Expectations Refined

Today it is great to know we have airline tickets reserved!
It is great to know that electricity is on a 4 hour rotating outage schedule!
It is great to know I can purchase the meds I need in Blantyre Malawi!
It is great to know that some sort of exercise facility is available in the area!
The leaders of the SIM Malawi team have a house for us to live in!

In other words their are many amazing pieces of information we have acquired of late.
Many questions still remain.
What will our house look like? How many creepy crawlies will be able to get in to it to live with me?
Will there be some furnishings in it or will we start completely from scratch?

While there are quite a few things we don't know we have seen God provide through the quick sale of our home, safety in our random travels, timely processing of our Temporary employment permit, and some great times of fellowship with family, friends and relations. We continue to believe we are called to this ministry and that God is in control.

At this point we have been living out of suitcases for over a month. I feel like my clothes are always a mess from being packed and unpacked and tossed around what ever room we are staying in. The idea of a dresser and a closet that my clothing can be hung and stored in seems like a luxury. It is good that I am starting to long for and appreciate simple things as we move forward, knowing that our lifestyle will be much simpler in Malawi.

 

We spent some time in Colorado enjoying the beauty of Gods Creation. This is a picture from what seemed like the top of the world. It was a good reminder that if God could create these majestic mountains and the many and varied things we saw he can surely handle my life.

 

Expectations

This is Malawi, a rented household of some sort in the city of Blantyre will be my next home.
Right now we are at SIM USA headquarters in Charlotte, NC participating in SIM Sendoff and Security Training. This is our final real training requirement. The remaining to do list is a couple of online lecture based classes on theology for me and a list of books to read for both of us. Beyond that we wait the mechanizations of Malawian Government to process our temporary work permit. As soon as we receive that which could come at any point we can set a departure date and book tickets to depart.

All this means that I have started to think about what to expect in this new home. I am not really sure if I will be working a regular office schedule of 8 or 9 to 5 in my position as personnel coordinator.
I don't know what my new "house" will look like, space, furnishings, what it will take to make it a home. I don't know what my language training will look like. I know we need to learn some basic Chichewa, but not a lot about how it's going to happen, except that it's not a formal language school. I also have realized this week how important it is to learn a little more about the culture of Malawi before I get that. Is it appropriate to wear my hair down or is up more acceptable, how do you handle greetings, how do you act around people of the opposite gender. I have a few more things to explore beyond the wearing of long skirts.

This week I have talked to a few people who have visited Blantyre fairly recently. I got a few tidbits of information to add to my meager store of knowledge. One piece is that I will probably only have access to about 8 hours of electricity a day. I was hoping and believing it might be more like 20 hours a day. I can deal with that but it's an adjustment to my thought process.

I also am adjusting my thoughts about laundry. I believe I will have access to a washing machine. I have very minimal hope of a dryer. I have heard differing reports and am wondering what the true story is about bugs laying eggs in my wet clothes while they are drying. This is a real issue and they supposedly hatch and burrow into your skin. Not a pleasant thought. Some say drying clothes indoors prevents this completely, some say no no no you must iron everything to include socks and undergarments if you don't dry in a machine. Humm this seems like something I need to know.

Trying to wrap my mind around all this is a challenge. However this weekend I have been reminded that my identity is in Christ. Lacrae performs a pretty striking song about this. The chorus is

I'm not the shoes I wear
I'm not the clothes I buy
I'm not the house I live in
I'm not the car I drive, no

I'm not the job I work
You can't define my worth
By nothing on God's green earth
My identity is found in Christ, is found in Christ

However I have to dig deeper and rest more securely in Christ then just my shoes and clothes. . .
I have to define my whole self in HIM in a way that cannot be shaken by my new culture, my diverse work mates and team or anything else I come up against in my new home.

I'll Get By with a Little Help from my Friends

The refrain from this Beetles classic has run through my mind a lot in the past week or so. I need somebody to love and someone to love me. However I don't get high with my friends except on life.

I have been overwhelmed by the love and support, help and hard work of many friends and my practical and giving sister-in-law this past week. It seems that I needed a lot of support to get through the remaining stuff in my home. What do I really do with the 7 boxes of open kleenex throughout my home. Why did they even exist. How many potentially usable items can be thrown away when I know I am going some where, were there is little if anything available to waste. And how do I really cut down my belongings to a minimum and know what that minimum is?

Friday evening we were able to enjoy food and fellowship with many friends from our life and small group bible study which has evolved over the 20+ years we have been involved with hosting it. I truly felt loved and cherished by the people that shared food, fellowship, and prayers with us.

Saturday was to be the last day of our life in our home. 7 braves souls ventured to my home not knowing what they were getting into. I honestly thought that I had things in pretty fair order and not that many decisions left to make. Thought we could be done and out of the house by noon. These good friends worked hard to help us finish packing the final items from our home, cleaning a few more areas, washing out cupboards and often telling me to finish every last item in a random pile of things I didn't know how to decide on a fate for. Coming at 8 in the morning and working til 4 in the afternoon is a very very long day and I don't think I can even begin to express how very thankful I am for the service they did for us.

We made it to Sioux Falls around midnight last night. I was able to get a decent nights sleep, remarkably in my own bed which is now in my daughter's guest room. I was able to attend the dedication of my granddaughter Lydia this morning and enjoy church.

My thoughts and focus have not quite caught up with reality right now but I was challenged by  pastor Jeff Wheeler's sermon today which was profound enough to cut through my deeply embedded brain fog this morning. He preached on the story of Rahab the Harlot. How many years I have taught this story and the story of the fall of Jericho which follows this to countless Sunday School classes. I have never thought of Rahab as an evangelist before. Rahab believed in the God of the Isrealites. She put out the scarlet cord, but I have never considered that she had no real time frame of when the Isrealites would return to take Jericho. It could be in a day, or 3 days or 3 weeks. The pastor's estimation was three weeks.  She got her family there. She had to tell them coming to her house was the only way (like Jesus is the only way) she had to convince them this God she now accepted was for real and they must do as she bid.

I can think of this on so many levels and ways. My friends came at a time when my need was urgent this week. Jesus came to me when I was so lost in myself. God is sending me at a time when I feel there is an urgent need in Malawi. But the most urgent need of all is for people to know Jesus and God the father who sent him so that their lives might be saved into eternity.

No pictures today but picture someone you know who is lost. We don't know when Christ will come. Share with the urgency Rahab must have felt.

Sometimes It's hard to do everything or anything at all

4 days, just 4 days, that is how long I will live in my home now.
Wow. I can't even wrap my mind around this idea.

Our past few weeks have been a bit much.
We traveled from Ontario home via McHenry, IL and my sister's home.
The next weekend we were to go to a family weekend in Minneapolis, St.Paul, area of MN.
This was to be a refreshing break. Honestly it was in many ways but it was tainted with a great deal of sorrow as well.

My daughters and I planned to go to Newsies at the Chanhassen. Always a treat for us. My dear friend Chris was going to join us. Saturday we planned to attend a Twin's baseball game and join my friend and her mom for supper at her mom's apartment. She would cook for us. She went grocery shopping after work on Thursday and got groceries for her mom and our dinner that weekend. While bringing these groceries into her mom's place, she collapsed on the floor and died. She was but 55. Younger then I am.

Now there a lot of things that are good. She was a wonderful Christ follower. I know she is with Jesus. She is healthy again. I have been inspired by the strength and faith of her mother. My whole family was able to spend some quality time with her mom. We attended her funeral on this past Wed. I was able to spend some time with friends and to celebrate the good things in her life and catch up with what was going on in these friends lives.

However back at my Bismarck home I now was two days further behind. Now that is hard but because of this I now have to work hard but also have to ask for the help of others. I think this is good. I have been blessed because there are people in my life who want to reach out and help us.

So I am here at home working on homework tonight, having gone through reams more things through out my house today with the help of a good friend and later in the day my sister in law and tonight a visit from good friends here to pick up some random items that they wanted from my house and bring us a treat from our local Dairy Queen.

I need breaks now, I need cheerleaders egging me on to get the job done, and I need time with God to refresh my spirit. With a little help from God and my friends and family I am getting things done steadily even though it's pretty hard this week.

What time is it?

The past 10 days we have been in Cambridge Ontario.
We are taking a class about entering a new culture.
We have talked about a lot of things. We talked about being settled, becoming unsettled, going through stages of acclimation and settling again.
We have talked about how you feel moving into a new culture.
We have talked about how you feel coming home again. Your culture changes overseas.
We have talked about needing to say goodbyes.
So where does that leave us now? What time is it?

We should be on the ground in Malawi in less then 3 months. That is fast.
We are here in Ontario for 4 more days and spending the weekend with my sister north of Chicago.
We will be home in our house only 13-15 days before we close and head to Charlotte for  more training. After that we have 5 weeks of basically doing some reading and planning and spending time with our kids and say good byes to those we wont see for a long time.

It's been a thoughtful time the past week +. We have been busy getting through our home and preparing it for sale. I have been trying to figure out what  to do with the rest of the stuff in our home. So much food, and now the remaining "stuff" that got tossed in closets has to be cleared out. What I have realized is that I have worked hard on getting physically ready to leave, I have done the required things for training, spiritually and mentally. I have a few books left to work through but it's coming. Mostly I am realizing that I have prepared physically to leave and to arrive in Malawi, but I have only prepared spiritually and emotionally to arrive in Malawi and have not gotten ready to leave emotionally. I have only thought about missing my children and precious grand baby. I haven't really thought that much about leaving familiar people/church/food/life.

I am guessing I have to figure out how to say goodbye and get my feelings of grief about what I am leaving behind processed so I will be ready to engage in my new home and culture.

Convenience

So we have an over range microwave. Not an uncommon thing however the one we have had for what seems like a few short years has been twitchy for a while. Google sources would indicate that it has to do with moisture from boiling pots on the stove getting into the controls and sensors. My husband had dismantled it and cleaned the sensors in the past and it magically came back to life.
Not so this time.
Not an uncommon thing as it seems that appliances of the more recent years don't last as long as they used to. We talked about what/how to replace it and I was pretty adamant we do it that day. I found one at Lowes for an incredibly good price which was nice.
Now it really did need to be replaced and needed to be done quickly. We are preparing to sell our home and I am not thinking it will sell well with a dead microwave about the stove. But did it really need to be done at that moment?
While waiting for the clerk to find and pull my new microwave from the warehouse a lady came in and sat down and said, how long would you be able to do without your fridge. Seems they had ordered a fridge and it was supposed to be delivered that day and they got a call that it would be another 2 weeks. The question made me think.

When we go to Africa our kitchen will not have appliances like the first picture, I am thankful that my kitchen will likely have better walls then the second though likely small appliances like these and probably older.
I know from experience electricity in Malawi will be less then reliable. There will probably be regular enough electricity to keep the food in a refrigerator cool enough to be safe. I will probably have a microwave that is low powered but will cook oatmeal for me in the morning. I will have to bake cookies a few at a time in a small apartment size stove. I would never consider this adequate here. But I feel fortunate that our electricity is likely to be off only short periods of time that we will have a kitchen with a solid floor and running water that is relatively safe. We will have to filter our drinking and cooking water but no real concerns about showering etc.
So why do I find it so hard to live with less then ultimate convenience here?
I may never understand that, but I certainly find myself pretty shallow some days. This past Friday I read a couple of articles or essays written by Hudson Taylor. He set aside his feather bed and began to lead a simpler life immeadiatly when he felt called to China. He also began to exercise more and to pursue anything he could find to make him more ready for ministry in China.
So I think about this and wonder what else I should be doing to be more ready for our time in Malawi. I read and study, and we continue to eliminate belongings however it seems small compared to the great sacrifices pioneer missionaries made, heading to the field with belongings packed in a casket, being fairly certain they would not see their families again. I am as certain as is humanly possible that I will see my family again. I will be able to see pictures of our beautiful granddaughter as she grows and to hear her gurgles and first words via video
So this has more questions then answers. Things to ponder. Things to consider as we continue on our journey and know we will live a simpler life soon.

Packing up the Dreams God's Planted

The above is a line from the Micheal W. Smith hit "Friends". Probably dates me a bit but it seems fitting.
I have had a huge break from writing my blogs and it seems time to get back to it.
So much of our life right know consists of packing up our life here in Bismarck. This has been and continues to be a challenge for us as we are both "keepers" by nature and I am a collector.
Saw a note on facebook today that suggested everyone will have a box of cords and cables by age 35 that they are unsure of the origin of but are saving because the might need them someday. I guess we are past someday and we are also well past 35 and all those cables really do have to go now. So we had the great American Garage Sale and now we pack stuff in boxes and haul to a local independent thrift store which does some good work in our area. Those boxes contain dreams from days past. However with each box we get closer to our dream for our future.

We are taking a class right now called "Perspectives of the Modern Christian Movement". If you want to be motivated toward world missions or just learn more about rational and calling for/to missions this would be a great course for you to take. It's available online and it will challenge you. We have looked at verses that show God's plan to bless and redeem the whole world from Genesis and on through the old testament, we have looked at God's desire to be glorified by people from every tongue, tribe and nation, and the variety of worship styles and ways that different cultures will use to glorify God and how that is part of his desire. For me the content of this class has helped cement my understanding of missions and my calling,
So soon, it gets sooner every day we will be packing up those future dreams and taking them with us to Blantyre Malawi.
Our schedule the next couple of months is pretty hectic. We are finalizing preparation of our home for sale, a market analysis is in progress, and it will go on the market next week.
Wed. June 6th is Ted's official retirement date.
We have a weekend trip to Ted's home town, Langdon, or the Langdon area next weekend. Then midway through the next week we leave to go visiting and head to Toronto to take a class called IMPACT which is designed to teach us how to enter a new culture well. We will visit some again on the way back and have a couple weeks at home before we fly to Charlotte, NC for our final required SIM training. That is done August 1 but we plan to spend extra time at the headquarters of SIM to get some computer training on how to use their software.
At that point we should be ready to embark to Malawi. Our actual departure date will depend on the processing or our Temporary Employment Permits. Those being acquired will be the green light to travel.
If you have time to pray for our diligence and perseverance and for the processing of our paper work by the Malawi Government we greatly covet that.