On Wednesday night Dan and I went to the homegroup of the community church we are (so far) kind of half involved in. Normally one of us goes and the other stays home with Abby and Alex. But this week one of the husbands in the group offered to babysit our children so that we could both go together. This in itself was an out-playing of something we then discussed at the bible study - how as a kingdom community, we should be giving to each other and, also, receiving.
Each Wednesday one of the couples cooks supper for everybody - for about six other couples and two single guys. We cram around their dining tables for dinner, with wine, and then have some lovely singing and a bible study.
This week as I looked around the crowded room, it struck me how these people are so determined to serve each other, to be there for each other, and they really do it. It is a great testimony. We have been helped so much by many of them. We have been to all their homes for meals, and to some more than once. And after a short bout of inviting people back (we managed three meals!), I haven't really felt up to it in the last couple of months. So I looked around feeling as though all I have done is receive receive receive since moving here. It is humbling to be the one who is new and not feeling all that confident. And also not feeling very known. It is a reversal from by the time we left Uganda, where I felt like quite a seasoned Africa person. I knew how to cook there and have people over for meals, we would have entertained new people who arrived on campus and hopefully helped them feel settled (although Abby Bartels deserves the crown for that ministry!), shown people around Kampala, lent people books... Now it is all turned around and I have to ask people where to buy things. I don't really mind that side of it though. Probably the thing I am feeling most bad about is not having people over for meals, when Dan and I love doing that. I just don't feel like I can get my head around it at the moment.
But the point being made in the study was that in God's kingdom, we need to receive from each other as well as give. If there weren't people who need to receive, who would the givers give to? For now, just for a bit longer, I have to accept that I am in need of receiving. I do really appreciate the way our new friends have encircled us and been so generous to us. One of my new women friends who is a obstetrician and who worked in Bangladesh as missionaries until a few years ago, asked me if I wanted to be her prayer partner last week. It felt like a life-line was being thrown to me, I am sure she didn't expect such an enthusiastic, OK maybe even desperate, response! Yes please!!!!!
It is so good to be part of God's family.
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