Hello, dear friends.
I think that sometimes what I say can seem overly dramatic. Part of the reason is that I try to share what I think is interesting, different, or unusual about our lives. Another part is that I share the prayer needs, and they tend to be a little more on the edge than our moment to moment living.
Actually, we are quite boring. Seasons of life determine our days. The last several weeks have been the season of unpacking (finally!!!! after 3 years!!!) the boxes in our house onto the shelves and dressers that came in our crate. A lot of time at home.
A lot of our time since being back has been spent in construction. Putting in the rain catchment system (Praise the wonderful name of Jesus!) took months. This is Africa. It required that David stay around the house so that he could go out several times a day to check progress and make sure that the decisions made were good ones.
Right now, David is dealing with trying to get our on-demand gas hot water heaters to work. They came in the crate and we are thrilled to have them but now we have to work out the kinks because nothing, yet nothing, can work easily the first time. That is a prayer request. It would be horribly disappointing to have finally gotten these heaters and not be able to make them work.
I will admit that homeschool has suffered lately. I feel guilty, but try not to. Chloe is very young for her grade and we have decided to repeat 6th grade next year, so we have some wiggle room. I keep her doing bits and pieces, but have focused on other things since her schooling is not so urgent.
These sound like little things, but nothing is simple here. Everything takes a great deal of time and energy. There is little multitasking in Africa. It means that we have not focused as much on ministry. This is not something we like. David is often, in fact, brought down spiritually and emotionally when he is tied to the house. So, I could ask for prayer there, too, that we quickly come to a place where we are released from our house. David likes to say that the more stuff you have the more it drains your time and energy. And yet, a lot of this is necessary to our home being a relaxing place to re-energize.
I am not complaining. Really. I just want to give a window into our daily lives. It is what it is. And, frankly, it is not that exciting. We often go to bed before 9pm. How's that for being party animals?
We look forward to the day - prayerfully soon - when our time will be focused on ministry. We are doing ministry now, but not in the way we would like. I sometimes ask myself why we bother to do so much to our house when we already live in luxurious circumstances compared to our Christian brothers and sisters. Would it not be better to be content?
I come to the answer that we have repeated to ourselves many times: we are in it for the long haul. We need to do what is necessary to keep us here. If spending time on this now helps us to stay the course for many years to come, it is what we should do. There are others who would be more content to do without a hot shower. We have dear friends, in fact, who lived that way for years and saw it as only a minor inconvenience. Perhaps we are spoiled.
But we are all different. I, for instance, need color. I paint my walls - the living room is blue, the kitchen red... It rejuvenates me, whereas staring at extra glossy cream walls (that is the norm here) drains the life out of me. I need books and sewing and crafty things. I need to be silly and fun and different.
Am I getting too far off the ministry subject for this blog? Not sure, but welcome to my world. These are the things we think about as we live here. How best to balance our time. What our priorities should be. How to make it for the long haul.
These are matters for prayer as you think of us. Some missionaries think that prayer letters and requests should only be for ministry. I think that we need prayer as much or more than our ministry. We can be the weak link in the chain, and we fight against that. We are humans with feet of clay and we patch up the cracks daily.
But don't think that there is not joy. Our house is full of laughter. We make fun of ourselves and life as much as we can. I can't imagine taking myself or life too seriously. I am much too much of a fool to be given such importance. I hope that the people who see us on a daily basis think of us as people of laughter. That would be a very high compliment. Unfortunately, you tend to see my serious side!
We love you and we thank God for your interest in our lives. And most especially for your prayers.
Blessings.
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