Before I begin my update, I wanna direct you to the sidebar on my site so you can hear the beautiful serenade that wakes me up every day. The birds here don’t quit talking when it gets dark. They chirp and sing all night long. I guess they don’t fear something eating them when the sun goes down!
Here’s my update.
So it’s (was) Saturday morning, I’m sitting at my desk in the office. Joni is working on budgets and I am trying to figure out what to write in my next update. I feel like I have such a boring life compared to so many people here. I get up, go to work, and go home. Sometimes I go to the haus sik… I don’t go on daring drives on treacherous roads, I don’t fly to another destination to help at another branch of PBT, I don’t, I don’t, I don’t… I’m boring… I need to get out more… I need to get back into the Baby JJ Ministry…
For we are God’s handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. ~ Ephesians 2:10
What have you got for me to do Lord?
“Then you will call on Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart” … Sharon. ~Jeremiah 29:12-13
Lord, You are the goal of my searching. I want to do what You want me to do. What does that look like every day? I don’t know. I’ll keep stepping … You keep talking… and I’ll be just fine. I want to do whatever it is… whatever it takes … to be in the center of Your will for my life. It was a harsh realization when I realized that “whatever it takes” could be ‘time’ – that’s a hard one. I want things to go “on a certain schedule”… and ha! They don’t always do that – only when I am in the center of His will. Sometimes that’s “easy” to find, sometimes not.
Here’s a photo of my village mama and me in the meri blouses she made for us. Isn’t she adorable?! She came to see me. She told me that a fire started in and near her garden, and it was burning out of control for some days. Thankfully God sent rain one night last week and it put the fire out. She has no garden now. She has no food. We went to the store and I got her some staple foods and I gave her some money to buy some veggies from the Mawan market. I tried to buy some from the market here, but she told me that their market is much cheaper – and I think she wants to support her village too. Please pray for rain. We desperately need it!
This is Lori. She lived here (in the flat where I live now) for 20 years. She now only comes about once a year. We sure have fun when she comes back to visit/work!
On Saturday night, we went to an Indian dinner put on at the Country Club. We have been trying to get our Indian friends to open a restaurant. So, to support them, 12 of us went and enjoyed a wonderful dinner and entertainment.
This is the band. The night started out really slow… but the food was great and the entertainment was priceless! It was a local band singing songs from the 70’s and 80’s. They started with “Stuck on You” by Lionel Richie. Cracked us up! We were all singing along (well, those on my end of the table anyway). They also played and sang “If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me.” Joni said that she wondered how that translated to the nationals. Then they sang some that song that must have been a local language, coz we couldn’t figure them out (update, it was a Spanish song! ha! Who knew?) … but my personal favorite was “Suspicious Minds” by Elvis Presley. It was priceless! They nailed it! There was one guy who was really good at hitting the high notes. A little updated side note on this one too, is that as I was trying to complete this, Lois told us that this band is her husband, their son and cousins! She was thrilled that we had SO much fun! And the guy who hit the high notes was her son Kevin. It never even occurred to us to see if we knew the band.
So, I might not take interesting trips on interesting roads or fly to different destinations, but my life isn’t boring. I actually cherish the quiet moments – a lot. I was really concerned about leaving my family behind when I moved here. A lot of the time, I feel so far away and alone. At first I thought “I.am.all.alone.” Well, I don’t have to be; God has given me a family over here that loves me too. I miss my family and friends in America, a LOT, but I’m sure glad that God has made it a little easier, by having people here love me too.
There is more work to do… more people to see, more babies and mamas to love on… He has work for each of us. I want to be drawn closer to Him – whatever it takes. That prayer scared me when I realized that sometimes the “whatever” that is needed to be drawn closer to Him, could be “time.” I still want things to be done in “my time” sometimes… Lord, help me to be molded into the person You created me to be. Consume me from the inside and transform my life. Let me shine Your light everywhere I go!
“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” ~Romans 12:2-3
Please remember to pray for me, for us and for rain… we really need it… all the extreme prayers you can muster.
P.S. It looks like I will be in America the end of January…. wanna have coffee, tea, lunch or dinner? Let’s talk! I’ll keep you posted as my plans come together.
Thanks so much for going on this journey with me. I’m so grateful!
