to the ends of the earth: Washing Your Hands

Weeks ago the committee for our widows project and child sponsorship program decided that we should teach our women and children both physical and spiritual lessons :) This brought me such joy because the pastors had fallen into a pattern of preaching at the women and children....for hours, and they had agreed as a group that this was a necessary change. We discussed how Jesus met both physical and spiritual needs in His ministry on Earth and we are called to do the same.

So we started with what some might think are "the basics" but they are SO IMPORTANT! Our first lesson was this past Saturday and we taught about the importance of washing hands.....and not just with water, which is a common practice, but with soap! Then the teachers tied in the spiritual lesson about the importance of being cleaned on the inside as well, and the only way we are cleaned on the inside is by the blood of Jesus, which washes those who trust Him with their life.

Megan also helped in a big way by making a suggestion we have been thinking about for a long time (but culturally, we weren't sure the most appropriate way to suggest it). You see, there are a handful of people who walk with the children to the location of our activity day, but because they aren't "part of the program" they usually just sit there until the lessons are done, eat lunch with us, then leave. And Megan found a good opportunity to suggest that they too be involved in the lessons, even though they aren't widows in our project, they can still come and learn together with them. It was especially exciting for me when I was worshipping and praying with the group of adults because there were at least 3 of the women who would normally have waited outside that looked like they had no idea what was going on, in all likelihood they are not believers. And this might be an opportunity for them to learn about Jesus - not in the traditional way of being preached at, but through learning characteristics of Jesus and how He cares about the whole person - physically and spiritually.

THEN we had LOTS of fun with the kids playing relays with soap! They had a blast and it was a great tool to reinforce the importance of using soap because the only way to win the game was with the soap!

And then I witnessed one of the most exciting things I've seen here - every single person there (child, widow, guest, and pastor) washed their hands with soap before eating lunch!! It felt like an amazing breakthrough!