The Many Jobs of a Missionary ~ Exterminator, The Slithery Kind

A snake we killed for our neighbor.

Oh, the enmity between the slippery serpent and humans since the beginning of time. When you think of rural missionary work, snakes and critters definitely make up part of the picture. We've killed our share of snakes around here. I'd say we average one for every year and a half?

Our favorite snake-killing story happened before I was even in SA. When we first moved here, we rented a small house on a Boer's farm where my husband lived single for a year before I came. His neighbor, renting another house, called him over one night to help kill what he claimed was a Mozambican spitting cobra that had gotten under his sink. Seth will never forget this Afrikaner spewing out venom of his own, "I HATE snakes!" as he faced his sink with a 30-whatchamacallit shotgun.

"You're not going to shoot at your sink, are you?" Seth asked disbelievingly. His neighbor repeated his feelings about snakes and then BAM! shot under his own sink. He hit the snake but didn't completely kill it. They chopped off its head with a machete; but it's mouth still opened and closed, hissing, for several minutes. Isn't that creepy?



One time in youth group in Mashamba (the village we first worked in with a national pastor), a young girl came up to me and whispered, "There's a snake in the roof." Sure enough over a row of girls' heads, a snake was resting in the rafters. I still remember Seth interrupting our teammate's sermon with a calm whisper, then turning around with an attempt at a calming announcement, "Girls over here, please quietly move over to the other side. We need to kill a snake."

Calm over! Pandemonium ensued. Screaming girls tripped over each other, rushing to the other side of the auditorium. It was funny in its unexpected disparity from my husband's calm announcement.

I have even killed my own snake. (Can you hear the self-satisfaction in that line?) It was four inches long and a millimeter wide. :) I could maybe make a toe ring out of it. I crushed it with my shoe and then a clothesline peg. (Maybe that gives a clue as to what I was doing when I found it!)

Snakes are an area for me to learn to increase my trust in the Lord for the safety of my children. It's something that does no good to worry or imagine the possibilities of.

Lizards

Here's a pretty one.

I admit to a kind of critical spirit towards the Africans about lizards. I remember driving to youth group when we used to rent on the farm, and seeing up to four lizards running on the outside wall of a one-room house in the village, and thinking, "I will not allow lizards to take over my house like that."

Since one of my two lone visits to the church outhouse in Mashamba involved a lizard dropping on my head (the other visit involved a spider), I have forever afterwards been slightly traumatized regarding outhouse usage (besides the usual stigma attached to outhouses!)

But now I don't mind them. When we built our house in the village and began seeing them take up residence with us, we asked pest control how to exterminate them. They said it was illegal to kill them. We were shocked!

Now I appreciate them. They stay mostly in the roof or garage, or near the ceilings, and don't usually come down to floor level, and certainly not in clothing or bedding or anything like that. And they eat other little bugs and critters. We've even gotten to see killings up close, as they sit on the outside of a window at night, creep up on a moth, and fast as lightning grab it in their mouths and gulp it down whole in a few convulsive swallows. Kinda gross, but I cheer them on. We even caught one to draw for nature study one day.



One interesting fact about lizards (this linked picture shows Colin holding a lizard with a blue tail!)--if you scare them, they'll detach their tail and leave it slithering on by itself behind them as a defensive tactic while they run away. The predator goes for the tail, and the lizard gets away safe. But then they have no tail for a while until it grows back.

Slugs

These weren't so common until the recent rainy seasons we've had in which it rained so much that we had floods. I still remember our sole vacation to Durban, on the 14th floor of an apartment building, where slugs were on the toilets! I thought it was due to being right on the ocean, but it still surprises me that they were so high up in the building. We've also seen snails on our windows during really rainy times.

Slugs don't bother me too much unless I accidentally touch them on a shoe or book I'm picking up. That's a *gag* moment.
Miscellaneous Other Slitherers and Crawlers



There are some really neat worms and caterpillars over here. Some the Africans eat-- "meat," they call them. The most famous is the "Mopane worm" which you can find fried up at street corners for a crunchy snack. I haven't convinced myself to try those yet. Shudder.

The Africans will jump a few feet high in the air to get away from fuzzy, hairy caterpillars, however, if they see them. They make you ITCH if you touch them.



Millipedes and Centipedes

This final category is creepy as well. The centipedes are rare but scary, gyrating across your floor out of nowhere very fast. We kill them ASAP. We even heard of one that's dangerous, that hisses by clapping its antennae together. Very creepy. We've only seen two of those, and not for long, before they were no more.

The biggest millipede I've ever seen.

Millipedes are more common. They're slower, lumbering across the grass or floor. If you touch them, they curl up into balls, and if you scare them or try to smush them, they leave a brown liquid trail behind them. The Africans won't play with them either, and an Afrikaner (linked in the story at the top) told me that she'd heard they were poisonous. I'm not sure whether to believe that or not, but I don't let the kids touch them now.

I have become an amateur naturalist, trying to identify flora and fauna around here. But don't worry. I'm winding down on this topic--only one more week comin'. I can't speak for Charity over there in Asia, though. ;)

Where Thieves Break Through and Steal

Lessons from a Thief

Since being robbed three weeks ago, I have been pondering the effects of a break-in on my spiritual and emotional state. Here are some missionary musings of mine:

The Danger of Danger

Besides the obvious physical danger that danger poses, it can also tempt your spirit to worry and fear, and secondly to discouragement, the latter being perhaps more dangerous than the first. After some of the adrenaline from the first rush of fear has subsided, discouragement creeps in to trap you in the Slough of Despond.

Maybe I should mention cynicism here as well, because when a missionary is discouraged, it is easy to be cynical about the people--all the people--around him. Whatever growth may exist in the handful of believers is easy to overlook, and the culture's faults all magnified. David said in his haste, "All men are liars." And a missionary in his discouragement may make similar negative universal statements.

"These people always... never..."
"This is impossible. A church will never happen here."
"No one is trustworthy."

Of course we know these statements aren't completely true or fair; and in our meeker moments we remember to close our mouths when angry, because a man who can control his spirit is better than he who conquers cities.

So that's the lesson I learned from danger--that we must remember to submit to God who allowed it, and not to "charge God foolishly." That we must not forget all of the blessings of growth and the work God is doing in some people's hearts, just because of personal attacks.

Evangelizing Thieves

Which brings me to my next point. Some have mentioned that maybe God will use this to bring the thief (our neighbor) to the Lord. That sounds great, doesn't it? I also long to see miraculous conversions--a well-known drunk turning sober, and the like. I know God can do that!

Unfortunately in this specific case, the above encouragement on seeing this boy enter the Kingdom was our consolation several years ago when he stole from us. We did attempt to evangelize him, and he came to church for a while, and we even baptized him! (Which if you know Seth, is saying something.)

He eventually quit church, however, and is no longer a church member. So while trying not to be complete wet blankets and unbelieving in God's ability to save, we're not getting our hopes up too high, lest we battle even more discouragement over this boy.

So the lesson learned here--well, one lesson that we've learned is to be even slower to baptize children and teens until we are sure that they have committed to following Christ.

Why Africa Is Poor

I have so much to say on this subject that I will try to do the opposite and keep it short. We lost money in the valuables the thief took and to install "burglar bars" afterwards. We lost a lot of time as well.

But we are not the only ones being robbed. Several church members and neighbors have been robbed, not once, but a number of times in their lifetimes. While it may not touch us as seriously because of our savings account, think what it means to a poor person who saved for a long time to buy a personal computer and cannot replace it easily.

One reason Africa is poor is high crime rates. Obviously there is so much more interconnected than that point alone, and certainly more reasons why there is poverty, but it is devastating to people already struggling with finances to have someone take the little they have--and then not have the money to either replace it or to buy the security to prevent the next occurrence.

Treasure on Earth

We love things too much. I was reminded of that when I read The Sermon on the Mount shortly after the break-in.

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Missionaries may sometimes excuse their materialism by remembering what they left behind, and thinking that it's okay to hold tight to the things they brought over with them--their consolation. But it's not. Our heart cannot be in things! Does the extent of our frustration when we have to go without a luxury or convenience communicate how much we treasured that thing?

It's almost as if I can hear Jesus saying, "Don't you get it? Those things are temporary. It's obvious that that's why you shouldn't love them! They can be stolen. They can get old and break. They will pass, so why would you set your heart on them?"

We are pilgrims looking for a city. Let's travel light and not burden ourselves, or rather, our hearts, with extra lovely treasures. Tools? Those are nice. But each in its place...with its correct priority.

In heaven, our treasures will never fade or be stolen. That is a beautiful thought to someone who's been robbed. That means that those treasures must be leagues better than the treasures here below! My "wanter" must be broken, for me to value things so highly here below that are useless toys from the Dollar Tree in comparison to the treasures that can be stored up in heaven.

The Generosity of God's People

What makes me want to fall on my knees in humility and gratitude, though, is when American Christians sympathize and give to replace our things. This has been done already. Did we love our things too much? If so, no word of judgment from them.

In the middle of our discouragement over the depravity of some people, Christians reminded us of God's grace and gave us just a glimpse again of the love and beauty that will one day be constantly present in God's eternal Kingdom. Thank you. It eliminates much fear and discouragement to know that we have friends like you.

Gratitude

Having gone through these different stages of learning from our robbery, there are so many things to be thankful for.

Our children were safe.
We were safe.
They did not take more.
We have the money to secure our house better.
We were born as Americans.

What we love most cannot be touched, and what we love next most wasn't touched.

But best of all...well, I'll simply quote Matthew Henry after he was robbed:

“Let me be thankful first, because I was never robbed before; second, because, although they took my purse, they did not take my life; third, because, although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed, not I who robbed.”