There are a lot of trials that come with living overseas and being a missionary. There are also many blessings and lessons to be learned.
Near the end of my four-year term in Kenya I flew to a remote African village in northern Kenya. I don’t even know if it would be possible to reach the village by vehicle.
There was one lone female German missionary nurse living in that remote village. The villagers lived in traditional thatched round huts with no windows. To enter the hut, you had to bend down and push aside a piece of cloth that served as the door.
I was invited inside one of the huts, along with the missionary pilot, to enjoy some smoke tea. It was very dark inside. Once my eyes adjusted, all that was inside were beds made out of stretched animal hides, supported on the corners by short wooden poles.
I quickly understood why they called it smoke tea. They made a small fire in the center of the hut and made tea on it. Where there is fire there is smoke and lots of it. A small hole at the top was the only way the smoke could escape. The tea takes on the flavor of the smoke that filled the hut.
While drinking smoke tea in that hut I understood what Paul taught the Corinthian Christians. A person can own nothing and yet possess everything if they know Jesus.
“sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.” 2 Corinthians 6:10 NIV
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