I have had so much on my mind lately that I just shut down and do nothing. My house is a mess because I have started projects and then got distracted and never finished them. We have one more week of our Homeschool Co-op. I teach a Critical Thinking class so there are papers to be graded and I need to come up with a final grade for the 14 students in my class. Thankfully, Drew has decided that helping me grade papers would keep me sane. Last week I was stressing out trying to get all of our visa applications organized, it was not an easy task. The visa application is sent, along with our passports, so now we just wait for them to return. I have had numerous blogs fly through my mind but have not had time to capture them, so unfortunately most of them are gone forever. With 4 weeks to go until our departure, I am attempting to take one day at a time. That being said, I am very distracted by thoughts of Africa and preparations that need to be made. My brain is divided by what needs to happen to function today and my daydreaming about my future reality.
One of the great unknowns about our trip has to do with what happens once our team heads home. Usually when you are with a team, a cook is provided and you are well cared for. I was anticipating that I will feed my family as I do here in Minnesota. At first I was getting a little distressed about what this would look like and thinking I might want to hire a cook for our family. It could have to do with the fact that Kerry Bender has been to Ndu and told me about buying a lamb at the market, walking it home, feeding it for a few days and his daughter naming it. Then one day, they (the locals) slaughtered the lamb and that was supper. I love to cook from scratch but I have never gone that far back to the "natural". The thought of killing my supper does freak me out a little. I dealt with it by assuming there will be no way they could possibly expect me to cook under such conditions, so they must be providing a cook. That would not be an unusual thing at all in Africa and it would actually help whoever we hired to earn some money for their family.
About a week ago, in the same email that gave the wonderful news that our housing would be half of what we had expected, there was a short note about me "not needing a cook". Those words left me trembling. I was talking to my computer even - "What do you mean, I don't need a cook?" When I had finally composed myself, I simply replied that I couldn't possible kill my supper. The answer I received left me somewhat relieved when I was advised that indeed I would not have to kill my supper. After breathing a sigh of relief, I started wondering exactly what that means. I envisioned how my cat leaves his "treasures" on our door step and wondered if I would find a carcass of some kind waiting for me to skin it and make stew. I'm guessing not, but that is how my imagination goes.
Once I got over myself (again), I started thinking about how our full house has been preparing me for this all along. I would say most of the meals I make are what I call "experimental cooking". I love to throw things together and use my favorite spices. My family is very encouraging and most meals get the thumbs up. Their biggest complaint is that I can't usually make the same meal twice. Kyle keeps telling me to make my own cookbook. I haven't had that same response from people outside of my home but I'm thankful my kids will eat anything I put before them. I've been flipping through magazines and cookbooks feeling very inspired and excited to try my hand at African cooking.
As with most things concerning our upcoming trip to Cameroon, I have had to process and in the end I've come to a point of embracing that which I feared. I think at this point I will be very disappointed if I am not cooking at least for my immediate family. I look forward to finding unique treasures of local vegetables and fruits and creating some amazing meals. The best part is, I will have my family surrounding me, hopefully with double "thumbs up".
African outfits
Our crazy family
Showing posts with label encouragement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label encouragement. Show all posts
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Provision My Way
Yesterday I shared how God has been providing for us in some amazing ways over the years, but more specifically leading up to our trip to Africa. I am an idea person, so when we first started realizing just how much this trip would cost, my mind started thinking of different ways to make it happen.
Earlier this year "Minute to Win It" was in town looking for people to be on their show. We don't even watch the show usually because it is on Wednesday nights and we are at AWANA on Wednesday nights. A few times we have caught the end of the show or watched it on some of the free Wednesday nights we had. If you have never seen the show, the contestants do all kinds of crazy games/competitions and each time they successfully complete the challenge they move up a level. Each challenge has a dollar amount and you can win lots and lots of money. When I heard about the local auditions I shot them an email. For whatever reason, I got a reply email with an invitation to audition with my family and a VIP pass so we could move to the head of the line. I was so excited and completely sure that God was going to let us get on the show. I figured we could give God glory since we had a good reason for wanting the money. It would also be a quick and easy way to have all the funds we needed and maybe some leftover too. I liked the idea of an easy solution to our money dilemma.
Things got crazy around here for a while. We checked out the "Minute to Win It" web site for all the different challenges that had been done. We set up stations so we could practice all the different games. I have to admit, I was terrible at all of them. I was too impatient to bounce a pencil in a cup or get a cookie from my forehead to my mouth. I wanted to get on the show because it sounded like an easy way to get to Africa but I really didn't want to practice so that I would be ready. Thankfully, my kids were great at almost every challenge they tried. Although they were having trouble getting a playing card to lodge itself into a watermelon by throwing it from 3 feet away. I'm still finding cards in random places in my basement. I was feeling a little nervous because we wanted to be good examples since we were using our money for missions. All the competition brought out some pretty ugly parts of our character and we hadn't even left our home. We laughed a lot too as we stacked Oreos on our foreheads and did other crazy stunts. We put everything else on hold as we worked on our training, not knowing exactly what would be expected of us at the auditions.
The day of the auditions finally arrived and we headed out to the furniture store where auditions were being held. Our 10 page application was all filled out and we had our matching shirts to boot. The store was overflowing with people and once inside the door the line of contestant hopefuls wound and wound throughout the store, they would have a long wait ahead of them. With our pass we awkwardly walked past all these staring eyes to the front of the line. Everyone else had only one page applications so we felt pretty good about our chances. The "audition" was over in about 30 seconds and we were walking out the door. That was very anti-climatic but we were all so thankful that we were not part of the crowd waiting all day in line to have the same experience.We never heard from "Minute to Win It" again. All that practicing for nothing except to annoy me whenever I find another ping pong ball, or card, or cup with holes in it, in a cupboard or under furniture. It was kind of a waste of time in the end.
Thinking about that experience showed me just how easy it is to get our eyes off of what God intends for us and that which is fun or will make life easy. I wanted to "win big" for a good cause but in doing so I would have missed so much. The people who have been praying for us for months probably wouldn't be, since most of these people knew what we were doing from our support letter. Our family has been so touched by the sense of community we have had knowing people are investing in us on our journey, both financially and through prayer. Practicing for "Minute to Win It" would not have prepared us for what we will be doing in Africa. However, working on remodeling the house that we helped "flip" was great preparation for all of us (since we will be doing construction projects). We have had lots of opportunity to work together as a team and support one another. Our character has grown as we have had to work harder than we ever have before and persevere to the end.
"God's ways are higher than our ways" and I've found that to be true. We are winners! My faith has grown leaps and bounds this year as I've seen first hand God's faithfulness. My kids wanted to be on "Minute to Win It" because they have never been on an airplane. They will get to be on an airplane for a VERY long time and God used our hard work, along with big and small gifts and lots of prayer from our friends.
Earlier this year "Minute to Win It" was in town looking for people to be on their show. We don't even watch the show usually because it is on Wednesday nights and we are at AWANA on Wednesday nights. A few times we have caught the end of the show or watched it on some of the free Wednesday nights we had. If you have never seen the show, the contestants do all kinds of crazy games/competitions and each time they successfully complete the challenge they move up a level. Each challenge has a dollar amount and you can win lots and lots of money. When I heard about the local auditions I shot them an email. For whatever reason, I got a reply email with an invitation to audition with my family and a VIP pass so we could move to the head of the line. I was so excited and completely sure that God was going to let us get on the show. I figured we could give God glory since we had a good reason for wanting the money. It would also be a quick and easy way to have all the funds we needed and maybe some leftover too. I liked the idea of an easy solution to our money dilemma.
Things got crazy around here for a while. We checked out the "Minute to Win It" web site for all the different challenges that had been done. We set up stations so we could practice all the different games. I have to admit, I was terrible at all of them. I was too impatient to bounce a pencil in a cup or get a cookie from my forehead to my mouth. I wanted to get on the show because it sounded like an easy way to get to Africa but I really didn't want to practice so that I would be ready. Thankfully, my kids were great at almost every challenge they tried. Although they were having trouble getting a playing card to lodge itself into a watermelon by throwing it from 3 feet away. I'm still finding cards in random places in my basement. I was feeling a little nervous because we wanted to be good examples since we were using our money for missions. All the competition brought out some pretty ugly parts of our character and we hadn't even left our home. We laughed a lot too as we stacked Oreos on our foreheads and did other crazy stunts. We put everything else on hold as we worked on our training, not knowing exactly what would be expected of us at the auditions.
The day of the auditions finally arrived and we headed out to the furniture store where auditions were being held. Our 10 page application was all filled out and we had our matching shirts to boot. The store was overflowing with people and once inside the door the line of contestant hopefuls wound and wound throughout the store, they would have a long wait ahead of them. With our pass we awkwardly walked past all these staring eyes to the front of the line. Everyone else had only one page applications so we felt pretty good about our chances. The "audition" was over in about 30 seconds and we were walking out the door. That was very anti-climatic but we were all so thankful that we were not part of the crowd waiting all day in line to have the same experience.We never heard from "Minute to Win It" again. All that practicing for nothing except to annoy me whenever I find another ping pong ball, or card, or cup with holes in it, in a cupboard or under furniture. It was kind of a waste of time in the end.
Thinking about that experience showed me just how easy it is to get our eyes off of what God intends for us and that which is fun or will make life easy. I wanted to "win big" for a good cause but in doing so I would have missed so much. The people who have been praying for us for months probably wouldn't be, since most of these people knew what we were doing from our support letter. Our family has been so touched by the sense of community we have had knowing people are investing in us on our journey, both financially and through prayer. Practicing for "Minute to Win It" would not have prepared us for what we will be doing in Africa. However, working on remodeling the house that we helped "flip" was great preparation for all of us (since we will be doing construction projects). We have had lots of opportunity to work together as a team and support one another. Our character has grown as we have had to work harder than we ever have before and persevere to the end.
"God's ways are higher than our ways" and I've found that to be true. We are winners! My faith has grown leaps and bounds this year as I've seen first hand God's faithfulness. My kids wanted to be on "Minute to Win It" because they have never been on an airplane. They will get to be on an airplane for a VERY long time and God used our hard work, along with big and small gifts and lots of prayer from our friends.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
A Blog about Blogging
Originally I wanted to blog because so many people had been asking how I would communicate while we were in Africa. I thought I should get the hang of it before leaving since I would probably have more time and electricity to do that here in MN. Occasionally I would read other blogs but I didn't actually follow any one blogger, I just read what happened to come across my path. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
The more I blog the more I find myself interested in what others are blogging about. I have one friend that has a blog a day. I have no idea how she can come up with something interesting every day but somehow she does. I sometimes have to wait until the end of the day to see what she has to say because she is waiting for a burst of inspiration but she never fails me. Her mind is as random as mine so you never know what you will get. She inspires me with her writing because I can see how some seemingly irrelevant thing will resonate with me, maybe my blog is doing the same to others.
Blogging is a little like scrapbooking but with words. When I first start scrapbooking, I would see everything I did in life through the lens of a camera and what that would look like on a page. Now as things happen in my day, I jot myself a note of what's happening if I think it might be blogger worthy at some point. It does become a bit obsessive at times. I can focus too much on how many people have read certain articles or if anyone bothered. Sometimes I think I have something really important to share and just a few people take note. I wonder what it is that will draw their attention, and laugh when it is "deep" things like toilets around the world. I shared thoughts about missing my Mom, since I know that many of my friends have also lost their Moms and could relate to the feelings that I was having that day. I guess that was too deep of a subject because very few even read it and the ones that did probably thought I was depressed or something. Grief is weird, it shows up occasionally when you aren't expecting it and I chose to expose myself in hopes that it would encourage even one person going through a similar time.
The thing that has surprised me the most is how many people have told me certain things I have written have touched them or encouraged them. I shouldn't be surprised because I have been encouraged by others in the same way. I'm surprised sometimes by how much I have in common with events from other peoples lives. I have had people comment on that about my blogs too, that they have been through the same thing or felt the same way or wanted to do the same thing that my family is doing or has done. It's when I am the most transparent about myself that what I say resonates the most with a reader. It's scary at times to be truly transparent and exposed. I run the risk of judgement or being misunderstood by someone who is only getting a small glimpse into my life. I think of that when I am reading other blogs, that I am just getting one snap shot and not read too much into that little piece of their life.
So fellow bloggers, keep up the good work! Your words have encouraged me, they have made me laugh. Your words have given me food for thought as well as ideas for actual food/menu plans. You have shared God's Word when I have needed it. You have given me fresh ideas and insight into my homeschool day. You have reminded me of all I have to be thankful for and blogging has given me a place to share that.
The more I blog the more I find myself interested in what others are blogging about. I have one friend that has a blog a day. I have no idea how she can come up with something interesting every day but somehow she does. I sometimes have to wait until the end of the day to see what she has to say because she is waiting for a burst of inspiration but she never fails me. Her mind is as random as mine so you never know what you will get. She inspires me with her writing because I can see how some seemingly irrelevant thing will resonate with me, maybe my blog is doing the same to others.
Blogging is a little like scrapbooking but with words. When I first start scrapbooking, I would see everything I did in life through the lens of a camera and what that would look like on a page. Now as things happen in my day, I jot myself a note of what's happening if I think it might be blogger worthy at some point. It does become a bit obsessive at times. I can focus too much on how many people have read certain articles or if anyone bothered. Sometimes I think I have something really important to share and just a few people take note. I wonder what it is that will draw their attention, and laugh when it is "deep" things like toilets around the world. I shared thoughts about missing my Mom, since I know that many of my friends have also lost their Moms and could relate to the feelings that I was having that day. I guess that was too deep of a subject because very few even read it and the ones that did probably thought I was depressed or something. Grief is weird, it shows up occasionally when you aren't expecting it and I chose to expose myself in hopes that it would encourage even one person going through a similar time.
The thing that has surprised me the most is how many people have told me certain things I have written have touched them or encouraged them. I shouldn't be surprised because I have been encouraged by others in the same way. I'm surprised sometimes by how much I have in common with events from other peoples lives. I have had people comment on that about my blogs too, that they have been through the same thing or felt the same way or wanted to do the same thing that my family is doing or has done. It's when I am the most transparent about myself that what I say resonates the most with a reader. It's scary at times to be truly transparent and exposed. I run the risk of judgement or being misunderstood by someone who is only getting a small glimpse into my life. I think of that when I am reading other blogs, that I am just getting one snap shot and not read too much into that little piece of their life.
So fellow bloggers, keep up the good work! Your words have encouraged me, they have made me laugh. Your words have given me food for thought as well as ideas for actual food/menu plans. You have shared God's Word when I have needed it. You have given me fresh ideas and insight into my homeschool day. You have reminded me of all I have to be thankful for and blogging has given me a place to share that.
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