Here a sheep, there a sheep, everywhere a sheep sheep!

The Feast of Sacrifice is upon us again. This year we closed The Family Place for 4 days in celebration of this "big feast" as it's referred to. I must say I was dreaming of this little vacation and had dozens of plans of how I would spend it. Leading up to this holiday, you can find sheep parked on every corner waiting to be bought for the sacrifice. The streets are strewn with straw for the sheep to eat. Children especially love this holiday as they are allowed to parade their sheep around and play with them until the day they are killed. The day after the feast, we will see piles of rotting sheep skins, heads and yucky intestines on every garbage pile and the smell is horrible. Fortunately the weather is turning cooler so it may be better this year? At any rate, we did not stay around to celebrate the feast but went south with some Tunisian friends to celebrate at a 5-star hotel:) We mostly sat around the luxurious lounge and talked and ordered coffee and tea. It was a wonderful break from the ordinary. Our little vacation is almost finished and my "to do" list is still very long! Still, it has been good to have this break and I feel refreshed.

A relaxing pause from our busy lives

We decided to go on a picnic with our team for our "team meeting" which usually occurs the 3rd Saturday of every month. I envisioned going far out in the countryside and letting the kids run and play in the wild. We ended up just outside of the city in a park that had lots of stuff for kids to do and beautiful pine trees, picnic tables and lots of room to roam freely. It turned out to be a lovely day, the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves and we were able to unwind and refuel a bit. Here are a bunch of pictures of the day.

Betrayed

Perhaps one of the worst things in life - being betrayed by someone you trust and love. Seven months ago, a young girl came to work for us at the Family Place. I loved her like my daughter and poured hours into her, teaching & training her. She had become my right-hand helper and I couldn't manage without her. I taught her how to make our homemade bread; she made the best chili in town and had a pleasant and bubbly personality that all the customers came to love. Most important of all, she prayed to give her heart to Christ and seemed to be growing ever so slowly in her faith. Her prayers were beautiful, calling God "Baba" or "Daddy". The Family Place was closed for most of the month of Ramadan and re-opened the last week. Because there was very little work to do, I decided to send her and her friend (our cleaning person) to our new families' houses to clean for them. It was soon discovered that the girls had been stealing from the families (one of them, a large amount of cash and jewels). We actually had been missing small amounts of money here and there and even a few times confronted my helper but she vehemently denied it and I believed her. Now we were more than sure of their guilt and decided we had to report them to the police. I spent hours at the police station and later at the court. We eventually forgave them for our part and after spending 6 days in jail, they were released to go home but are still awaiting their final sentence. Although we forgave them (they would have gone to jail for 2-5 years), the state will not forgive them and they will probably get a large fine and 2 years probation. It breaks my heart that this beautiful young girl threw her life away like this. She had gorgeous, long hair which her mother had to cut immediately when she returned home from 6 days in jail. It was matted with dead cockroaches and nasty stuff from the floor where she slept! She was engaged to be married but of course she will never get married now. She has brought such shame to her entire family and her father now forbids her to even leave her house to buy bread. I have visited her twice in her home and it is extremely sad. She is very remorseful and sorry for what she did. I don't believe the end of this story has been written yet. I believe God wants to teach this young girl about forgiveness and redemption. I plan to continue to visit her and show her Christ's love but it's not easy having been betrayed like this. To realize that all the months that we were laughing together and praying together and enjoying working together, she was stealing behind my back and many other peoples' backs as well. It really is very hard to have been betrayed like this.

We are learning to do life here on the beach with 21 of us instead of just 2! I liken it to going from steering a little canoe on the water to steering a huge ocean liner. Whereas previously a decision could be made in seconds, it now takes calling 5 other people to make sure we're all on the same page. It is a sight to see us trying to fit everyone into our 9-passenger van + one other small rented car. The poor kids get squished in the trunk but they're such great sports. They sang all the way to the beach and back.

We are thrilled to finally have our team here on the ground with us and look forward to many wonderful years of doing ministry together here on the Beach!

my least favorite month of the year!

I have no idea why the people in this country claim to love Ramadan more than any other month of the year. i absolutely despise it. There, I said it. The entire country is turned upside down and nothing works as it should. It's a guessing game to figure out what time things open and what time they close. One thing's for sure, get out early and return to your house before 2PM. By then, everyone is getting out of work and the traffic is horrific and everyone's on nerve's edge because it's 100 degrees+ and no one can drink. I tried to go to the electric company today and there were 100 numbers ahead of me and the place was so packed you couldn't move. I decided to try another day. Today we needed to deliver 4 refrigerators, 3 stoves and an air conditioner to our team members homes. While we were waiting for the truck to arrive, Darrell walked to a nearby shop and bought ice cream cones. He discreetly brought them home and we sat on the bed eating them with sweat pouring down our faces. We were quite a sight:) Also during this month, you cannot find a coffee shop or restaurant open during the day. Those that do open down in the tourist area, have a sheet up in the window so no one can see in. Whereas our friends say during this month all the good spirits are released on earth, I rather think by the rotten attitudes and flaring tempers all around that it is the evil spirits that are running around rampant. Most foreigners get out of the country during this month. We have closed down the Family Place for 3 weeks and people basically hunker down in their houses and sleep or just sit still so they don't get hot and thirsty since they aren't allowed to drink all day. Ironically, it's the poor woman of the house who is shopping for the evening feast in the morning and then cooking it all afternoon. But if you try to commiserate with anyone about how difficult it is, they will swear that it is the most wonderful month of the year. Granted, the night life is supposedly electrifying and magical but nothing even begins until 10PM and by then, I am headed to my comfortable bed. I promise myself that I will go out for at least one evening of Ramadan fun before it's all over. All I can say is I can't wait until life gets back to normal, if there is such a thing in this part of the world!

The month in Switzerland is a distant memory. I'm so happy to have my master's behind me and not have that hanging over my head morning, noon and night. I definitely felt the Lord's help in a big way throughout the whole time of studying. I was way out of my comfort zone, studying education and administration! But I made it through and learned a lot and actually did very well. 3/4 of the way through my time in Switzerland, I received the devastating news that my nephew, Josiah Pierce Bubna, had died suddenly, just 5 weeks before he was to be married. I was paralyzed with grief and knew that I could not stay there while everyone else was in Chicago for the funeral. I desperately wanted to go and be with my sister and her family. I checked on tickets and decided no matter what, I was going, even if it meant throwing the whole master's out the window. I talked to my professors and they were full of compassion and told me to go. (and I was still able to finish all my work and graduate on time) I have experienced some deep grief in my life but nothing comes close to this. Not only my own grief but most of all the thought of the grief beyond description that my sister and brother-in-law are going through. I wish so badly that I could bear some of it for them but as my sister says, they have to walk this road alone and it is desperately lonely and painful. It's a comfort to know that even though no human can help to ease the pain, Jesus is walking the road with them and they will make it through this dark tunnel somehow with his help. Thank you to many of you who have prayed and continue to do so. It's the only thing anyone can do. Words are hollow and meaningless. May God give me grace to live each day as if it were my last. He is worthy and nothing else is.

This blogging thing is not going well with me. My life has had so little margin for the last year that there is barely time to brush my teeth or change my sheets! Life was not meant to be lived this way but it has seemed necessary for this season in order to accomplish what we were sent here to do, namely find a way for us and our team to be able to stay in North Africa long term. We accomplished that, by God's grace and are looking forward to a less-hectic life sometime soon in the future. As I write this post, I am sitting in my room in Switzerland, looking out the window at snow-covered mountains and listening to the distant jingle of cowbells as they roam across the hillside below. It is a scene so far from what I left yesterday; 100 degrees, garbage piled everywhere in the streets, stress and more stress, horrific traffic and so on. There will be stress of a different kind as I start my master's studies tomorrow. One course every week for 4 weeks! I will graduate on July 20th and I know it'll be worth it but it's a LOT of work until then. At least here, I'm able to concentrate on ONE thing and do it well, not 10 things like I do everyday back home. Before I left, I took our 2 interns and did a huge shopping for the Family Place. Here's a picture of the back of our van after shopping! I hope it will last for most of the time I'm gone.