The wooden spoon

I have taken back the reins of Valerie's blog she started.  Yes we did allow one guest appearance, and yes is was rather gushy, but now back to serious business.  I did appreciate all that she put on the blog and the fact that I did not have to do it for a day.  Sometimes it is rather tiring, by the time we get the little ones down.  The true reality is that I could not do this without her.  She has inspired me throughout our years together and I am who I am because of her support.

Without further waiting I will move on the the pressing matters of the day.  Today we fasted until dinner.  Okay, Valerie made it all the way, I had to snack, because I thought I was going to play in the pool with the girls.  By the time dinner came we were so thankful for all that we had to eat.  I must say I am rather impressed by the Muslim culture and how they fast for 30 days each year.  It is a hard thing to do with children.

We had our typical day minus our lovely neighbors.  They moved on due to overcrowding in our quaint box that we are renting.  That is a fancy way of saying they were no rooms available at the inn, because they had to stay longer than anticipated.  It was pretty much  a bummer for all.  At least we can still email and call on our local phones to stay in touch.  Unfortunately for them their new pad is not as nice.  We really were sad to see them go.

We found out today that our agency is pushing for our visas to be done quickly.  We don't know what this really means.  We know that that the lady in charge of our case moves from her post on Wednesday or Thursday.  We are hoping that it does not get lost in her her absence.  As always, please continue to pray for this.  The quicker this is done, the sooner we move towards home.

Please also pray for Sheresa, our ex-neighbor.  She is long over due for going home and needs to be reunited with her family.  She also needs to wash her clothes.  I am not sure which is more pertinent at this point, but she just needs to go home.

So here comes the spiritual side.


In our room we have a kitchenette.  We cook here daily.  Now I can not say that we have the most up to date cooking utensils, or cookware, but we can cook.  As I have noted we eat Indian food most nights.  Sometimes we have eggs in the morning.  Eggs are great.  Eggs provide a lot of nutrition, but of course you need a way to cook them.

We have a skillet.  We have a wooden spoon and a few other assorted utensils, but no spatula.  When I make my eggs I like to fold them as I would an omelet.  They get really thick and the egg seems to go further when dividing it up.  Kind of like the feeding of 5000, but way smaller.  Okay, just 4 of us.  Anyway, I normally use the wooden spoon.  I works, but it is not very appropriate.  In fact it is rather clunky.

This challenged me the other day.  I thought, how many times do I try to use something in my life that just does not work?  How many times do I try to man handle it into working and yet it just falls apart?  Its like taking a screwdriver instead of a key to the door.  It will work, but you are really going to mess things up.

So here I am working with my wooden spoon.  God, how many times do I try to use this in my daily life?  Why don't I use you to walk through life?  Do I really think that I am in control enough to leave you out of my daily life?

Now I pray, but do I pray enough?  Why is it that I pray for just the big things?  Does not Jesus tell us to pray for all things so that they can be submitted to his Father?  In Luke 18:1 Jesus tells his disciples to pray and never give up.  Never give up?  How many times have I thrown the towel in?  Maybe it was not God's will for it to happen, or maybe I just did not do what was needed to get it done.  If you think too hard about God's will vs yours it can be a challenge.

I am guessing that there are many times in which he just allows us to go our way until we finally see that He has been standing right next to us all the time saying "come follow me."  He won't push us.  Will he let us fall?  Heck yeah!!!

So here I am in the DRC with 2 little girls who don't know if they can trust me and I hold the wooden spoon