The end of rainy season is the time when I feel most worn-out in this ministry. Days are long, literally and figuratively, sometimes with company at the house until after 7. Then there are still workouts to do, supper to cook, dishes to clean up–all that followed by falling into bed to get ready to do it all again.
Add to the typical rainy season busyness the fact that Rachel and I are both getting ready to go on furlough, which seems to be notching everything up a level on the crazy-scale. We just bought a huge collection of beads for one of our outreach projects (read more about that here) and are still busy with the details from that. We are packing up the house so that our new coworkers can stay here while they finish up their home. I am getting ready for a month-long literacy workshop right before I head stateside. The beginning of a school year means the need for all sorts of copies and we have the only copier in town.
I usually don’t handle this kind of craziness well. I’m sure I’m still not as collected as I should be. But over the last few weeks I keep seeing glimpses of how good our Father is. One of the believing ladies prayed for another store to buy our beaded products: that same day someone wrote me with an order, which is why there are extra details to handle. He is Good.
The water, which sometimes doesn’t make it to our house for 6 or so months in a row has been running every day. No hauling, no scrimping, and every cleaning job is just one step easier.
Our visas, which were at a several month standstill in some office, have re-emerged, finished, and ready to be picked up before heading to the US on home assignment.
I had earmarked an extra month of time in order to finish up my literacy class, anticipating that the women would miss often this month, as they did last year at this time because of the beginning of school responsibilities. But God gave us grace with some of the teachers, who excused them in order to finish their studies at my house, and organized the women’s work days so that they could get to class on time. Truly, a miracle.
That is certainly not the whole picture–there are many more examples. But over and over again, I realize how we are cared for, protected, cherished, given gifts just for the sake of his great love for us. God grant that my sense of gratitude and my obedience be in keeping with His great love and the reality that He is good.