We were "Commissioned" Sunday. It was kind of cool. There were 5 questions we were to answer mostly about serving God faithfully. It was good to think of those things.It was good to talk to people first hand about the ways we have seen God working over the past months. It was good to talk to long time friends. I want to be faithful.
We have four more days to try to figure out the things we need. Do I want to get a power bank?
Should I pull my 8 cup pyrex measuring bowl out of the blue suitcase that is currently a few pounds overweight. How many skirts do I really need? My family have heard a lot about those skirts. I think I have a bit of a thing about clothes and shopping. Certainly I know that compared to most I will meet in Malawi I have a luxurious amount of clothing.
I think back to messages I heard from Ramesh Richard literally decades ago now. He talked about what God sees as enough. He felt that standard was food for the day at the beginning of the day and a change of clothing, might or might not have included shelter but I tend to feel that shelter should be included though a description of that would rise a whole further debate. I just know that I have wondered what I might eat often but never wondered if I would have food to eat on any given day. I have wondered what to wear but never if I would have something to wear. I have concerned myself with what the temperature of the place I would live or stay might be, would I be warm enough or cool enough depending on the season. I have never wondered if I would have a place to sleep.
In other words I am now and have been blessed to have all I need and much more. That makes it hard to narrow my belongings down to mostly needs and forget about my many wants. It's continuing to happen though.
Besides packing belongings there are numerous things to take care of. We live in an age of technology so making sure documents we need are on the laptops we will travel with and that our old technology is properly dealt with is a challenge. There is also insurance, phones, financial accounts and such. I am so pleased that my husband is taking care of most of this but. . .
I have spent days trying to make sure our phones are unlocked so that we can use them with African SIM cards when we arrive. If your provider is AT&T this is not as simple as it could be. It's a multi step process and then they send you a final email with three steps to complete the process. The steps fail to mention a couple of critical points and I for one am not convinced of the efficiency of their call in customer support staff. However after a number of issue we have unlocked phones.
I also learned today that my retirement account people think I was born Jan. 1 of 1800. They also informed me that having this date was my mistake not theirs and that they could only change this date by me sending in a regular letter with my birth date and signature on it so they would know the appropriate time that funds could or should be dispersed with or without penalty. Some days I wonder.
I also am still trying to get our insurance settled. Not sure where that process is at but at this point they mostly seem more efficient then the others I have dealt with.
Maybe all this is good and I will be prepared for the inefficient systems I will undoubtedly encounter in Africa. Time will tell
.
We have four more days to try to figure out the things we need. Do I want to get a power bank?
Should I pull my 8 cup pyrex measuring bowl out of the blue suitcase that is currently a few pounds overweight. How many skirts do I really need? My family have heard a lot about those skirts. I think I have a bit of a thing about clothes and shopping. Certainly I know that compared to most I will meet in Malawi I have a luxurious amount of clothing.
I think back to messages I heard from Ramesh Richard literally decades ago now. He talked about what God sees as enough. He felt that standard was food for the day at the beginning of the day and a change of clothing, might or might not have included shelter but I tend to feel that shelter should be included though a description of that would rise a whole further debate. I just know that I have wondered what I might eat often but never wondered if I would have food to eat on any given day. I have wondered what to wear but never if I would have something to wear. I have concerned myself with what the temperature of the place I would live or stay might be, would I be warm enough or cool enough depending on the season. I have never wondered if I would have a place to sleep.
In other words I am now and have been blessed to have all I need and much more. That makes it hard to narrow my belongings down to mostly needs and forget about my many wants. It's continuing to happen though.
Besides packing belongings there are numerous things to take care of. We live in an age of technology so making sure documents we need are on the laptops we will travel with and that our old technology is properly dealt with is a challenge. There is also insurance, phones, financial accounts and such. I am so pleased that my husband is taking care of most of this but. . .
I have spent days trying to make sure our phones are unlocked so that we can use them with African SIM cards when we arrive. If your provider is AT&T this is not as simple as it could be. It's a multi step process and then they send you a final email with three steps to complete the process. The steps fail to mention a couple of critical points and I for one am not convinced of the efficiency of their call in customer support staff. However after a number of issue we have unlocked phones.
I also learned today that my retirement account people think I was born Jan. 1 of 1800. They also informed me that having this date was my mistake not theirs and that they could only change this date by me sending in a regular letter with my birth date and signature on it so they would know the appropriate time that funds could or should be dispersed with or without penalty. Some days I wonder.
I also am still trying to get our insurance settled. Not sure where that process is at but at this point they mostly seem more efficient then the others I have dealt with.
Maybe all this is good and I will be prepared for the inefficient systems I will undoubtedly encounter in Africa. Time will tell
.
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