Creekbank Stories Curt Iles, Storyteller
A word from Curt
Pamoja.
It’s a Swahili word for “Together.”
It’s an active verb denoting getting the job done by working together.
Three times weekly, we’re posting chapters from our new ebook, Trampled Grass.
If you enjoy the stories, please pass them on.
You can download the entire book as a PDF at www.creekbank.net or as a Snippet App for easy reading on your tablet or phone.
We’re adding chapters on this blog weekly.
Trampled Grass will be available soon on Amazon.
We’ll be posting about this week’s journey on Facebook/Twitter at #goChadan/#UpCountry
Blessings on your journey.
Curt Iles
ALL TOGETHER
The African end of the log
If you don’t read another word of Trampled Grass, please view this short powerful video. It’s set to the song, “We’re All in This Together” by the folk group “Old Crow Medicine Show.”
This line from the song always touches me: When you cry, I taste the salt in your tears.
The wonderful trait of empathy: “When you cry, I taste the salt in your tears.”
You’re hurting and I share your pain.
It’s a reminder that we’re all fellow travellers on this road called life. The toll we pay is sharing the burdens of others.
We call it “helping lift the log.”
I come from a family that’s lived in the piney woods of southwestern Louisiana for nearly two centuries. Our culture still revolves around the Longleaf Pines and its grasslands.
That’s why the following story resonates with my heart:
In the pre-industrial days of lumbering, men lifted and loaded huge logs with manpower as well as oxen and mules.
The story is told of a lone traveler who happened upon a group of men lifting a log. There were nine men on one end of the log and only a solitary man on the other.
The traveler stopped. “Which end do y’all need help on?”
The man on the lonely end of the log blurted out, “It’s pretty obvious, ain’t it?”
Here is how we feel this story applies to our work: People need the Good News about Jesus everywhere.
Most people “back home” in America have numerous chances to hear the Gospel. (I’ve always heard that the town of my birth, DeRidder, Louisiana has the highest churches per capita of any town or city in America.)
South Sudan, Chad, and northern Uganda are on the other end of the log.
People and countries are unreached for a reason: difficulty in geography, climate, and culture
The needs are great and the difficulties are challenging. Many people have never heard the Gospel.
Much of our work in South Sudan places us on the needy end of the log.
I think about the Lane and Jeremiadoss families. They’ve recently moved into South Sudan among the Dinka Rek people.
Robert Lane and Selvin Jeremiados. They and their families serve the Dinka Rek of South Sudan.
They serve on Chadan’s Echelon Team. http://www.echelon-africa.com
You can learn more on their team at Twitter #EchelonAfrica.
These couples are excited to be among “their people” but face many challenges.
Will you help them lift their end of the log by praying for them as well as all of the work in South Sudan?
Ready to lift? 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . Lift!
Because we’re all in this together, and we cannot do it alone.
Here’s the best way you can help lift.
We’ve come to learn that priority is a singular word. Here is our priority need:
1. Prayer Prayer is like oxygen. We must have it to survive spiritually. We simply cannot make it without you lifting us up.
Pray for God’s guidance, vision, and protection.
To learn more about how to pray for Chadan’s Unreached Groups, our team’s needs http://www.creekbank.net, and the International Mission Board as well as these links:
Africa Stories http://www.commissionstories.com/africa/
Ethnologue.com (http://www.ethnologue.com)
Pray often!
Contact Us!
We love to hear from readers at CreekBank Stories!
For Snail Mail, mail to:Creekbank Stories
PO Box 6060
Alexandria, LA 71307
