From Geoffrey to you; Green Thumbs in Kosovo

Wednesday May 27, 2009

Green Thumbs In Kosovo

One of my sisters and I were obsessed with gardening when we were younger. My parents used to manage apartments and would often make trips to Home Depot; each and every time I went along I ambushed the gardening section, particularly the wall covered with seeds. The idea that flowers, vegetables, fruits and shrugs simply blew my sisters and my mind. We both had a section in our yard for our gardens. We planted corn, tomatoes, carrots and anything else we could manage to get the seeds for. Our neighbor had a rabbit and used to feed it tomatoes, its waste was the PERFECT fertilizer and already had the seeds in it. A heap of rabbit waste seemed to produce the largest and most plump tomatoes in Bellflower. The whole idea that something so large and delicious came from such a small seed mystified me.

Today I spent the day with a few pastors making our rounds to different areas, praying for the sick and visiting with the destitute. We went to a place that I mentioned in an earlier blog called Kosovo, which is where they brew beer illegally. There are many alcoholics in Masii, people who feed into their addiction before nourishing their bodies or caring for their families. The regulars wake up early in the morning from a drunken slumber and instantly make their way to Kosovo. We were there at about nine this morning and there were already dozens of men and women too inebriated to stand.

This is one of those places that pastors seem to avoid. We were told that we would probably get beat up by the drunkards and were advised not to go, that didn’t stop us from coming before. The last time we went a few dozen intoxicated men and women warmly welcomed us. We stayed there for a few hours just bonding and getting to know the crowd. We got them all to gather around as we started telling them about the God of compassion and love, not judgment and condemnation. Most of them had been chased away from churches because of this addiction; we told them about how we would welcome them with arms wide open and that if M.C.C. was a perfect church that we would all get kicked out. We told them that they needed to cut the drinking though, not for church but for the sake of their families and their body’s health. We left that day knowing that we had done a good thing and that we had reached out to those that no one else wants, but we figured that God never gave up on us so who are we to give up on these fellas.

Today we ventured all around Kosovo. We visited nearly every home and ended up kicking back at Mecca of all of Kosovo, the part of Kosovo where being drunk was a given and life wasn’t being lived without a cup of the local brew clenched in your hand. We walked around and made friends with the locals and surprisingly MANY of them remembered us from a few weeks ago. The large amount of people seemed to engulf us and they all were asking for prayers and gratefully thanking us for being willing to come talk with them. The coolest part of today was when one of the guys staggered up to me and started reciting everything I had said on my last visit; he even remembered the scripture I had spoken to him (John 3:17). He and his friends started pleading with us to pray for them and this addiction and earnestly wanted to change.

As futile as scattering seeds on the pavement, is visiting Kosovo and attempting to make a difference. It has been deemed as a worthless and useless place where nothing of worth will ever grow and any seed you sow will only wither and die. This is why pastors and Christians don’t dare step foot in Kosovo because it is fruitless.

Today I saw a seed that I planted a few weeks ago bear fruit. It amazes me how planting such a small seed, a friendly hello and God loves you, can turn into something so great and amazing. We shouldn’t cram these men and women into a box, assuming that they are only drunks and will never be anything but drunks, that doesn’t have to be their future. No one is doomed to live a life a certain way and certainly shouldn’t be deemed as fruitless or as a waste of time. With a little T.L.C. even the most barren of places can yield a crop.

I continue to be mystified by how planting a seed can yield something so beautiful

Asante Sana,

Mwendwa

Prayer Requests:
Janet and the continual progression of her eyes
Funds for a Generator
The Medical Center
Stacy’s Wheelchair… we should get it in two days woot woot

Randoms:
When we had our gardens I used to put soap in my sisters garden whenever she got me mad…. Just to kill her plants
All Star United is pretty rad! Props to Brandi for hooking me up with some of their music
We need to take notes on how the hospitality of the Kenyans
When In Kosovo we stumbled on a few guys who were digging a well… it was sixty feet deep…. INSANE is all I have to say about the guys who dig wells
When we first got to Kosovo a lad offered to give us porridge. It was sour and I am pretty sure it is on my top worst foods list…. My friend found grass in hers… EWW. We couldn’t say “No thank you” or else they wouldn’t want to hear what we had to say
I am getting pretty talented on the foot-peddle-powered sewing machine
My bathroom floods about every three days

WORD OF THE DAY
Nataka hospitali
Naw-tak-cuh haw-spit-olie

I NEED A HOSPITAL

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 at 6:43 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.