Beautiful Feet

Today I spent the afternoon learning more places in Ghana.  Thankfully, there is a meat store an hour away where I feel somewhat comfortable purchasing meat.  After buying some beef in the open market yesterday, this store seemed very clean.  While we were there, our son Godwin had to use their restroom so Weston took him in the back room to do what he needed to do.  Godwin came out and said, "Mommy, they are cutting up a dead animal!"

I thought, "That is more than I need to know."

Lenusia showed me a few more places she shops.  One a few miles down the road from us has rice, water, and tomato paste.  Headed west there is an open air produce market that is not as crowded as Cassino, the open air market where I shopped yesterday.  A young girl, Abigail, spent the day with us as well.  She is staying with Godwin and Lenusia for six weeks to shadow a dentist here.  I'm looking forward to getting to know her better.  Our day was full and after three hours out we returned home to find three sweet surprises.

Mason had been the only son at home for the afternoon while I was out.  (Godwin and Weston came with me while Franklin and Braden went with Lola.)  Our first surprise was that our backyard was full of children from the community.  Mason was teaching them to play croquet.   I'm sure you are wondering why we would have croquet in Ghana....  So you should know, the croquet set was packed in numerous suitcases coming over as a gift for Franklin's birthday.  (His birthday is Tuesday by the way.)

All the boys seemed to love the game and were laughing throughout the afternoon.  As soon as we arrived home with our other four sons, they joined in.  We had five additional children at our house today until after dark!  Once darkness set in, our boys were all teaching them to play Capture the Flag!  The boys from here were teaching our boys language!  (Seems like an even swap to me.)  I loved hearing the squeals of everyone outside!  All of the children playing in our yard reminded me of home.

Our second surprise was that Ghana friends stopped by.  Yes!  We had friends STOP BY!  Stacy, Autumn and Anna came to see us from Doryum.  What a precious welcome!  Thank you for the sweet surprise!  I can't believe that here in Ghana, we have friends who now feel comfortable "stopping by!"  I love it!

The third surprise was seeing our first piece of home decor on the wall.  Reid had been working all day to center the verse God gave us for this mission over our front door.  Our friend, Melissa, spent a day cutting out this verse before we left so we could hang it on our wall.  Thank you Melissa for such a sweet gift!  Our home feels much warmer now that we are surrounded by scripture.  It is our mission verse Genesis 12:1-2:

This verse now hangs over our front door as a reminder of why we are here...to be a blessing!  Mason thought we needed to hang it there because he wanted our family to hit the door frame as we head out the door.  Kinda like a football team touching their team logo as they head onto the field.  (Only boys think of these things!  Don't you like it Dad?  Cool, huh?)  Our family team will be slapping the door post verse as we head onto our "field."  The one that is white for the harvest!  (I'm envisioning the fingerprints now!)

Deciding to capture the moment, I asked the boys to pose for a picture.  Swimming in sentimentality, I thought the photo I captured was just...beautiful.  These two verses that we have clung to on this journey are now posted in our home in a significant place as a reminder of our calling.  Beautiful.  Beautiful!

Then I looked down at Mason's feet.  Oh my word!  The boy had been outside all day with our neighbors.  And these were his feet.

I thought of the passage that reads

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

Isaiah 52:7 

My stomach turned over to see Mason's filth.  "These grimy feet will leave more than brown water in the tub tonight," I thought!  Gross!  Dirt was caked on so thick that it seemed his skin color had changed.  Was Mason trying to look Ghanaian?  Oh my!  His feet were disgusting.

But then I remembered what Mason was doing when I came home.  He was laughing and playing with all the children around us!  Within the two days of moving into our home, these children were in our yard!  Yesterday, one child came to our gate for water.  The boys now know the names of more people in this neighborhood than I do.  What does that tell you?

I looked as Mason's filthy feet again and realized they were B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!  His feet reflected relationships that are being built.  The dirt symbolized a willingness to "play like they do."  The griminess of his feet reminded me that we must be willing to get our hands and feet dirty.  The red sticky dust covering his feet screamed - THESE ARE GHANA FEET!  Then I remembered Jesus walked in sandals on the dirt.  Did his feet look like this at the end of the day?   I believe they did.  As God looked upon His son's dirt-crusted feet,  He found them to be beautiful.  

I am praying our entire family will have feet like Mason's (though maybe not literally).  May we have beautiful feet wherever we are...

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

Isaiah 52:7