Eggs, Sugar, Eclipses and seeing through things

It easy to get discouraged. Here in Jinja nothing seems to go as planned. Monday Aaron and Richard, pastors from Kajjansi and Lumuli came to see me. It seems like a they can't get their chickens to lay as many eggs as they should. So Aaron sold all his chickens and is buying new chicks to start over. Only problem is he sold them for 4,000 shillings each. That's at least 3000 Ugs below the Kelli blue book value. for a 2009 chicken. Man at that price I'd have bought them. But he is starting over hoping to learn from his mistakes. Richard on the other hand wants to sell his chickens and the buy chickens to sell to restaurants. His plan is to buy chickens in the village at 5,000 and sell them in town at 6,000 making 1000 shillings on each chicken. Funny how sitting between two guys who raise chickens one can't sell his birds fo 4000 and the other can't buy his for less than 5000. I guess the easiest solution would to be buy and sell to each other but I didn't think of that.

Anyway Richard can't seem to see past the 1000 shilling profit and get his mind on the idea that in raising chickens for 7 weeks he can make a 3800 shilling profit. So the three of us discussed for 3 hours the various problems of making money from poultry. But finally they have agreed to work at raising their birds and to put in the effort to succeed and not quit.

Tuesday and Thursday I spent part of each day with Pastor Apollo at the sugar works trying to get his money from the harvest last month of his two acres of cane. Apparently when Apollo goes to get paid they can't seem to find his file to send it for processing but if he pays 5,000-10,000 to the clerk his file magically appears. After two weeks of this nonsense He asked me to come and assist him in the file hunt. Amazingly when a mzungu is there the file never gets lost. Until I leave then it instantly is lost again only to reappear two days later just after I walk through the door.
It is so hard to watch a good man like Apollo have to go through this frustration just to get paid. But he does go through it with a grace and good naturedness that I only wish I had.

This morning we experienced an Annular eclipse. It will not happen again until 2125 so we had everyone out watching. But what I found fascinating was the people looking through welding lenses or smoked glass to see it. To a one, kids and adults would either look at the glass and say "All I see is my reflection" or they would look at the glass so intently that they forgot to face the sun. It amazed me that they could not see past the glass!

But then can I see past the glass? Do I see my friends, Christian brothers and sisters as Jesus sees them? Do I see who they truly are? Do I look through the same lens that God uses to make me look good in His sight? The lens of grace and love that makes me look like His Son? Am I willing to see the job through of helping raise up a new generation for Christ? Or am I willing to sell my chickens for new ones? Am I willing to play the frustrating game of hide the file of Christ until it surfaces in peoples lives and the walk it through to the end so the harvest is complete.

I'm seeing better now, Lord! Show me some more!