The Bees Have It

Monday, June 10, 2013

Today got off to a slow start, as poor Bonaface, our trusty driver, had a flat in a town that had several folks who thought they could repair flats, but alas, thinking didn’t translate into reality.

So with gum and duck tape, Bonaface somehow made his way home, the flat got fixed and we were on our way.

First to a meeting with the bee master, Vincent – a bee keeping expert for 15 years; a slight, soft spoken older man, he told us of the bee keeping co-ops in the area, the educational support available and, best of all, he has bee keeper clothes for harvesting hives – a sort of white nylon space suit.

Gentle man, his biggest concern in harvesting honey is ensuring no bee dies in the process...

With bee uniform (and smoker – an ingenious combination of tea kettle and accordian bellow -- used to put the bees in a sleepy state) we at last headed to the project where we were greeted with singing and hand shakes and smiles.

The group reported its decision to reduce its many projects to just two, with the men doing the bees and the women the poultry.

The money that will come from the bee harvest of honey will first be used to buy roofing material for the poultry hut and some disease resistant roosters and fertilized eggs.

The group came to see that doing one thing well is far better than doing many things poorly.

When business was done, each person stood and shared something of their own life, the size of their family, what education each has, and, most movingly, their own experiences with God.

We ended our time with healing prayers and anointing with oil of maybe 40 people who were sick, from smallest children with fevers to the elderly with sore stomachs and everyone in between.

All through the anointing prayers, the whole group sang songs of thanks – and I can only say thanks too for being allowed to be present among this gathering of so much pain, yet so much joy.