Is it important?

Hello!

This week I am teaching my English class.  This morning I had planned to take my students to watch the movie.  Just as I was leaving my house for class, the power went off.  I called the power company and asked how long it would be.  They said it would be two hours.  So, much for my plan!  So, we went over the new vocabulary for this week.  I demonstrated the words when I could.  I had to teach 'waving,' 'warn,' 'summon,' 'embrace,' and 'drawn' among many others.  Some were easy to demonstrate.  Others were a bit difficult.  How would you explain 'nature,' as in human nature?  Anyway, I had to explain embrace - to embrace an idea or to embrace a person.  So, I called one of my leaders to the front and I said, "I haven't seen Lopongo in a very long time.  I am very happy to see him so I embrace him."  I hammed it up and he joined in saying, "its good to see you!"  Hugging in Turkana is not a common thing, but they do it.  They all understood when I changed it to embracing an idea because they had the picture of a hug in their minds.

Another word I had to explain was 'Important.'  This was harder and I resorted to using the Turkana word for it.  Then we were finally able to watch the movie.  This chapter was about the triumphal entry, Jesus confronting the religious leaders, the last supper and the prayer and betrayal in the garden of Gethsemane.  After watching the movie we talked about the time that all this happened.  I asked them, "Is it important that Jesus died at Passover time?"  This brought up the history of the Passover celebration and why the Hebrew people celebrate it.  What do you think?  Is it important the Jesus died at the time when they were celebrating that death had passed over all those who had the blood of a lamb over their doors?

Just something to think about this week!  I'm sure we will have some good discussions later this week about the last supper and the other events.

Please continue to pray about the raids.  One of my students didn't come to class because he is afraid to leave his animals and family.  He lives in the area where the raids are happening the most.  The other students told me he is in the process of moving his family to another area.  At this point the police have still not gone to try to apprehend the bandits.  So, many people are still displaced.  One of my students said, "the police and government do not think we are important."  So, he used the word correctly :) and made a very sad point.