Exactly one year ago today I was learning to do laundry.
I had four wash buckets, green, blue, red, and yellow set out in front of me. With powdered soap in one hand and an empty jerrycan in the other I sat, staring at those colorful buckets. "Where do I even begin?" I remember asking myself a bit apprehensively. Then she came to help me. Sera, who I had come to call my older sister. Her dark hands taking the jerrycan from mine chuckling at what must have been confusion on my face she walked steadily to the water spout to begin the process that would take up the next five hours of our day.
After all four buckets were filled and the clothes, sheets, and towels were sorted we began. She showed me how to wet, wash, rinse, her hands scrubbing, and wringing in a fluid motion, a motion that had been mastered over the years spent caring for herself and others. After my clothes were washed and hung to dry, sheets were next. Large and hard to handle the two of us worked as one to complete the cleaning. Then towels. "Do we scrub towels in the same way?" I asked, eager to begin on the pile that simply seemed never ending. Smiling slightly in amusement at my American "Let's get this this done now" attitude, but with a look of something more to come in her eye she said "Here, hand me the towels. I will take care of them." Stubbornly, wanting to learn, I simply looked at her waiting for instruction. With the same smile on her face she pulled the cloth from my hands and looked at them. She inspected my palms, knuckles, and nails. Carefully pointing as not to make any contact she showed me where my pruned skin had been rubbed raw. "You see," she said,"my hands don't have to worry about that. They are hard from many times of scrubbing." Now beginning to take note of how sore my hands actually were from working the ever present red dirt out of clothes and sheets I looked at her in desperation. "I want to finish what we have started. Please show me how." Reluctantly she handed me a small washcloth saying "Here try this. These one's are for those in baby class. You are in baby class now. But help me again tomorrow and maybe you will be promoted to top class in no time. You are a quick learner."
So there I sat for one more hour in the hot African sun, feeling the cool water on my hands and arms scrubbing depleting the last pile of laundry to be done for the day.
Truly a simple experience. One I could have learned just about anywhere in the world where washing machines are not an every day household item, but one of utmost luxury. But I will never forget that day. How silly I must have looked, trying my hardest to not slosh water everywhere, to figure out how to wring mud out of a shirt using muddy water, and to impress my instructor who so ever patiently would take the clothes I had considered washed and would gently fold them back into the water, rewashing them for certain cleanliness.
In 33 more days I will be embarking on a new adventure. With plane tickets in line, a team pulled together, and the days flowing by at a faster pace than I can seem to keep up with, my return to Uganda has finally arrived.
There are many things I hope to accomplish. My main desire, my hearts cry, is to just live, love, and learn, all for Him. So many travel abroad to help, provide, and teach. I hope to do these things as well, but it is this that I have learned. By living one has the opportunity to do all of the above. By loving one has the opportunity heal and to be healed. By learning, well, one has the opportunity to do nearly anything. The possibilities are endless.
I live for Him because it is by His hand I have been made, by His hand I am cared for. I love for Him because it is by His love that I will never be alone, by His hand I will have everlasting life. I learn because it is by His hand I am given the opportunity to change the way this world is. I am small. But He has brilliantly planned how not only I, but each person in this world, can make this a better place. He watches us as we learn, stumble, and triumph. He watches us as we look at our work believing it is perfect, and He gently lifts it from our hands rewashing to perfection. He steadily scrubs and wrings the muddy water until we are clean again. What an awesome God we have. And what an awesome adventure He has allowed me to take once more.
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