I’ve just plopped down into a big chair in my living room. Thankfully the wind has picked up outside to cool down a rather hot day. It feels so amazing to sit down! It’s been a busy week. Anyone else glad it is Friday? We are prepping for a big team coming down. They are in route already and will arrive sometime mid-afternoon tomorrow. So excited for their arrival, but also savoring the night: A walk into one community to pick up some dinner and chat at a little cafe, then dinner conversation and hanging out before topping off the evening with The Princess Bride.
I have been thinking a lot of Moses and the plagues in Egypt the last few days. My living space here is alright, but it was time to treat the downstairs for bugs...so over the last few days the floor has become littered with roaches each morning, particularly in the kitchen. Lovely. So as we clean from top to bottom in preparations, I spent the morning in the kitchen attending to the carnage and other business. I’m not sure if from all the rearranging going on or from the pesticides, but we had a huge scorpion in the living room late last night in attack mode. Successfully defended my roommate, however I then proceeded to yell and flap my arms while hopping about the house as a means of debriefing from that situation. Those critters give me the heebie-jeebies!
In other things, God walked me through a later night in the clinic resulting in 12 stitches in an arm. Branching out of my usual assigned tasks this week also took me into the school where I was helping with some testing. The teachers are evaluating new students for placement and there were some beautiful kiddos from the Spanish school that needed some help so I got to be back in the classroom for a little while. I look forward to more of that; such good times past. I was also on smoke-detector duty this week, installing and testing all the alarms. There were two that none of us could get to sound when tested and the manual said in such cases to discard the detector. Well, when the trash went to the burn-pit today, we found out they did, in fact, work. Too late for the smoke detectors at that point, but how we laughed while the burn pile shrieked to let us know that yes, there was indeed smoke out there. It helped brighten our mid-day moral (that and giant spoonfuls of peanut butter all around). In the afternoon, you’d have thought it was Christmas. I was cleaning out the clinic (I’m so nervous to open cupboards for fear of creepy-crawlies sometimes) when I happened upon a number of items that we had been needing. Oh I was so overjoyed to find things like gloves, coban and tongue depressors. It’s the little things in life!
So to close out this week, I wanted to share a little story with you. We’re discussing our way through Cross Cultural Connections. I find the book great for much more than moving to another country and community. There are so many points that are applicable to even being around one’s own family! Sometimes I wonder about what is it exactly that I’m doing, what is really of eternal significance you might say, when so much of it is just observing and absorbing, learning about the culture. This happens any time I move, but I’m more acutely aware of it here, in part because we are daily discussing things that come up or just getting doused with a situation that arose because of not understanding something. I am so prone to be a “doer”. Check things off lists, finish tasks, do something. But sometimes God tells us essentially, “Don’t just do something, stand there” (Henry Blackaby). Sometimes we really need more than anything else to stop doing and just be. To stand still with God, to be with him. To let him work in us what we are becoming. Also, how can we hope to speak life and encouragement to a group of people when we don’t know what would be meaningful to them? How do we put the Gospel into context if we don’t take time to learn what context we are in? Perhaps you’ll travel somewhere, maybe be part of an outreach team of some sort, stay with someone in another country or meet someone right at home who comes from a different context. I’ve enjoyed this story and I will, I’m sure, be looking for ways that I or others portray the “monkey” in us; here you go:
“A typhoon had temporarily stranded a monkey on an island. In a secure, protected place, while waiting for the raging waters to recede, he spotted a fish swimming against the current. It seemed obvious to the monkey that the fish was struggling and in need of assistance. Being of kind heart, the monkey resolved to help the fish. A tree precariously dangled over the very spot where the fish seemed to be struggling. At considerable risk to himself, the monkey moved far out on a limb, reached down and snatched the fish from the threatening waters. Immediately scurrying back to the safety of his shelter, he carefully laid the fish on dry ground. For a few minutes the fish showed excitement, but soon settled into a peaceful rest. Joy and satisfaction swelled inside the monkey. He has successfully helped another creature” (Duane Elmer).
Lots of application, I think. So take some time to just be - experience and enjoy God, listen and engage with people around you with an open and genuine heart, and let’s see how this goes.
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