Daddy was up chasing rats last night. Three little fellas got stuck on the glue trap together. Poor little ratties. Well, I’m thankful they’re gone. Little rats soon become big rats and are much harder to catch than the little ones.
People came early for lotu. It’s nice now that the sun “gets up” earlier so people come on time. Guess we’ll just have to change our meeting times as the sun changes. Tomas was supposed to teach this morning, but he was feeling somewhat under the weather with a bad cold. Amos has a bad cold too. So Daddy did the teaching, talking about how to pray as taught by our Lord in Mathew chapter 6. He only covered half the Lord’s prayer as there was a lot of meat in there. David took charge of singing and prayer time.
After lotu, Bonita stayed and said her verses. She did an excellent job. Daddy went and started the generator, and by the time he got back, Bonita was done, and I was ready to start the laundry. There was a lot of laundry today since it had been a whole week since last time. I needed extra clothespins today.
I was glad to get back in out of the sun. It was so stifling hot even that early in the morning. When I came in, I started preparing greens (just a small bunch) to cook for dinner. Also husked three ears of corn. While I was working on that, Erisa came by for a visit. She still has not been feeling well. After I finished cleaning the greens, we went and sat down on the bench in the meeting room and talked a while. I prayed for her before she left. I feel so sorry for these folks who are so in bondage to a man simply because they are closely related.
After that, I washed the chalkboard. Then sat down a few minutes before preparing dinner. Made a spoon bread type of meal and put some onions, the rest of the spaghetti sauce, and the rest of the spaghetti in the middle of it. Also sprinkled some grated cheese on the sauce. Put it in the oven to bake and put the greens on to cook. After a couple minutes, however, the gas ran out. It had lasted for 13 weeks so we thank the Lord for helping us be able to stretch our bottled gas out. After Daddy changed the tank, I got things cooking again. It was about 12:30 before we sat down to eat. Afterward we got the clothes in and hung up our shirts and blouses and things before nap. Nap time did not turn out to be very pleasant or restful. People kept knocking on the door. Usually if they knock once that time of day and we don’t answer, they know we are sleeping. But these people just kept on knocking. I would just about drift off to sleep, and they would knock again. I got up twice and asked them to come back later. I was glad I got up because I had forgotten to put the leftover casserole away. But I wasn’t glad I got up because then my heart got all out of whack and I couldn’t rest after that. Finally sat down in the recliner and was able to rest there.
After nap, I washed my hair. Took care of some people at the door. It was quite a busy door day. Then cut up a popo. Put part of it in a saucepan to cook for my pancakes tomorrow and the other part in a dish for us to eat for snack. Daddy swept the meeting room floor and the kitchen floor. I swept the bathroom floor and washed the kitchen floor and the dirtiest parts of the meeting room floor. The poor mop is just about done for. Hope it will do well enough until we can get to town and get another one. By then it was time to sit down a few minutes before getting supper. Worked on some songs I’ve been trying to write for the choir to sing during the New Year’s meetings. Worked on them several times throughout the day, and finished them this evening after the other work was done. After supper and dishes, I got the bathroom cleaned before sitting down to work on the songs. I thank the Lord for His help in getting those written. One is to the tune of “For God So Loved the World” and the other “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” (Those were added to the one to the tune of “Why Must I Die?” Among all my songs, there weren’t any to go with the theme of our meetings.)
Got the music for the songs scanned into the Acer and transferred to this Compaq so I can put the Pidgin words with the music to practice with. Also got the words to the songs written down in the new lotu song file.
“3And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; 4And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: 5Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: 6And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. 7And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: 8But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. 9Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.” Matthew 13:3-9
October 28. We are thankful for a sunny morning. Clouds and cool winds came around noon, and the rains came during the break between the two meetings today. It is raining lightly this evening.
It was a blessing to have bananas today to go with our pancakes. Antopa and his son brought us some yesterday. After getting breakfast, eating, reading Bible, walking, and praying, I finished getting the New Year’s meeting songs ready for printing. Got the music with the Pidgin words printed out this evening plus ten copies of the words. Don’t know how many we will need. Will have to get a count before I print out more.
There were a good number here for lotu this morning. Mike looked after the singing for the first meeting. Amos was feeling well enough to interpret this morning. Daddy covered I Corinthians 1:20-25 in the first meeting and the rest of the chapter in the second meeting. The second meeting started almost right away after we ate our dinner since it was raining outside and everyone came in out of the rain.
This afternoon, Miriam came to visit for a while. It had been quite a while since she last came. I had sent pictures down with Erisa yesterday that we had taken at Judy’s birthday party in May, and so Miriam thought about coming up to see me. Oh, how I long to see these families get out from under the bondage they are in down there!
When she left, I got things together for school tomorrow. There wasn’t really a whole lot to do. Then I started on a new soul-winning lesson before getting supper. This evening, people are here for soul-winning class.
“15For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. 16But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.” Matthew 13:15,16