The Seasons of Life

Every day I check to see if any of my friends have posted a blog. I'm often disappointed that there's nothing to read. My friends are probably also checking to see if I've posted anything and alas, they go for weeks without finding anything. It's not for lack of things to write about; I have composed hundreds of blogs in my head over the past months but somehow, they don't get from my head onto the paper. So here we are in Jordan, spending 3 weeks of vacation with our daughter and family. This place holds lots of really good memories; many close friendships were formed during our years of living here. I haven't seen some of these friends in more than 10 years but we took up right where we left off and seemingly lost out on very little, although we now find ourselves Grandmas instead of young moms chasing our little ones around. The seasons of life are something to think about...every one is very unique and requires from me a different kind of "ministry" if you will. My ministry to my young children was in one season of life, ministry to my adult children is on-going and becoming a Grandma, I'm finding, is a whole other season that is full of joy & anticipation. There is also a season we're entering where we're thinking about retirement and how our life will look, just the two of us. Where will we live, what will we do, how can our lives continue to impact people for eternity? I am a person who likes to know what the plan is. I live by my calendar and I like to see lots of activity on that calendar! It is strange to be in a place where the plan is very unclear, in fact non-existent. Right now I know that we will be taking a one-year Home Assignment in May and after that, only God knows and I'm actually OK with that! It's kind of exciting to see where he will take us next.  

Detour through the olive trees

This morning I decided to change my normal walking route and take a detour through the olive grove that's near our house. You'd be hard-pressed to go 2 minutes in any direction for an hour without walking through an olive grove! There are thousands of them everywhere. It was fascinating to walk by groups of people under the trees, sorting through the olives that they had beaten down off the trees. I was particularly struck by this one little old woman, dressed in layers of clothes and veiled. She had a single little stick in her hand and just kept beating and beating at the tree. Olives were falling down along with lots of leaves and small branches. She then plopped herself down on the ground and began sorting through the olives, separating out all the dirt, leaves, etc. When she's finished doing that, she will have a small sack full of olives which are inedible and must be taken to the olive press where they will be ground and made into oil. Next time you open a bottle of EVOO, remember the little old woman! No wonder that stuff costs so much! I believe there's a good sermon illustration in here somewhere:)

Amazing partners

We have been privileged to have 4 short-term teams come and help us here in the south of Long Beach this fall. Three of them were work teams and one was strictly a Vision team who came to see how they could join in what God is doing here. They have all been a huge encouragement. They gave up vacation time to come and help here. They worked tirelessly in brutal temperatures, never complaining, always full of laughter and joy. We feel honored to call these people friends and will never forget how they came to help at a time of great need. Without them, we would simply have an empty building sitting here but because of their sacrifice, the Lotus House has turned into a true Oasis in the desert! Here are some pictures of the transformation thus far. There will be many more to come as we continue to furnish and decorate in the future. The murals for the Kid's Play Area were painted by a guy from Philly who is a professional artist. The coffee bar is one of a kind with old boards from a shipwreck used for the drawers.

Morning walks

I have recently switched to walking in the early morning instead of the evenings and it's interesting to see the difference in the sights I see along the way. It's fun to watch the city waking up and it somehow puts a spring in my step as I also feel my body waking up and energy pouring into my veins. I love to see the school children in their uniforms, walking down the road toward their school. The merchants are putting out their wares for the tourists to purchase, the horse & buggies go clopping by, a forlorn-looking woman dressed from head to foot in a long veil carrying long loaves of bread home for her family, men already gathering at their favorite cafe to hear the latest news and drink their coffee. My usual walk takes me down to the beach where I stand and ponder the greatness of the God I serve and wonder how he chose me to be here in this place at this time. There is nothing more energizing for me than hearing the waves roll in and watching the seagulls and fishermen and everything else that goes with sea life. I start back up the hill toward home and I feel full of joy and excitement as I look forward to what God has in store for the day. Morning walks are definitely better than evening walks for me! 

feelings!

I have recently been keenly reminded of what I've known all along, that after almost 50 years of being a follower of Jesus, my feelings/emotions are still very much controlled by my circumstances. I have probably given more than one sermon in my life about not allowing our circumstances to control our emotions and being joyful in all situations, but...it just somehow doesn't compute in this stubborn old brain of mine. Here's the recent scenario that has brought this to light in a poignant way:
It was a very hot, humid morning and my teammate & I decided we'd go over to the guest apartments and get them ready for our upcoming short term team. We would wipe out all the new wardrobes we'd just purchased and make a list of other things we still needed to buy. Upon opening the first wardrobe, we discovered that tiny black termites had completely destroyed it, leaving piles of sawdust in every corner and covering the floor underneath. They had even found their way across the room and begun to destroy the bedside table also! They were threatening to eat our brand new wooden beds which fortunately my husband had varnished, making it more difficult for them to attack. (although the varnished wardrobes did not deter them one bit) We swept out the piles of sawdust made by these monsters and sprayed relentlessly. We then went to the next apartment and sure enough, the same thing all over again, even worse! By now we were drenched in sweat and feeling quite debilitated. Knowing that it's almost impossible to get anything replaced in this country and having very limited funds, we were depressed to say the least. After cleaning out all 3 wardrobes and using up 3 cans of bug spray, we left without having accomplished much else. I felt downhearted and depressed the rest of the day. On top of that, none of the ATM machines worked in our town and we were totally out of money. You have to drive 10 km to even find a machine so that's a lot of wasted time. So that was my bad, horrible, good-for-nothing day and I felt depressed. Today, I left home before 8AM to beat the crowds in town. I went to the ATM machine first and it worked! I got all of my money and went to the phone company to pay my bill. That also worked like it's supposed to. On the way home, I decided to stop at a butcher shop that I've seen many times and wondered if it would have the meat we wanted. Getting beef in our town is nigh unto impossible. The shop was clean and air conditioned. The butcher was very kind and gave me 2 kilos of beautiful ground beef. He also gave me his phone number and said to call him ahead of time and he'd have my order ready for me, even filets or steaks or anything I wanted. Oh, this was turning out to be a joyous day. My spirits were soaring by now. I was 3 for 3! Upon returning home, I was able to get lots of important little things done at my desk and around the house, had a lovely cup of coffee and now I am off to the beach to celebrate my happy day with sweet Kali, an 18 year old intern who's living with us this year.
I'm sure I will give the "rejoice in all circumstances" sermon again and I will be preaching mostly to myself, because I still haven't learned this lesson but as long as there's breath, there's still hope, right? Oh Lord, help me to learn that you are good and you are God in the good times and in the bad!

Interesting facts about our new city

It is like any beach town in America…in the summer, it comes alive and you can hardly find a parking place. Winter is dead and deserted.

Horse-drawn buggies full of tourists are everywhere and make it difficult to get through the streets

The hotels by the beach take all the water in the summer so we are left with hardly a drop! (finally got a pump and storage tank installed)

There are recycling bins for plastic bottles

You’re likely to see a runaway camel careening down Main Street at top speed

Fine, red dirt in everything! My clothes, my floors, everything!

Constant sea breezes which makes the heat bearable but hence, the red dirt

Friendly people who have all the time in the world

Wicked humidity! Never perspired so much in my life

Straw hats

Seaweed-covered beaches

Olive groves as far as the eye can see

Quads roaring up and down our streets (with tourists on them)

Scorpions

Spiritually-darkened minds, as dark as anywhere I've been

We aren’t quite at the end of the earth but we can see it from here!! Looking forward to your visit:)

On the road again....

                                   

Every time we go through this process, we say this is the last time! And then we do it again!! I am weary of my house looking like this. I have done this way too many times in my 31 years overseas and to tell you the truth, I'm tired of it. Somehow the Lord keeps giving us strength to do it one more time but really, this is the last time:) I know I'll eat those words again in a year when we go on Home Assignment, but until then, this is positively the last time. Next Tuesday we'll hit the road again and drive 8 hours south to our new home. So many unknowns ahead but we're resting in the fact that, after dozens of times of moving to new places, God has always gotten there before us and prepared the way. So we wait on him once again and know that he is trust-worthy. He will show us the way and we will look for his hand every day as he orchestrates things we could not possibly have thought of. Thanks for sticking with us. We couldn't do it without you!

A marathon 5 days not to be soon forgotten

Many people were praying for us as we made the 8-hour trip to south Long Beach to look for houses for us and 2 other families. Since so many have been following this journey, I think I'll just write a detailed account of our time for you. We left on Tuesday morning at 6:00 to start our journey. When we left, we had zero leads and could not get anyone to answer our phone calls when we tried to line up real estate agents. We made the trip with no problems, arriving in the south where the temps were over 100 degrees. We continued to try and make phone calls to line things up for Wednesday so we could start seeing houses but no one would answer their phones. We finally decided that we should go to our friend Aziz's restaurant for dinner and let him make some calls for us. He seems to know everyone in town! Sure enough, Aziz saw us coming and warmly welcomed us with kisses and loud hellos. When we told him we were in town for 5 days to look for houses, he said "no problem. my niece just married the guy who's in charge of such & such real estate agency" and he immediately began making phone calls. Within minutes we had an appointment to call a man at 10AM Wednesday and he would show us some houses. Funny little thing happened while we were eating dinner under a beautiful moon that glistened on the sea in front of us. We were enjoying our food when Aziz came yelling for us to grab our plates and run inside. Before we could get going, a huge storm descended on us and a ferocious wind that filled our eyes and mouths with sand from the beach. Aziz could smell it coming and knew to warn us, though a bit too late. He says they get a lot of these in the month of May. After breakfast the next day, we prayed together for God's blessing and clear leading as we proceeded out to hunt for houses. We were to meet our man at the big mosque downtown. We waited for quite awhile in the car and then Darrell decided to get out and wait outside. He was looking at his phone when this crippled beggar came up to him carrying a bag of medicine. He ignored him, hoping he'd go away but the guy kept trying to talk to him in several languages. Thankfully Darrell didn't reach in his pocket and give him a coin or "shew" him away for being a bug. It turned out he was our real estate agent, ready to show us houses. He became a great friend as he dragged his half-shriveled body around all day with us for 3 days! After seeing the first several houses, we all felt discouraged and depressed. Nothing was to our liking and it seemed hopeless. We looked for 6 hours straight with 3 young children tagging along, no lunch or anything until 4PM. They were absolute angels, much better than the adults! Uncle Darrell rewarded then with ice cream:) The first day did not turn up anything solid, although we saw a few we thought we could make work. But we were a little downhearted that night. We started out again the next morning, now working with 2 real estate agents simultaneously (that was a bit tricky!). The second day we landed one house for one of our families and that felt like a huge victory but we only had one more day to secure 2 more houses because Friday at 5PM the municipality closes for the weekend. That's where you have to go to get a contract signed and legalized. Well, Friday morning came and we had decided on a house for us finally. It was not going to be available until mid-August but we had decided to live in a furnished apartment and store our things until it was ready. It was the perfect house with a swimming pool! We picked up our real estate agent and before we could tell him of our decision, he informed us that the house we wanted was not available anymore. So, back to the drawing board we went. At this point I was ready to take anything and didn't really care where I lived! We looked for hours at many more houses, 30 in all. We were weary yet needing to push on because the hours were ticking away. Along the way I have mentioned that we would love to find a building for our new project that would have guest quarters above it. We had seen one such building the day before but I didn't even bother to get out of the car to see it because I thought we should find our own houses before looking for buildings for our center. We decided to go back and look at that building and on the way, we stopped at another house that the agent thought of on the spur of the moment. It was 10AM on Friday. We liked the house and decided to sign a contract with the owner. We can see the Mediterranean Sea in the distance and beautiful olive groves all around us. Before we signed on our house, we stopped by to see the big building that might work for our project. It could not have been more perfect and above it were 3 guest apartments that were simply amazing. The price is what made us simply not be able to walk away from the deal. We cannot believe what God did in allowing us to procure this building! It is more than we ever dreamed of and will provide lots of work for all the short-term teams that are coming our way in the fall:) So by 11:00, the guys were flying off to the municipality to sign papers before it closed at noon for lunch and Friday prayers. They finished in the nick of time. We still had one more house to find and it just wasn't happening. There was very little time left and the stress level was rising in some of our members who were weary of house-hunting. We finally told the agent that we would see just one more house and then make a decision because we were simply out of time. Wouldn't you know that the 30th house was the one! The owner came straight from Friday prayers at the mosque and one hour before everyone closed for the weekend, the last contract was signed. 3 houses and a building for our center!! WOW, we could not stop thanking the Lord for what he did for us in those few days. On Saturday, the guys drove down to the Lib border and prayed there for that enormous country that is so very lost. When they returned we took off for a nearby island to visit a worker family who has 3 young children. The visit was a great encouragement to them and to our families with young children. They hit it off and had a wonderful time together. God just kept answering prayer after prayer. Sunday we returned back to the capital for another month. We are overwhelmed at his goodness and YOU all certainly had a great part in it all.Thank you!

My complaining put into perspective

Today I went to visit a young woman who has been put in the category of “unwed mother” for the rest of her life. In a moment of weakness, she had an affair with a man she had passionately loved for 9 years. When he found out she was pregnant, he took off and never saw her again until the baby was 8 months old when he came to give her his name legally. What I encountered when I walked into this girl’s tiny room was quite shocking. All of her earthly possessions were piled in one corner and one small cupboard. One single light bulb hung on the wall, no light in the “bathroom”, if you can call it that; a bare sink on the wall and a seatless toilet with no water. She pours bottles of water in to flush it. She is a beautiful girl with a winsome personality and it is painful to think that she will never get married or be loved by a man again. She showed us pictures of her before she got pregnant; dashing young woman with fancy dresses and make-up. There were pictures of her in the arms of her lover. Now she sits alone in her tiny room with only her TV for companionship and has nothing but dreams & photos of that life not-so-long-ago.  Her mother and sister are the only ones that know about the baby but have nothing to do with her. When she goes to visit them, she must leave the baby behind. No one else in the family knows about this dark secret. It would bring such shame on the entire family that they’d likely have to kill her.  In spite of this awful existence, the girl kept saying over and over that she praised God for her own place where she could raise her baby. She has a daily job taking care of an invalid woman and takes her baby to a neighbor lady who watches her while she’s at work for a mere $35 a month. With no frig or fan of any kind and the intense summer months coming, she is already wondering how she will survive. Today she asked lots of questions about how it was possible for someone in this country to change their religion. (the friend I went with told her she had left her families’ faith and embraced Christ) She wants to come to church sometime and see what it’s all about.

Lately, I've been complaining to my husband that I want a new dining room table. The one I have now is wobbly and home-made. But it’s a table and it seats lots of people and I need to realize how fortunate I am to have all the wonderful things that I do! Today’s visit put everything into perspective for me and my dining table suddenly seems to be just fine. I am blessed beyond measure!

A ginormous hiccup in the flow of life

I was sitting in the office enjoying a cup of coffee and reading my emails. Our kitchen helper, who is really my right-hand at the Family Place, walked in and said she needed to talk to me! Couldn't possibly be good news): She informed me that she would be leaving by the end of the month to go to Lebanon to study theology. I was shocked and my mind started to run wild thinking of how I would replace her. She knows how to make fresh bread and soup and chocolate chip cookies. She knows which customers like ketchup and which ones like mayonnaise. I've spent over a year training her to do things the way I like them. The thought of training a new girl is overwhelming. Granted, she didn't always do things the way I like and she was lazy at times but I still love her and feel very sad that she's leaving. I decided not to make a hasty decision but to think it through and give myself time to pray and ask the right questions. If you're reading this blog, would you pray with us that we'll get the perfect girl to replace her and that I'll have time to train her well before I leave for the US in a few weeks? I really didn't need this right now but God had other plans and evidently thought I could handle just a little bit more stress in my life. Ah, thanks for hanging in there with me! Isn't this life fun?? 

feeling a little overwhelmed yet not crushed

I know it's been forever since I've written anything here. Can't say I've made a new year's resolution to write more or anything like that. Just stopping by to say hello to all my readers who have probably long left me. I thought a blog would be a great way to express myself but alas, it only makes me feel guilty for not writing on it. (not really that guilty) Life here is just a bit overwhelming most of the time. What makes it feel overwhelming right now? The list is long but some of the things are: trying to keep up with the needs of a large team (and feeling like a failure always), running a business that largely depends on me and figuring out how to turn things over when I leave, thinking about yet another move in the summer to a new place 7 hours away, 5 weeks of tour looming in the near future with lots of messages to prepare and feeling like I have nothing to say, relationships I should be pursuing or following up, way too many emails to answer and many of them people who want to come and visit & see the work here, the budget process for two teams coming up this month. There are more but I won't take time to list them all. I often say to myself "is this the abundant life that Christ promised me?" It occurs to me that abundant life isn't about our circumstances or our agendas and calendars. It's a state of the heart where we are at peace with our maker, knowing that we have given him the first fruits and are trusting him daily, hourly to lead our steps and give us wisdom in our choices. I think this is something that needs practice just like anything else and it then becomes a habit. As I daily take up my cross and follow him, he teaches me how to live abundantly. What a crazy paradox this is. To the world it is foolishness but to us, it is abundant life! So we keep pressing on. I am 57 years old and I should have this down by now, no? Maybe I'll finally get it right in 2014. Happy New Year to all my dear friends.