You may have read or heard about Diana’s discovery after eating beans and rice the last time she fixed them.  (Yes, AFTER eating them.)  Well aware of the need to thoroughly cleanse the beans, Diana spent an afternoon going through a couple of kilos.  Tired and cross-eyed from separating the good from the bad beans, Diana gladly accepted Alphonce’s offer to help.  She explained to Alphonce that she did not want to eat the beans that are bad or buggy.  Together they completed the job and proceeded to cook the meal.

 

When Diana was finishing up another serving, she noticed one of the beans had a tiny hole in it.  When she squeezed the bean open, there lie a nice, juicy black bug.  As panic began to set in she quickly looked at other beans on her plate.  Her worse nightmare (well, one of them) had come true, the beans were hiding little black bugs or tiny white worms which had burrowed.  I tried to assure her it was just added protein and that they were dead.  Not sure it helped.

 

I’m not sure why we did, but we fixed beans and rice again tonight.  Maybe we were gluttons for punishment.  Maybe we were running low on creative meals.  Maybe our bodies subliminally alerted us to a need for more protein.  You know what really “bugs” me about tonight’s round of beans and rice?  I helped Diana sort through hundreds of beans this time and we still found buggy ones on our plate!

 

We knew there were bugs, because each time I placed a handful of beans on the table to be sorted, the little boogers crawled away...well some of them.  If we were in the States, we would have thrown out the whole bunch or taken them back to the store and complained.  But we aren’t in the States.  We are in Africa.   Diana asked me if I thought Tanzanians took the time to sort through their beans.  I reminded her that the people here would gladly take these beans and eat them without giving a thought about the bugs.  (Remember, they saute TERMITES!!!!)  She reminded me that I ate beans and rice almost everyday in the villages when I was out doing the church health assessment.  Thanks, Diana!

 

We thoroughly checked over the beans...or at least one of us did (ahem!)  After rinsing them a couple of times, Diana placed them in the pot and we waited.  After a short time, she removed the pot from the stove and drained the beans.  I wasn’t sure what she was doing.  That’s when she announced that there were still buggy beans in the pot!  Of course I had to see for myself.  Yep, she was right...there they were all bloated from being boiled inside the bean.  We proceeded to sort through the partially cooked beans to remove the ones with bugs or worms.  This meal was a lot of work!

 

Finally the beans were cooked through and the rice turned out just right.  I fried some okra, too and we were having a nice meal...well we were trying to.  Diana carefully cut through each bean before eating it.  I made fun of her until she revealed that, sure enough, there were still bugs in the beans!  But how?  We both looked through them.  I decided they didn’t hurt me before and it’s just as well I didn’t know.  It didn’t seem to bother Caleb and Isaac too much--they both had second and third helpings.

 

You know there’s a lesson in here somewhere.  As I thought about those beans I couldn’t help but be reminded of myself.  No, I’m not a worm!  Or am I?  There’s one way to find out...  We all can do well at covering up what’s really on the inside.  For example, I have been amazed at the number of people who have “stretched the truth” on the church health assessments to make their answers sound better than what is actually true.  (That reminds me, why on earth would the pastor of the church where we have attended more than any others embellish his answer about how many people attend each week?  Hello?  We were there!!! I digress.)  In Isaiah 58 God describes His people as coming to the place of worship every day, they seem to delight in His Word, they appeared as though they would never abandon God; they came to God to ask for His provision; they were very religious in their fasts and acts of service.  But when the water got hot, the worms revealed themselves!  “Why have we fasted and you were not impressed?” they asked.  “Why have we humbled ourselves and you didn’t even notice?!”  (Now that sounds REAL humble doesn’t it?)  

 

Yep, when the water gets hot, the bad ones become much more evident!  So keep our bean story in mind the next time you fudge a little to make a good impression, or try to walk through the motions of a “good “ Christian.  The world is tired of hypocrites probably more than we are tired of buggy beans!

 

Just before going to bed, Diana calculated the date and announced that it was ‘bout time for us to get de-wormed.  Sounds like a good idea!  Oh wait, that’s a different worm altogether!  Better stop there.