is run by a missionary who has been in Burkina Faso since before it was Burkina Faso (Upper Volta then). I was amazed to discover people travel from the Ivory Coast to seek medical care at his clinic and during the dry season and does 100-200 surgeries a month (he is the only doctor at the hospital). Later on as a group we also visited the churches Fulani pastor. He told us some of his testimony and gave me insight to the severity of the persecution people here can suffer when they abandon their religion for the Christian faith.

Saturday morning we visited the Djibo hill. A short walk brought us to the top of the hills but gave us a beautiful view of Djibo and the surrounding areas. At the bottom of the hill is an ancient burial ground. It’s estimated the remains are between 500-1000 years old. The bodies were buried with clay pots and facing mecca. It’s been unearthed by rain and so we were able to see skulls and pots in the ground as we walked. It was interesting to see a little part of history.
Above: Our group at the top of Djibo hill

Next we visited a Fulani village. The village was 24km out of Djibo but it took us 45 minutes to get there because of bad road conditions. There is a man that attends the Fulani church that rides his bike in every Sunday to church from the village. He says it’s not so bad because he used to have to walk.The Fulani village looked tiny, but since they raise cattle mostly they live very spread out from each other and so we didn’t see everyone from the village. They had no shade to speak of in the village except for a few hangars they had constructed and one small tree. The village has two wells, one they dug themselves and one that was done for them by a group called Friends in Action. They took us to visit their well, showed us a newborn cow (an hour old!) and served us tea, niery (Fulani to) and bouille. The niery was made from millet as opposed to the to I’m accustomed to that is made from corn and so it tasted very different. I think I prefer the corn to, but the niery was fun to try and had a very funky colour (it was a little like eating playdo texture wise and colour wise, but the taste was something totally different althogether). Bouilee is a little like cream of wheat with sugar cooked into it. We drank it from large spoons out of a communal bowl and it was tasty although sometimes I wasn’t nuts over getting the lumps in the Bouille. We spent most of the time at the Fulani village chatting and sitting in a little mud hut they’d constructed. I was shocked to discover how cool the huts stay in the heat- the walls don’t radiate heat like concrete walls!The Fulani language and culture is very different from that of the Mossi and I enjoyed the opportunity to learn a little more about one of Burkina’s other people groups.

Above: The Fulani at their well. The previous picture was a typical Fulani home.

How can you pray?Pray for the Fulani. I learned of an upcoming meeting with some Fulani leaders in Burkina Faso. They plan to discuss pulling all Fulani children out of school. There are social facets to this but mostly this is a religious move. They fear that if the Fulani children are educated they will abandon their faith.Pray for those who are ministering to the Fulani. It is a true labour of love for the lord. It is a difficult job and the missionaries often see little fruits from their labour. Pray they will be encouraged.Pray that God will raise up people to work with the Touareg in Burkina Faso. Currently they are a large population here and there is no one working with them and ministering to them in Burkina.
Djibo was hot but I didn’t suffer from the heat like I expected I would. It was hot during the day but certainly bearable and at night since I slept outside it was cool and I slept wonderfully! Most nights I even needed a sheet because it got so cool (around 27C or so.) We drove back to Ouagadougou Sunday afternoon and today (Monday) Liz and I will take the bus back to Yako. Thank the Lord for safe travels on the road and for good health while travelling.

Easter and Updates

Easter

(The picture on the left was taken Easter sunday at the orphanage. Liz Adiara and I are all wearing our Assemblee de Dieu outifts.)
We went to church both Saturday night and Sunday morning. Saturday night a group recited the bible verses in moore. They entered and excited singing- it was quite a beautiful little production. Sunday morning Liz and I decided to take Tinbnoma and Joseph with us to church since they don’t usually go. (Ibra went home with one of the tantines for the weekend so really the three oldest toddlers went to church!) We rode over on the motos and Tinbnoma looked like she didn’t know what to do- squished between Adiara and me she just looked around and around as we drove. Liz told me Joseph was laughing! Tinbnoma was great throughout the whole service. We actually had to quiet her down because she wanted to chat with us! Joseph did well until part way through the service and then he started crying. At that point he went and sat outside with Adiara.
It was a surprisingly short service. I think it started “on time” around 9:30 and ended somewhere around 12:00. We expected a much longer service for Easter. For the special day Liz and I ate both lunch and dinner with the kids. Normally they eat to two meals a day, but they had macaroni for lunch and riz gras for dinner. We killed our goat (we still have 3 sheep) and Social Action donated some meat so with both meals the children got real hunks of meat (the to sauce always contains ground dried fish, which has nutrients but isn’t the same..). Needless to say they were thrilled!Liz and I baked vanilla cupcakes for dessert and handed them out with dinner. And after dinner we put on a movie considering they didn’t have school the next day and we thought it would be fun.
My parents had sent me a package and I’d requested my favourite soccer movie of all time. Victory! Sylvester Stalone, Michael Cane and Pelé are the three biggest names in the movie. I can’t tell you how excited our kids were. First Sylvester Stalone’s character came on screen and all the boys ooohed and someone yelled “Rocky!” then Pelé came out. One of the boys didn’t stop going “Le Roi Pelé” every time he saw him... During the final match of the movie the boys were so excited you could have told me they were watching the quarter finals and Burkina was playing. Lazar did a dance after one of the goals. Three of them stood up to watch because they were so anxious they couldn’t sit still. When the team scored again several of them jumped up and down and hugged each other... I enjoyed watching them more than the movie!
A few brief updates: Osseus –the new child I mentioned last week has warmed up well to the other children his age at the orphanage. The three of them all speak French with eachother and although every once and a while we catch people speaking in mooré at him it is not the problem I expected it would be. For the most part the kids understand he doesn’t understand and speak with him in French. Howeves Osseus is a CP2 student which is the only grade our primary school does not have. He has a spot at a school just a few minutes away. However he refuses to go to school. We have been working with him, in conjuction with our social worker and the social worker that brought him to the orphanage. He must start attending school. Please pray he will find the courage to face the new school- as difficult as it. Please pray for patience for our staff and the staff at the school as they work with him to correct this.
I took Jule to his weigh in last Tuesday (the 8th) since it was across town I strapped him to my back and hopped on the moto with our gatekeeper. He had put on 0.4kg since his last weigh in and I was really pleased as were the nurses! However later in the week he started to get sick again, and this Tuesday he was hospitalized again. Please continue to pray for this little boy. He has a long, tough battle ahead.
Liz and I head to Djibo tomorrow. It is up north and in desert territory. I am looking forward to the adventure but praying for strength in the heat! Please pray for good health and safe travels on the roads.

God bless

A plus!

B

Faso!

Above: Pictures of two children at our OCC distributions.

Below: A village we visited near Kongoussi. The mountain you see behind would not be found Yako, and so we found it very interesting and beauiful. Compared to the Rockies it's a hill, but it's still beautiful amongst all the flat flat land here!

Above: A WC (water closet. there is not water though). Most bathroom stops don't look like this at all, but i had to post this one because it was so funny! Note the picture below? I took that from inside before doing my business. All those kids gathered round to watch us go in and out of the 'bathroom'! Also note on the left, there's a donkey..

Above: Just recieved a shoebox, and already chowing down on the bonbons

Below: a typical school bell found in many of the villages we've visited

Above: These girls were enjoying the toys found in the shoeboxes. She needed me to explain how to use them, but then found them fun!

Above: drinking stop at a well. All the cows here have that big bump on their back, apparently it's fat storage.. I don't remember it being so pronounced on cows back home, but perhaps i just wasn't paying attention

Above: a little fulani girl at one of our disributions. She's adorable!

Above: a little boy at one of our OCC disitributions. he liked seeing his picture!

April is here!

It’s hard to believe it’s already the afternoon of April 6th as I’m writing this! I can say cheerfully that I made it through March, month one of the hottest season!
To kick off April’s blog entry here’s my observations from the month of March:
-If a Burkinabé wants to call you but doesn’t want to pay for the cell phone call they will beep you. They will call but only long enough to make your phone ring for a moment and for their number to flash on your caller ID. -There is a ceremony for everything (or so it seems). Before a big soccer game or when a large gift is received a ceremony must take place. Here even a school inspection merits a big lunch for the inspectors and teachers. -Whenever someone is giving a speech they must address everyone in attendance before starting their speech starting with the persons of greatest importance and working their way down to Mesdames et Messieurs.. I have seen at some gatherings everyone that will give a speech receive a sheet of paper with the formal greeting written out for them, so they can assure they leave no one out. -If someone of importance is unable to attend a ceremony someone else will read their speech for them. -At gatherings when it comes to meal time, guests sit in rows all facing the same direction. Most of the time there is a table just for the front row (the honoured guests sit here).-Once you’ve eaten you get up and leave. Whereas in the Western world we’d consider it rude to eat and leave, here it’s not. If you’re at a function you can leave the function once you’ve eaten, if you’re eating at the table with Burkinabé you can get up from the table soon as you’ve eaten.. -When you leave you typically ‘demande la route’ or ask for the road-Taxi prices are per person and negotiable, not based on a meter. 400-500cfa is fairly standard but it can vary depending on the distance you need to go, and how far off the taxi drivers normal route you are going. I have not paid more than 750cfa for a taxi. Since you pay per person the taxi driver will fit as many people as they can into the taxi. They will stop for more people en route. I have been in a taxi with as few as two people and as many as seven people all at once. Seven people usually involves at least 3 of the people sitting on someone else’s laps. Liz and I usually take turns for who sits on the lap and who gets sat on J -Everyone here assumes I am either American or French. When they discover I am neither and I am Canadian they assume I must be from either Montreal or Quebec. A typical conversation goes “Americianne ou Francaise?” “Canadienne.” “Montreal ou Quebec?” “Ni l’un ni l’autre”This is returned by a puzzled stare and then a story about so and so that went to Quebec or Montreal.. -All the children share their food here. The toddlers will come up to me and try to give me peanuts or give me bite of their little cakes. This is because the Tantines and older children teach them to share and it is expected. I always pretend to take a bite and then they are happy, they take a bite and then offer another to me. They love to share their food!-If you need someone it’s perfectly acceptable to yell for them wherever you are and it’s their responsibility to come find you. You can yell from inside to someone outside, or across a courtyard to someone. (My assumption is this person must be younger than you and thus you have the authority to do so.) -The Burkinabé are very comfortable with silence. They will not be at all uncomfortable if you are walking or sitting across from them and no one is saying anything. I usually am good with it for a while, but am almost always the first to break the silence. -The Burkinabé never apologize for being late, even if they are late by African standards. If work starts at 6:00 and they arrive at 6:30 they will not apologize to the person that had to work overtime for them. Depending on the situation being late will warrant an explanation, but never an apology- it’s not done.

How are the children?Jules is back at the orphanage he no longer needs to be at the hospital. He is still receiving care for malnourishment and needs to gain weight. He has been struggling with fevers for the past week, which is difficult considering the extreme heat. It is a considerable amount of work to get him to eat his meal supplements and drink milk (he will not drink from a bottle and must be spoon fed). Sometimes he refuses to eat when he should and other times he eats very well. Thank you for your prayers, please pray for his continued healing.
We had one baby in the hospital in Ouahigouya this past week. Our fear was she had meningitis however thankfully she did not and her infection was treated successfully. Thank the Lord for our knowledgeable nurses who sent her to Ouahigouya and for the staff and Tantine who cared for her there.
We have a new child at the orphanage. He joined us just yesterday night and will be with us for just a few months while his mother finishes schooling. He cried most of yesterday evening and asked us to call his mom to come pick him up. pray for his time of transition that he would feel at home with the children and tantines here. Please pray especially that he will develop a sense of community despite the language barrier he faces: he speaks only French and when the children speak amongst themselves they use almost exclusively mooré although they are all capable of using French.
We have one little one going home soon! Her papers went before the court last month and she was declared officially adopted (30 days after the papers are done the parents can come pick baby up!). Praise God for a new family for our little one! Please pray for the children’s whose paper work is still in the process of being finished.
The older children have just gone back to school after congé. Some of them took the time off school to visit family (if they have older siblings, or a parent to visit). Some of our children don’t have someone to visit stayed here, and some were required to go to school even through the break. Pray for them as they head into the third trimester. School here is difficult and many of them face a challenging trimester and the possibility of not passing if they don’t do well this go around.

The past few weeks have gone by so fast I can’t believe it! I’ve spent lots of time with the babies, a little time out with Adiara doing paperwork at the tribunal. Adiara has also been very kind and been taking me to visit with her family every so often when she goes home to visit them. I have gotten to know her mom a little bit, and spent a little bit of a time chatting with her younger brother who is a student. Sometimes when I go over I sit with them and chat, one time there was a soccer game on which was exciting to watch, another time they wanted to watch a film so I watched with them, another time her mom pulled out the family photo album and they showed me everyone in the family. It was interesting but sad the difference here, so many times she would point to someone and say “that’s so and so, but he passed away...” A couple times I’ve had to with them; often I sit and eat peanuts with them. It’s been fun! Adiara’s mom told me in ancient times here when a village chief died they would bury him with his favourite wife, and the favourite wife would be buried alive! I don’t know about you, but for me that’s incentive enough to not be the favourite wife. Atleast be wife number 2 or 3 (Just kidding! Anytime sometime asks I tell them I will be the only wife my husband will have, he won’t have a second wife and I will not be wife number 2. Usually they get what I mean.) We spent a day in Ouaga getting grain for one of our sponsor children and picking up glasses for one of our children here. On the bus ride back I sat right near a guy wearing a UofA tshirt! I couldn’t help myself and asked him where he’d gotten it. He said he didn’t get it himself in Alberta, but then didn’t seem at all up for chit chat and turned around. I was a little disappointed but I found the whole shirt to be too hilarious to be disappointed long. How often do you see a University of Alberta tshirt on the bus from Ouagadougou to Ouahigouya?


This Sunday is Easter and I’m excited to see how our church will celebrate. I know they’ve had several meetings about the day already, and many people have been getting memory verses to recite. Usually each Sunday school group recites a verse but I understand now everyone will recite their own? I expect a longer service than usual, but I look forward to it anyhow. We plan to perhaps give our kids an extra treat and let them watch a film Sunday night since they have easter Monday off..
Next week I will also be travelling to Gibo! I am extremely fortunate to be able to tag along with a group that is going with SIM. Pray for safe travels and good health (it is much hotter where we are going, so pray that we will stay healthy in the heat!). I look forward to being able to update you about our time there.

The other day my morning bible study took me to Matthew 25:35-40 For I was hungry and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him, saying ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the king will answer them ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers you did it to me.”That morning I prayed that God would help me see Jesus not just in the children as I am serving but in the staff and anyone else that I might encounter during the day.
I asked God to help me see that it was Jesus I was serving. That he would show me to be patient when I didn’t feel like I could be, and that he would give me love when I felt like I couldn’t love. Sometimes I feel like it’s easy to know how to love the babies and the kids but I can struggle to love the workers when they aren’t kinds with their words or are demanding. ( I recognize there are cultural things I don’t understand too which can attribute to some miscommunications, but every once and a while I struggle when a tantine says constantly “Brittany do this, Brittany do that..”) Later that day I picked up a book I’ve been reading by C.S. Lewis. As I was reading I came across this: “Our model is the Jesus, not only of Calvary, but of the workshops, the roads, the crowds, the clamorous demands and surly oppositions, the lack of all peace and privacy, the interruptions. For this, so strangely unlike anything we can attribute to the Divine life in itself, is apparently not only like, but is, the Divine life operating under human conditions.”To me I felt the connection right away to what I’d been praying about that morning and what C.S. Lewis was saying here. And I saw it here in a different light altogether... It reminded me to think of Jesus not just as my savior but as the man who let all the little children come to him, who didn’t lose his patience when people found him at seemingly inopportune times, who loved the people that came to him anytime anywhere with questions and needs... He served. It’s funny how you can know something, but God will remind you of it when you lose touch with it for a short time. Of course I am here and serving for Jesus, but I am reminded now how much I want to serve LIKE Jesus.