Army Ants, Rats, and Raging Bees
“Shiayla, come help, they're swarming” I called. “I’m Stuck”. There I was holding a dinner plate over an unused chimney hole, listening to the honey bees swarming on the other side, and watching another 30 bees flying around the kitchen light. How did I get in this predicament?
The last three months have been full of learning and adventure. On one hand it hardly seems possible that we have been here that long, on the other hand the days go by and I feel like this is just the norm of life, like its been this way for a long time. Life is busy with the construction on the new press building, building a couple of houses, renovation of AG school classrooms, planning on future projects, and keeping up with maintenance on the many faces of this mission project. Sometimes I am tempted to wonder if I’m really doing any mission work, or just running in circles.
It seems that since we have been living in this house we have been evicting one unwanted guest or another. Our patience has been tried a little since we have moved in to this house. It really is a fine house, it's just that we have had issues with rats (I think we are making headway on this). Then there was the Friday night that army ants invaded the back of the house and we all had a slumber party in the living room because our beds where uninhabitable. And most recently, we had honey bees that decided to move into an unused chimney in our kitchen. This home once sported a wood cook stove, but in the name of advancement (not sure if it was an improvement) it was sold and a gas stove now stands in its place. I had placed a burlap sack in the chimney hole with the intentions to cover it with a metal plate, but hadn't found the time. Last week, Shiayla had noticed some bees in the house one afternoon, but we couldn’t find where they were coming in until late in the evening when Shiayla was in the other end of the house and I began to hear more and more bees. I wandered into the kitchen to find a stream of bees pouring out from around that burlap sack. I grabbed a dinner plate, covered the hole, and started looking around for what to do next. I tried a couple things in my reach to prop the plate without success. And that’s when I began to call Shiayla for help. We taped the plate to the wall, as the buzz of activity became louder and louder, on the other side. I finally concluded that the only thing to do was to smoke them out of the chimney. I managed to push most of the bees back into the chimney and insert some burning newspaper and attempt to send the bees up the chimney. To my dismay many of them ended up dead in the chimney and only a few flew up and out to fresh air and safety. As I have contemplated those bees the last few days, I have come to the realization that I can stay in the smoke and the fire, or I can look up to my heavenly father and ask him to lift me to the fresh air above. God gently reminds me of the my 25 workers, most of which don’t claim any particular faith, and all of whom came to our recent week of revival meetings. He reminded me of the smiling children at primary school that come for hugs when I go to work on some project, and the AG students who have come to work around our place and greet me with a smile and a wave on the road.
So instead of being bothered by the pesky critters that think they should have my house, I’ve decided to smile and climb above the smoke of pests, or the challenge of keeping building materials arriving for my workers, or the exhaustion of a long day with many unexpected challenges, or the thought that maybe I’m not having the eternal impact I could have. Because when the smoke clears, we know that God has brought us here, and he has a purpose for our lives. We can leave the results to him. And if it's any encouragement to any of you, the one room of the house that hasn’t been affected by any unwanted guest is in fact our guest room. So if you're reading this, just know that you are a welcome guest, and we will do the best we can to keep the unwanted guest away while you're here.
P.S. We just wanted to say a special thanks to each of you that have financially supported us this last month, your support enables us to continue the work we are doing here at Kibidula. We ask you to pray for us and those we interact with that we might show a little of Jesus to each one.
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