Smore community please!

In Phoenix, we knew our next door neighbor well (maybe too well- there were many an evening that Josh went over there uninvited to bum delicious meals off of them). But our other neighbors, we either just knew their first names or just their faces and that was after eight years of living in the same house. It saddens me now how little community there was in our “community.” After living in Africa in different missionary communities, I think I have a much better understanding, appreciation, and need of community.

When we first arrived in Africa, we lived in the Meskine, Cameroon community. Whoa are ever indebted to their hospitality. They brought us tuna casseroles, taught us how to bleach vegetables, cared for our sick child in the middle of the night, taught us Fufulde, and helped us adjust to African life. In Gamboula, they helped us learn Sango, prepared our house for us, fed us over and over again, taught us how to be missionaries, and helped us grieve our evacuation. In Banyo, they welcomed us without even knowing us. They have given us their space to live in, their car to drive, and even their famous cookies to eat.

Now we are in Mbingo, Cameroon for a month (Josh is teaching an IT class). We are living next door to the Barriers (two doctors that work at the hospital, their 6 month baby boy, and their 3-year-old son who has become Charlie's BFF). And when I say next door I mean NEXT door- we share a duplex- which means a shared back yard and revolving doors for toddlers to run house to house.

Once again, they have been so kind and giving. They fed us the first night we were here (many nights after too) and let us bum vegetables off of them for a week. They shared their son's toys with Charlie. They even shared their dinner table with us each evening.

Each night one family brings a meal to share with the other. It is great and it got me thinking of how amazing community is. Community is not only sharing of things- it is a sharing of life. It is doing life together. It is eating together, studying the Bible together, praying together, playing together, and struggling together. Community requires honesty, transparency, trust, generosity, nurturing, and time, but it is so worth it.

All this to say, I pray that we all seek and participate in real community. (I plan on really getting to really know my American neighbors when we move back!) Life is meant to be lived together. God said it was not good for man to be alone and he wasn't just talking about a spouse. We are made to attach and connect. People are like smores- on their own graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate are tasty, but mush them together and they become something even more amazing. They are not easily separated, they are often messy, but they are oh so sweet!

Charlie and her new BFF sharing smores!