"Teacher, Don't You Care That We're Drowning?"

The rental car was loaded up with the leftover gluten free meals we’d been given from a week of training at the MTW home office. It had turned into a beautiful day and we were keeping our plans to see parts of downtown Atlanta we’d never taken the time to explore. Every time I left the home office that week I would get updates about this virus I’d been following for weeks because we had just spent time in Tokyo. It seemed every day this thing was coming closer and closer to our doors.

              The sun was finally out..and the weather was so nice for the first time that week that on any other “normal” day my biggest concern would’ve been taking my hair into consideration when wondering whether or not to keep the windows down once we hit the interstate… 

           But this wasn’t an ordinary day. Our week in the office had been spent in support raising training and in meetings with the marketing department about how to improve our video ministry long-term. Each day there were rumblings of Covid-19. Handshakes became elbow bumps and friends who hadn’t seen each other in months navigated the awkward tension of whether or not to come close. By the time Friday rolled around we had altered our original plans to be away a bit longer so that we could get home, get things in order, and help our church with a live stream of our “new normal.” 

           With any major event in history a time comes when we talk about where we were. Where were you when Kennedy was shot? Where were you when the towers fell?  I don’t know which of the many days or events or press conferences from this season will be the ones seared in my mind many years from now, but I do think the sunny drive in a rental car down I- 85 after we’d been “launched” out officially as missionaries with MTW will stand out for me. Filled to the brim with thanksgiving and excitement to go do ministry, we couldn’t really process all that had happened in our very full week at the home office that afternoon. Instead of talk about it, we decided to turn on the radio as we drove through Decatur, Kirkwood, the 4th ward, and Mid-town Atlanta. 

Passersby in downtown Decatur wearing masks made me think of our time in Tokyo, where culturally it’s very normal to wear masks even when there’s not a pandemic going on. 

                  But in Atlanta? 

The President came on the radio to announce a state of emergency. He began to describe a new way of life for the first time. Terms that only 2 weeks later we are so used to hearing….ideas like drive through testing and stay-at-home orders were being described really for the first time. The crisis was here.

           There is no doubt now that we’ll all know a before and an after of Covid-19.   Since that drive I’ve had countless video calls, phone calls, texts - some with people I talk to weekly and others with family and friends who I don’t reach out to enough. Now, we just want to talk, “see” each other, and know that the other is okay in a time like this. One question that remains for me each day is the question of how to be at peace in this time of turbulence. How do we balance the state of emergency on the radio with the reality that the sun is out right now and I would love to have the car windows down!? 

           Many stories of Jesus’ way of handling suffering keep popping in my head lately. One that I can’t shake is that of the storm that comes in Matthew 4 when Jesus and the disciples are in the boat. Where is Jesus during that storm in the story? Well…. he’s sleeping. 

                I must admit that amidst some of the stories - people dying, losing jobs, missing celebrations - my first thought or cry has been “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” (Mark 4:38). The stories of loss, loneliness, fear, and death are some days too many to count and too much to handle. It is tempting to wonder with a watching world…

                                                           ”Where is our God?” 

In the very next verse of Mark 4 it says “He (Jesus) got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm..”

             Did you see what Jesus did? He got up! It was the wind he rebuked. He said 

                                                            “Quiet….be still!”

This makes me think of another time stillness is talked about in the bible. 

 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10

       The God of the universe in that moment tells a life threatening storm to be quiet and still. And he tells me to do the same. Why, because he is up to something. 

The disciples’ response to Jesus asking about their fear and faith is to be even more afraid…..terrified even…this time of the awesome power of a God who is completely in control.

41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” 

           As we fear in this time, let us fight to be still. Maybe it’s spending more time in God’s word than you’re used to. Maybe it’s making a prayer calendar for all the needs you see swirling around you and committing to pray for these needs in a time where you can’t be present with your hands and feet to help. Maybe it’s starting something new or finding new music to sing along and worship to. What are the ways you can be still as your Savior, your Provider, your Friend, stands - in His timing - to calm the waves and storm around you? 

             I think all of us can agree that the disciples’ fear in that nasty storm was a totally understandable response. The key question is, what are we asking of God in this time? Are we asking for his help, or are we asking…”why don’t you care?” 

            As we wrestle with the new normal of Covid-19, may we see in this story and so many others that Jesus did actually calm the storm. May we watch the waves with assurance that the one who stills them is in the boat with us. May we take this opportunity to be still ourselves and know that He is God. He took on flesh to walk among lepers, among the diseased, and dying, that we might have life and have it abundantly. He will be exalted among the nations. May we wait and watch as He stands. 

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What we're watching, reading, listening to: 

In light of Covid-19 keeping us home and our fight to be still and know that God is in control, we wanted to share with you some of the encouraging resources we've enjoyed in this time. Please check out some of these articles, songs, and resources that help with steadfastness, faith, hope and a little laughter in a time when we desperately need it. Do you have books, articles, websites, podcasts, etc that are helping with hope in this season? Please reply to our email and share them!! 

The Bible Project's Church at Home            Some Good News with John Krasinski

Gospel Coalition Coronavirus Articles.         Tim Keller: How to Deal with Dark Times

Online Sermons/our church’s livestream.      Thirty MInutes With The Perry's Podcast

Free Audiobooks from Audible (C.S. Lewis)    A Mighty Fortress During Covid-19

Azizi Life...Muhanga District, Rwanda

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For one day while in Rwanda, Kate and I got to go outside the city to the Muhanga District where we spent the day with 7 women who are artisans with another co-op, Ingobokarugo Cooperative, in Rwanda. They make baskets and jewelry that they then sell through Azizi Life who sells their items to folks in the UK and the states. Through purchases of these items, the women are able to earn an income for their families, provide a way for their children to go to school, and contribute in other ways to their household.

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These women opened up their home and time to us to show us what a day in their life looks like. We did everything from hoe in the field to carrying the cow’s lunch on our heads, to preparing their one meal of the day to learning how to make the jewelry they make ourselves!

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This was an extremely eye opening experience. I saw families and children who live completely on the land…and there’s a joy that I couldn’t explain. These people are living in what to us here in the states would be seen as some of the most impoverished situations. But they have everything they need…and then some. In these communities, the families and neighbors share everything. When it’s time to kill the pig or cow…it’s shared with the entire community. When someone needs a house..all the men in the community come together to make the mud bricks and build the home. This mentality and way of life is fundamentally different from so many other cultures in the world. This is also what made the genocide and the murder of neighbors by neighbors an all the more shocking reality.

 

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I’ve already touched on the ways this community and village were affected by the genocide and what that did for us during our stay there. You can read about that at this link…

http://www.claireelysephotography.com/blog/?p=8968

 

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Something happened that day that I will never forget...As we were leaving the families including all of their children sang and danced for us. While dancing their traditional tribal dance, they were thanking us for being a part of their lives for the day. They don’t know us…they definitely don’t understand us and yet they were so welcoming…they then asked us to sing and dance for them. We of course weren't prepared and even laughed at first. But then we decided to sing Amazing Grace. They had never heard the song and it was a very moving experience. We began to get emotional singing it and had a hard time getting through the song. It occurred to each of us while singing about grace and eternity to those who don't even speak the same language that one day we will all sing together. We will worship and sing praises to God with members of God's family literally from every tribe and every nation..

when we've been there ten thousand years..

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The kids in the villages all run to the street when they hear a car coming. They don’t see cars very often so when one pulls up they drop everything and run after it…waving and often yelling “mzungu!” which means “white person!” The photos of the kids and families doing this are some that I will treasure forever. The experience of that joy and welcome given to strangers was the gospel being played out. There is something in all of us...something that is not of us and it is God’s work to restore chaos in a broken world. Out of this chaos is a redemption that can be felt in the smiles, the dances, the hugs, the claps of even those who don’t even know the same language as us…and even in the car chases by children so excited to see someone different from them…there is a hint..a whisper of God’s grace, goodness, generosity, and joy that is real and that being in this world we have the privilege to share with others.

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You can support the women and families seen in these photographs and other Rwandan artisans by visiting the link below:

http://azizilife.com/

And if you're ever in or near Rwanda, go visit Azizi Life and spend a day in the life of these people. You'll be changed forever.

http://azizilife.com/get-involved/experiences

" After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” Revelation 7:9-10

Thanks for stopping by,

Claire