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The Bible
lessons this morning talk about two men, Peter and Paul. Both
of these great men worked hard in the name of Jesus. Peter and
Paul may have surprised themselves by all they were able to do,
with the help of God!
This sort of
thing is what has happened to Mr. Mawakasunga, Elizabeth’s
father. After all, he is just an ordinary Civil Engineer. But
once again this summer he and Elizabeth’s mommy have gone to
Tanzania to work on the water projects there. That is why Aunt
Gertrude is here, staying with Elizabeth while her parents are
gone.
“There is a
letter here from your parents.” Aunt Gertrude called up the
stairs. Elizabeth came running down from her room and quickly
picked up the envelope and saw her father’s familiar
handwriting. See?
She got the
letter opener and carefully opened the envelope. In this day of
computers, hand written letters are kind of old fashioned. But
in the Tanzanian village where her father and mother are staying
there is no internet connection, in fact there are no computers,
in fact, there is no electricity most of the time. In fact,
they must even go a long distance to just get to a post office
to mail a letter! Things sure are different there than they are
here!
Elizabeth can
read because she is in second grade, but sometimes it is hard to
read her father’s handwriting so Elizabeth handed the letter
back to Aunt Gertrude and said “Would you read it to me please?”
Dearest
Elizabeth,
We miss you so much. Your mother and I think of you every
single day we are here. Our work here is very difficult.
The materials we’ve ordered have not yet arrived but we have
accomplished a lot. The men in the village have dug all the
trenches and the water lines are ready to install. We all
have very dirty hands! In the meantime, the village women
and girls still must walk long distances to go to the muddy
water hole to dip out water into their buckets and carry
them back to their homes. Yesterday the women reported that
many wild beasts were also there drinking, so you see we
share the little water we have with all of God’s creation!
(Elizabeth imagined how
wonderful it would be to walk for water and to see wild
beasts there! But then she thought that maybe that would be
too hard to walk that far everyday and maybe even a bit
scary.)
Aunt Gertrude continued to
read.
I hope that
you and your Aunt are doing well. Don’t forget to water the
tomatoes!
Remember to
look at the moon and think of us for it is the only thing
that we can both see while we are so far apart!
Love and
Kisses, Daddy
XOXOXO ♥
Mr.
Mawakasunga and Peter and Paul all have something in common.
They are people who have worked very, very hard every day to
bring to God’s people what is most needed. It might be water,
it might be teaching, it might be love.
Peter and
Paul and Mr. Mawakasunga might be surprised by what they can
accomplish, however God is not surprised, for God is the very
source of their strength and the giver of their talents. In
this way, we are God’s hands to do his work in this wonderful
creation. Look at your hands and imagine what they might do
today in God’s name! THE END
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