So I’ve met many many people as we make a point to walk thru the village as often as we can. That’s life here, greeting, visiting and greeting some more. And Africans don’t just give you a nod and ask how you are, all while walking past so quickly that the question isn’t finished before you are headed in opposite directions… Let alone an answer. OH No, greetings are very important in African culture.

So the greeting… I love! I’ve always enjoyed that but I’ve always been bad with names. I confess I rarely get my kids’ names right. But I usually remember faces and details of conversations and of our lives we share. Back home, I get around the name thing… And as one of the youth wrote in a “going away” book, I know LOTS of people named “sweetie”.

When I got here, everyone looks the same to me. And before that tilts someone with gasps, ah, these beautiful black people say the same thing about mazungas (white people). And they say Asians are even harder to tell a difference. Hmmm, not sure on that, “my Asians” are easily distinguishable. ;))

Anyways, I was praying and asking God to help me to know the faces of my neighbors. Help me to remember the tidbits of their lives that they share. And Lord, help me remember my new friends’ names!!

As I prayed for this, I was reminded of a song…

I have a Maker
He formed my heart
Before even time began
My life was in his hands

I have a Father
He calls me His own
He’ll never leave me
No matter where I go

He knows my name
He knows my every thought
He sees each tear that falls
And He hears me when I call

Does it bowl you over? It does me! I mean, the Creator of the Universe… He KNOWS me!!

Not only does He know me…

But He has forgiven my sins… Setting it as far as the East is from the West…. I want to forgive like that.

When I pray… He leans in, bends His ear… to hear me…. I want to listen like that!

He loves me with a Love unconditional! I want to love like that!

And then I thought about the faces… Then I thought about HIS FACE!!!! Then I thought about one day soon seeing HIM – face to face!!

This is my hope, not obscured hope but secured hope!! And I want that hope for my new friends I enjoy greeting so much… LORD JESUS… Reveal Yourself to me, in me, through me… May I be a Light that takes the hand of my new friend, Sweetie, and with haste, may I usher her to YOU!!!!!