Hey, 32 + 12!
Today I'm 32+12. Yep, it's the 12th anniversary of my 32nd birthday. I'm 44 and - according to the Missus - still cute. Of course, my niece thinks I'm just old and tells me so, but she's usually grinning when she says it.
Last year on my bd I was living the high life in Kinshasa, Congo. Several of us went as a mission team to Africa, where we spent about two weeks in house-to-house evangelism and revival services. Kinshasa is surreal - 7,000,000 people, very inadequate garbage system, extreme pollution, intermittent electricity, armed militias in the streets, traffic laws that are less than suggestions, city-dwellers cooking over wood fires, riots after soccer matches. You know, the usual unreal, hazy, "how did I get here?" kind of place that you've run into when you've fallen asleep after eating too much pepperoni pizza. Remember Apocalypse Now? Sort of like that.
But the people we worked with were wonderful, full of great spirit, great songs, and wonderful hospitatity: they didn't have anything but would gladly split it with you. And on the last day of the trip, June 14, 2005, missionary friends invited us all over and fed me birthday cake.
What a great day.
I never expected to have a birthday in equatorial Africa, but I thank God for giving one to me. In the year since, here in the USA, I've had the joy of dealing with revised expectations. How do I live with abundance? How do I tell Americans about Christ when so many don't really want to hear? How do I stay in a complacent America when so many in other places DO want to hear? And, what else does God have for the future?
All good questions.
Today I ate pizza at Tony's and then, after prayer meeting, went with the family for coconut cream pie at Marie Calendars. Also, a good birthday. Praise God for every one of them.
Last year on my bd I was living the high life in Kinshasa, Congo. Several of us went as a mission team to Africa, where we spent about two weeks in house-to-house evangelism and revival services. Kinshasa is surreal - 7,000,000 people, very inadequate garbage system, extreme pollution, intermittent electricity, armed militias in the streets, traffic laws that are less than suggestions, city-dwellers cooking over wood fires, riots after soccer matches. You know, the usual unreal, hazy, "how did I get here?" kind of place that you've run into when you've fallen asleep after eating too much pepperoni pizza. Remember Apocalypse Now? Sort of like that.
But the people we worked with were wonderful, full of great spirit, great songs, and wonderful hospitatity: they didn't have anything but would gladly split it with you. And on the last day of the trip, June 14, 2005, missionary friends invited us all over and fed me birthday cake.
What a great day.
I never expected to have a birthday in equatorial Africa, but I thank God for giving one to me. In the year since, here in the USA, I've had the joy of dealing with revised expectations. How do I live with abundance? How do I tell Americans about Christ when so many don't really want to hear? How do I stay in a complacent America when so many in other places DO want to hear? And, what else does God have for the future?
All good questions.
Today I ate pizza at Tony's and then, after prayer meeting, went with the family for coconut cream pie at Marie Calendars. Also, a good birthday. Praise God for every one of them.
posted by David Hardesty | 9:31 PM
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