June 3, 2005
“Praise the Lord. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him! He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power, his understanding has not limit.” Psalm 147: 1, 4-5
There is so much to
praise the Lord for this past month here in Penrhy’s. We have
been quite busy here at the church since I last wrote you in
April. We ended the month of April with a retreat to Ludlow
(which is on the border between England and Wales in England).
This retreat was for the 4 overseas volunteers and my two
supervisors. Three churches in the greater Manchester area of
England put on the retreat. The three churches and Llanfair make
up a Partnership were we work together helping each other’s communities
and encouraging each other. We focused on Dietrich Bonhoeffer
(1906-1945) during the weekend and talked about ways as a community of
Christians we can live out Christ’s life to others. It was
wonderful to learn more about a fellow brother in Christ and to see
some of the things that he did during World War II as a Christian as
well as practically putting into use some of the teachings that he left
for us.
This past month
should be called Christian Aid month since we have been raising money
for the entire month of May, even though technically it is just one
week really. Christian Aid is an organization that gives food,
money, or aid to areas in the world that are less fortunate than
us. This year we talked about a family in Bangladesh.
Christian Aid gave this family a goat which they were able to use the
resources from the goat to fertilize their garden which in turn grew
vegetables to sell and eat for the family, use the kids to sell for
money which in turn provided money for medicines and schooling, use the
milk from the goat to provide for the family and in turn sell for money
to help start a business for the father. It is amazing how far
one goat goes, Christian aid referrers to it as “Recycling a Goat”.We started off the Christian Aid month with a fancy disco for the adults. It was fun to dress up and have fun with some of the women from the community. I dressed up as Dopey, although I didn’t accomplish looking too much like him. We have also had an adult auction and a children’s auction to raise money. Everyone always enjoys the auctions and it is wonderful to see the children and adults getting involved in giving money for Christian Aid. Some of the little children didn’t quite understand though at times why they couldn’t just buy something and someone else got a toy instead of them.
We also have an
opportunity for the children to raise money by having different people
sponsor them for a Friday night activity called, “Sing, Read, and
Dance”. For 4 hours the children need to be singing, dancing, or
reading. The kids enjoyed filling up the sponsor forms and
joining in on the activities. The day after this event we took
the kids to a museum in Wales called the Big Pit as a reward for all of
the work that they have been doing lately. It was fun to go
somewhere with the kids and to see them get excited when we got to go
down into the pit and learn about how coal was extracted. Going
in the shaft was definitely a faith step for me as I am not a big fan
of elevators, but when you are around children you have to smile and
look unafraid . There was one event that I was unable to attend
because I was sick. I was quite disappointed that I was unable to go to
the Fun walk in Tonypandy. My roommates and some people from the
community dressed up in funny costumes and went around collecting money
in the town center. They all had fun and then ended the day with
a visit to the school children at the local primary school to tell them
a bit more about Christian Aid. We also have an evening called
the Rich/Poor Supper. 
This is when we all
buy a ticket to come to the dinner and then before we go into eat our
names are put into a raffle. Six names are chosen from the
tickets randomly for a nice full course meal, while the rest of us eat
a plate of rice. It is an evening that really makes you become
aware of the differences that exist in this world. It makes you
realize how much we have to be thankful for in our own lives. The
last event for Christian Aid month was this past Monday when we hiked
eleven miles from a town called Pontypridd to Penrhy’s. I thoroughly
enjoyed the walk and getting to see the lovely countryside of Wales
along the way although at one point I was unsure if we would make it
back because we took a wrong turn, but God lead us safely back home a
couple miles longer than we planned. This past week has also been
a week off for school for the children, which means activities in the
Partnership and Arts center. This year the church, the
partnership, and the arts center worked together to have an
environmental day around Penrhy’s. It was great to see the kids
work together with the adults to help clean up some of the litter lying
around and take ownership of where they live.
Hanitra and I also
had the opportunity this past month to talk on a radio station called
GTFM about what we are doing here in Penrhy’s and about why we came
over for a year. It was a great opportunity to whiteness to
others that normally listen since it is not a Christian radio
station. It was great to be able to have the opportunity to
openly profess what we believe on live radio.So as you can see there have been plenty of things to Praise the Lord for. Many times I forget the simple things in life that I should be thankful for, as I am sure a lot of you do as well. Today take some time to sit down and go through all of the things that happened in your day and take time to thank the Lord. It’s amazing what you will find.
In Christ’s Love, Kari