Some Words and a Photo from Jeremy

Jeremy is in the city of Niamey, Niger, with internet access for a couple of days. So he has posted some new material on his blogsite, including the story behind this picture. That's a machete in his hand, and on his shoulders is the person he says he respects most in all the world. Here's the story:

"This is Gizmo and I after our work at the church. He is the specialest (new word I think) kid I've met here. I'll just copy my devo's from that night to give you a flavor.

"My mind has been blasted to pieces…by the most unassuming of people. The smallest of children is the one with the biggest heart. We went to work at the church today, cutting down thorn bushes and burning them. As I was on my way, Gizmo (I don’t know his real name) just walked beside me and helped me carry the tools out there. I was amazed. All the other children were running ahead and wanting to play with things. But Gizmo just walked silently behind me, doing his “job” and smiling all the way. He doesn’t speak French, so I couldn’t really tell him how much I appreciated it. We then came to the rocky part before the church, and Gizmo only has one old flip flop. He carefully picked his way through the rocks (they hurt my feet, and I wore shoes). We finally made it to the church and I assumed he would then head home. But he stayed. There were a bunch of other children there, and essentially, they were useless in the work. They would come up and ask to use my machete, take two swipes then start playing around with it. But not Gizmo…throughout the 3 hours, he never stopped. He would just smile, pick up the brush that I’d cut off, then carry it over to the fire. All the other kids are goofing off, but he just keeps pulling out a dorky little smile as he takes another load to the fire. He never said a word. This is where I finally realized how amazing this kid was. When I was a kid, would I have just kept working when all my friend were off laughing and playing? Would I even have tried to cross the rocks to get there? But the story doesn’t end there. Remember Gizmo only had one flip-flop? Well, we were cleaning an area with thorns all over the ground. They were getting all over my shorts and hands and I had to keep stopping to pick them off. Then I saw Gizmo, he was just hobbling along, touching his un-sandaled foot to the ground as lightly as possible (because it had a bunch of thorns in it). Yet he just kept working. I couldn’t handle it, anymore. What was with this kid? Why was he going through obvious pain just to help me clean up some weeds?

Eventually it got to the point where he was just jumping on one foot. It was then I just stopped, went over to him and picked the 6 thorns out of his foot. And he just kept working! I couldn’t believe it. I tried as hard as I could to think of a way to pay him back for this…and all I could come up with was to give him a ride back home on my shoulders. It hardly even shows how much I appreciated his painful work. Where does this devotion come from? There is so much to learn here from the little child…I don’t even know where to start. My goodness. I don’t know if I’ve ever had this much respect for anyone…and he’s only about 7!"

Friday's posting is the one that breaks my heart. Jeremy had such a huge disappointment Thursday night. I'll copy that story here:

Surprised by Pain
Yesterday’s topic was Surprised by Joy. So yesterday I was basically saying how I wanted to be joyful no matter what the circumstances. Why? Because God doesn’t change, because He still loves me and because it doesn’t seem like my joy should depend on my circumstances. Well, I guess God thought that it would be a good time to test my commitment to that.

So last night my friends had all planned to call me on Skype (Internet phone service). I’ve been looking forward to this night since, oh, I came to Niger. Being able to talk to almost all of my friends back home at the same time! How exciting! We’d planned it for 10 o’clock my time. At 9 o’clock I got on the Internet and just surfed until 10. Sounds like fun, huh?I’m still not sure what happened. At 10, the Internet just ceased to exist. It just stopped...nothing. This one thing that I’d been looking forward to for so long...gone. And I’m left wondering, “Why God?” (I realize now that this doesn’t sound like a really big deal. I can’t really explain how much I was looking forward to this.)

So as I sat staring at my computer for an hour, wondering what went wrong, a story was brought to mind. One day, a long time ago, Jonathan Edwards was preaching. As he was preaching someone burst into the room shouting, Mr. Edwards, your home is on fire! His answer (blows my mind), “I guess I was holding on to it too tightly and God needed to take it away.” (Slight paraphrase...I can’t find the story for exact words. I’m actually not sure if it was Jonathon Edwards...it might’ve been John Wesley. But either way, the story is moving, no matter who it was). Could God be telling me that I am STILL holding my friends too closely? Could he be showing me that I’ve left my hope and comfort back home, and not given it to God? I have the feeling, the answer is yes. (Okay, side note. This is really weird writing this, because those friends that I missed last night will probably read this. So um, now you know what happened. Sorry! Maybe now I’ve learned my lesson and African internet will cooperate next time.)

So now I went back to my room, feeling terrible. All the pressures and problems of Niger came crashing down on me, and I really just wanted to tell God to fix it and let me be normal again. Then I remembered the words I’d written that day...about how powerful joy can be. And honestly, I felt like a hypocrite. Here I was, telling everyone to be joyful in their trials...and then I have one, and I just want to leave. So I just prayed, laid my heart before God, and then debated on whether it was worth it to praise God. It was a pretty one sided argument. Here’s the reasons for pouting: I can make myself feel more miserable, I can pay God back for earlier (worthless gesture), I can turn my nose up at the God of the universe because I believe that my plans are better than His and let Satan claim victory because I didn’t follow through on my plan to be joyful. OR I can: turn the focus off myself and onto the goodness of God, tell God once again that His plans are best and that I trust those plans, bring God more glory by praising Him through the storm, and start to deal with the problems I have instead of suppressing them. Tough choice. But honestly, the words were not easy coming out. It was like a whisper through clenched teeth. Like the words were reluctant to come out. But out they came, and it was like a breath of fresh air. The more I praised, the easier it became. It turned from a crummy night into a wonderful experience. Amazing that God can work like that! Just another day in the life.

Hope you all have a crummy day too...so you can turn back the praise to God! Love y’all. Jeremy"

We're praying a lot that God will accomplish His purposes through this precious 19-year-old kid. His blog address is http://jeremyinafrica.blogspot.com if you'd like to check it for yourself.

Thanks for reading this far. I didn't know how to shorten it.