From Scratch…

The picture below shows my Sunday. About 6-7 hours of running timber through the thicknessing machine. My project at the moment is to complete a small deck area – as there isn’t the option of going down and buying enviro reformed composition decking here, I have to do it the old way… with timber.  But not just any timber, raw, cut from the bush timber. I got this stuff cut last year for this project and so in order to get it ready for decking it has to be prepped and bought to a uniform thickness and width.

This is the story with a lot of stuff here. Want a nice curry for dinner? Unless you planned ahead and bought curry paste on your last international shopping trip in Malawi… make it from scratch. Want a coffee table that will fit a particular space? Make it from scratch. Want some “exotic vegetables” (i.e.: red capsicum, zucchini, snow peas)? Plant them and wait for them.

Sometimes it a bit of a pain but most of the time it’s not too bad.  You get to learn a whole lot, appreciate what you have, make the most of the situation and have a real sense of accomplishment when the project/dish/vege picking is complete. Half the time you realise the time saving stuff we got used to in Australia didn’t actually save much time… just cost more money 🙂

The other thing we’ve learnt to do from scratch is become part of the community. This has taken time and intentionality. We are fortunate that people here are welcoming and friendly. With time and consistency in relationships we are slowly becoming part of this little village – as much as we can ever expect to be anyway. We have also earned the opportunity to share peoples lives and also to share stuff from our lives.

Right now we have just started some groups for people interested in hearing some of the stories from the Bible. This is by far the most exciting “from scratch” thing yet. Telling Bible stories in a new language to people who have never had the opportunity to hear these things before. People are hearing that God values them as Yawo people – theres no white people and black people in Gods economy, just people. We’ve started from scratch all the way back at the beginning in Genesis, and as we go this year they will hear that he has a plan for them as Yawo people – to be his Yawo people following him in a Yawo way.