New converts

Our house had gotten to a point of being dirty and untidy, since sometimes there isn’t time or opportunity (or motivation) for housework. This morning I woke up and thought, “I need to do something different today”, so as to have a sense of anticipation of something exciting – you know, sometimes you get bored of the blah. So I more or less cancelled school, and spent the whole day sorting the house out. I started at about 8.45, and finished at 5.15, only having a few breaks in between – one long break while Aaron slept, where I read a little bit. I didn’t want to entirely neglect the boys though, so at ten o’clock I did reading with Caleb. He could almost read the sentences fluently, and didn’t struggle or get frustrated. The sentences were something like “I am going to clean the house today” and “It is very dirty” and “I still have to vacuum the carpets and dust”. He sounds the words that he’s not familiar with out, and then can guess what they say, like “vacuum”. Other words he can read right off without spelling them out. We’re getting there! Then I also got them to do puzzles, while I quickly popped out to town for bread and peanut butter.

I let the boys help me with supper tonight, which was savoury pancakes with a mince and grated cheese filling. The boys had been wanting to try their hand at pancakes, so tonight was the night. It was fun, really. The boys pulled chairs up to the counter, and with washed hands they helped me pour the milk and stir the batter. I did the tricky stuff of getting the eggs mixed in from a hole in the middle of the flour, but once it was going I let them take over. Then they watched as I did them in the pan, and they’re always impressed when I can flip it nicely. Caleb helped me with the recipe too – he read the ingredients to me. “What’s three and then a line and a four?” “Three quarters.” “Okay, three quarters puh i nn tuh, what’s pint?” Then he figured out two eggs. So it’s all good – a bit of maths by way of fractions thrown into the cooking/reading lesson!

This evening we had the second meeting of our new and very exclusive bible study. Nick took a long time explaining the gospel again, and they both said they were ready to make a commitment to Christ. So Nick asked if they wanted to pray now, and they both did. Nick opened in prayer, and then they both prayed, in their own words. We wait to see by the fruit if this is a genuine commitment, but we really think this might be the real thing. It’s exciting to see people interested in the gospel and wanting to change their lives. Often the case is that they want to get their lives right and then commit to Christ, but Nick explained that you don’t wash yourself and then have a bath. Then, straight after our prayer time, Nick left the thought of baptism with them, as the first step of obedience. No holding back – Nick really laid on thick the issue of leaving behind the old way of life, and then straight into such a public demonstration of the new life!