The River
I had another funny story for you but I haven’t had time to write it. Sunday morning, I finished the invitation and I asked my translator to pray for us. As I began to bow my head, I glanced over at my wife who was finishing up teaching the children. I noticed a little kid, about two years old, who was holding his shorts. He was standing behind my wife a few feet. I was thinking, surly he isn’t going to do what I think he is going to do. Sure enough, he pulled his pants down and preceded to pee on the concrete slab. While he was peeing, I heard my wife talking about a river. Can’t get much better than that! I had to tell my translator after the service what had happened so that he didn’t think I was laughing at him. It actually was his grandchild who did this.
After service I told my wife what happened, I thought she didn’t see it as her back was to this kid. Here’s her version of the story: “Sometimes when I’m teaching, illustrations come to me on the spot. I was explaining that since the fall of man, we have been separated from God. Right next to where the children and I were meeting in the unfinished part of the new building was a slight gap in the floor. I had the bright idea to have them imagine that this was something we needed to cross like, say, a river. Right as I began to turn to point to this section, I noticed the boy right there up front with me about to go potty African style so I tried to walk away from him before I gave my illustration. For the life of me, I still couldn’t think of another illustration in French. I mean, you can’t just talk about a river when someone is behind you urinating. It kind of takes away from the seriousness of the point you are trying to make. Crevice, canyon, any word like that would have worked, any of you who have ever tried to talk in a secondary language, you know that sometimes the words you need just won’t come to you! I kept a straight face and went on about my lesson thinking no one would notice. The kids here, after all are used to this type of thing. It’s a good thing I didn’t know that my husband was peeking outside and snickering at us or I surely would have lost it.”
January 20th, 2008 at 3:07 am
Oh dear… I do not know what I would do if something like that happened to me! I would probably stand there and turn red. I suppose we all could enjoy a good laugh once in a while. -God bless.
January 21st, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Keith and Rebecca, I can just picture this happening at your church under the the circumstances the church construction is in right now. What I want to know is how you kept on teaching, Rebecca, and how Keith kept from laughing so much, I have laughed and laughed over this. It made my day.