Ben's Short Visit

Ben breezed into our home yesterday in time to help me celebrate my birthday. He was only here for a brief 24 hours, but during that time we were able to do a bit of catching up on what he has been up to while deep in the jungles without any means of communication.He told us amusing stories of his life in the jungle…for instance…he has a pet monkey that only likes him, and nobody else.  But, his monkey is really a very naughty monkey that will not stay in any cage he devises. When his monkey gets out of solitary confinement, she heads right to the kitchen for her favorite lunch of eggs. Pretty soon, Ben is alerted to the distinct possibility of trouble brewing by the principal who comes running out of the kitchen, screaming and crying, chasing a monkey with a silly grin on her face, laughing back over her shoulder at the frantic principal who really wanted to feed those particular eggs to the students! So, Ben must leave whatever activity that he is doing and follow a happy monkey around the property until the monkey decides that she has had enough entertainment for a while, and submits to being picked up. Ben says that you cannot catch a monkey unless she wants to be caught!Another interesting incident happened one night when it was very cold. Ben said that it was so cold that there was ice on the water every morning. The houses don’t exactly keep out the cold, or anything else for that matter, so Ben builds a fire to keep warm at night. He does not enjoy being cold, so he found the biggest hardwood log that he could find and brought it to his fireplace. It was too big, but he just let the ends hang out, and he lit one end of the log on fire, wrapped up in his 5 blankets, and held his hands out to his little fire on the end of the log. It felt good, but he was still very cold…too cold to sleep. But, pretty soon, the fire spread to the middle of this hollow log, and it started to feel nice and toasty. This was better, now he could really enjoy a good sleep, so off to slumber land he went. He did not wake up until he noticed that it was getting rather hot! By then, his blankets, backpack, and the outer coat that he was wearing were on fire! He quickly got out of bed, and tore his coat off. He was not burned, but his phone and a bunch of other stuff were destroyed…along with his 5 blankets and heavy coat!  Although he enjoyed the warmth, he got a little more than he bargained for that time.He also told me of taking his students out to different villages and doing evangelism. I cannot tell it like he does, so I am hoping that he will write and tell you all about it really soon! Suffice it to say that it went really well, and many more people now know who Jesus is and that he died for them. That makes all the cold nights, naughty monkeys, and near death experiences all worthwhile.