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Topic: Happy (07/12/07)
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TITLE: Hot and Not too Bothered | Previous Challenge Entry
By Margaret Watson
07/19/07 -
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We arrived in Romania just over a week ago. It was 11pm when we were finally shown our room and it had been 2 am when we had woken, so a long day. England had had rain every day for almost two months and we seem to have taken this with us as the first rain drops welcomed our arrival.
Next day however was hot and sunny – in the upper 30’s by nine o’clock. The plan was that we would go with a large group of Christians to paint a local football stadium in a nearby town. The paint was being donated by a local man from the only evangelistic Christian family there. It was to be both a gift to the town and a form of witness. The group included Romanians, a German, Swiss and Brits. First problem – no one wanted to get going except us. They were all tired from the previous day’s endeavours. ‘Later, in five minutes’ – that was at 9 when it was still relatively cool. We eventually set off at about 10-30 , by which time the sun was high in a cloudless sky. 3 buses later we arrived.
Lots of hand shaking and lots of instructions. The paint obtained was white, but the stadium was to be in the team colours of yellow and red. We were to do the yellow walls and the red pillars would be painted later. I soon realised that the reason was that there was no more money for red paint. How did I realise this? When they started to dilute the paint we did have. Smaller tubes of yellow were mixed in to get the desired effect. No one had removed the many patches of old paint, but it didn’t seem to matter. I got the roller that fell apart immediately, and ended up holding it in my hands, paint and all, and just wiping the wall with it. But it did the job. By lunch time, when we took a few minutes out for a sandwich and some cold drinks given by the club, we were tired but half done. However the paint was more than half done. There wouldn’t be enough.
In many places that would mean a trip to the d.i.y. shop for more. Here they just diluted it by half, and when we got almost to the end water was added almost spoon by spoon so that there would be enough liquid to complete the task. Bright yellow at one end and a sort of parchment colour at the other, but no one seemed to mind.
By this stage we all had paint somewhere on our person, our clothing, shoes etc and, for those who had any, in our hair.
Most people would see evangelism as preaching and teaching from the Bible. Was this evangelism? If that definition includes living out your faith, then yes it was and I believe was received as such by the people.
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