Teamwork is key!

    On a Monday I went to a community called Kudooko for the first time. We started off the day by having everyone sit under a few trees while each staff member that was present took some time to share. It was amazing to hear each team member share, even the driver James! Eventually, I had a chance to share and I observed my surroundings before I started off by giving an illustration. I pulled a small tree up out of the ground and then asked everyone to look at it, as it's roots were completely uprooted and destroyed. I then explained how a tree that has not matured is very easy to pull. I then went over to a big tree that I started to try and uproot. I couldn't even budge it and obviously everyone started to laugh.
    I then used the illustration to emphasize the verse that I wanted to share. John 3:30 (which I have shared a few times while here) says, "He must become greater, I must become less." This is a short verse but with lots of weight behind it. I basically went on to say that there were two types of people present at the meeting. There were those who were like baby trees, they could be uprooted very easily. Then there were people like the bigger, mature tree. These types of people were solid, mature, and were not able to be uprooted as easily. I then concluded, asking if people would choose to daily allow Jesus to become so much greater in their lives, so that it could be said of them, they are a mature tree.
       On a Tuesday I went to community and was going to check up on some of the Maize fields that were growing, thanks to some loans that were given. I first went with one of the Somebody Cares staff members and we came across a marsh that had a flowing section right down the middle. The worker asked a few questions about the water because if it was not clean enough to walk through, we would have had to walk all the way around, which would of set us back a considerable amount of time. It turns out that the water was flowing enough to walk through quickly, so I unzipped the leggings of my pants, making them into shorts and proceeded into the water!
      After crossing the water, we proceeded to head in the direction of the Maize fields that were growing. We cut through different types of gardens such as groundnuts, pumpkin and other Maize fields. Arriving at the fields that were from the loans, the owner's definitely got excited to show us their Maize. As the below pictures show, the recipients of the loans look like they will indeed have good Maize this year. On our way back, Charles thought he would try to go through the water really fast. This was definitely a mistake as he almost got more than what he was wishing for. In other words, he almost had his entire body go into the water for a swim.

      On a Wednesday I went to Mandala with Enoch who is a manager here at Somebody Cares. We went into the classroom to take pictures of the children in general and also of children who had specific stories about how the ministry of Somebody Cares made a significant change in their lives. After taking several photos, Enoch and I left on bikes to check out the progress of the Centre that was being built. The Centre is coming along pretty well as the below pictures show the incredible progress being made. This is also one of the several Centre's that are being built.

       On a Thursday I had the opportunity to go to a Berean class training. These types of trainings are based out of Acts chapter 30 where it talks about how the berea people received the message with great eagerness and they examined the scriptures everyday to see if what Paul told them was true. This is the push behind the Berean class that Somebody Cares does. The Berean's receive a message from MD (Keta) but are eager to examine scripture to see whether or not what she says is true. I know for myself, when I went to MD's Berean class and examined the scripture given, I was in complete agreement with what was taught. She was going through some of the qualifications of being an overseer. When she brought up drunkenness she only addressed it quickly, but gave a lot of scriptures for the class to read. One thing she said in this section was how we so often target drunkenness but overlook a lot of other areas, which are often addressed alongside drunkenness. One such area would be gluttony.
             On another note, I finally finished one project! For the past week or so I've spent several evenings at Vanessa's house, working on some renovations. She is the lead manager who overseas the rest at Somebody Cares. The project I recently finished was laying carpet in her bedroom. There have been some pretty good laughs, especially when I came downstairs one night, high as a kite on fumes from the carpet glue. I told Vanessa that I was high and sat on the sofa. My eyes were completely bloodshot and I picked up a newspaper to see if I could read. I couldn't even concentrate enough to read a single word. After relaxing for a bit, I was able to get back up and finish the part I was working on that night.
        How about THOR!!! Vanessa has a puppy named Thor(or as Vanessa would say "my baby") and he is going to be a big boy. He likes to jump up on anyone that's in the house and the only way he listens is if Vanessa talks sternly with him! Vanessa also has a smaller dog named Mite, who has been a lot more energetic as of late, due to Thor being around.
      I recently went to a community that I had not previously been to. Njande is a bit further than what I am used to traveling to get to a Centre. However, watching the children line-up to wash their hands before lunch(for many, only meal of day) at this Centre was amazing to see. The line-up was so straight and only certain amounts were allowed to go over to the hand washing station. This Centre is a good example for other Centre's to follow as their hand washing before lunch is very organized.

     On Friday a few events took place. Somebody Cares sold two of their pigs, which were then brought to the butcher shop. Later on that day, I found myself handling the freshly cut meat, packing it into bags to give to the staff. One of the pigs was bought by Amai to bless the staff(That's a lot of bacon).

Another event that took place on Friday was an emergency. The Home Based Care department had several employees come back from community where they immediately started talking about the situation they encountered. To sum up, a child headed home was struggling after not having a proper meal in at least 3 days. The parents of the children passed away because of aids and the oldest child is now raising the others. Unable to properly eat, the oldest child has been forced to stop attending school and try to find food throughout the day. Because of the emergency at hand, the staff came together and raised money to provide a relief pack. The pack was delivered the same day, having Maize, and cooking essentials in this pack. Please pray that Somebody Cares would be able to continually come alongside this family.

  Teamwork is key especially in situations like the above. In many of my posts the term "I did this" is used but it should be understood that it is not without several employees help. The staff at Somebody Cares are truly amazing and they are continually learning how to become a stronger team. Tuesday's is devotion time, Wednesday is video lesson time, Thursday is specific prayer time and Friday is game time. Much team building occurs during these times!!! All throughout the week there are meetings to communicate how things can be accomplished more effectively as a team.


"Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all it's many parts form one body, so it is with Christ."
       - 1 Corinthians 12:12
Our individual gifts should be used to bring unity to the team, to the body of Christ!