I have so many things I want to write down tonight.
A hundred seeds, stories waiting to be written, but tonight there is only need for a word.
Yewo (Yeh-wo)
Thank you.
More than any other word I heard today from the Mutendere area people, this one was shared with us.
Yewo chomne.
Coming from mouths
and hands
feet
and dances.
Expressed through gifts
of chickens
and roosters
bushels of onions
and hand carved
utensils.
The highest honor anyone can receive when visiting a family is to receive a pot of cooked chicken.
Since we weren’t at the farm long enough for cooking chicken, the lead farmers wife, brought a pot to our bus.
We noticed there were legs and wings and feathers under the lid that she held onto as she knelt before us.
A people so grateful.
That they would give their biggest and healthiest bird, to us.
So we traveled for six more hours with a rooster at our feet and later two additional chickens and enough onions to convince me that I needed a shower.
It’s hard to express how it feels to be honored in this way.
Yewo they say.
For the dairy cow that was provided.
For the pass on cow that was produced to share with another family.
For the seeds to plant and the net to share for harvesting their fish crops.
Yewo they say as they draw their families near with song and dance.
“All day we parade God’s praise–we thank you by name over and over.” Psalm 44:8 (MSG)
Yewo.
We say, with our smiles and our eyes,
with our commitment to continue,
with our dedication to tell the stories
of your lives.
“We move slowly, sewn in time
We can shape but can’t control
These possibilities to grow
Weeds among the push and pull
Waiting on the wind to take us
We can write with ink and pen
But we will sew with seeds instead
Starting with words we’ve said
And we will all be changed.”
(Seryn “We will all be changed”)
We say, with grateful hearts,
Yewo….for the stories you’ve told us today.
“Look, I am making everything new!” Revelation 21:5
