With time...and with God
So, it finally caught up with me. My attempts to avoid the traditional soup, sopa mondongo, finally failed. This exquisite dish is composed of cow's feet and intestines, things in another life I would have considered inedible. But I ate it. I can't say I liked it.....Perhaps with time....
With time, I am learning a lot of things--like how to wash dishes in a sink without running water, how to wash the majority of your clothes by hand, how to operate a washing machine that is not hooked up to water, how to survive when you only have running water twice a week (in Tegucigalpa, it was only twice a month), how to clean a recently killed chicken (another very stretching experience) and to survive in a complete Spanish environment. It is good, but tiring.
My time has been busy too--visiting people from the church, helping with special events (off to a Christmas concert this afternoon that the church is putting on), helping with youth group, helping with the election of the next women's directive, etc.
And there is a little fish that watches me as I bathe out of the pila and wash dishes from the pila (think big, big sink on the ground or a raised water container) who is very friendly. And a tree frog that lives just above the light in the bathroom--if you aren't careful, you grab him instead of the lightswitch when it is dark.
Above all, I am learning the importance of time. I am impatient--I want to do, do, do, to help, help, help. I am like a little child learning the simple steps here....how to make chismol, how to peel green bananas, how to do that and this. And it takes time to learn a language to the depth I want to learn it and to form relationships. There are no other missionaries in this area, and so it takes time to earn the trust of Hondurans. It takes time to learn their culture, to learn thier special words that no textbook can tell you, to learn which neighborhoods are hard to reach with the gospel, to learn which people are willing to work and help....But God is the God before and above time, who knows all the days, who has my days numbered, who knows the timing better than I do. God is the God who is active in my daily life. I have been reading Deutoronmy in order to prepare a study for the youth group here. It has been comforting--God is faithful, God has a plan far beyond what we can see, and God desires a loving relationship. He is the one who fights, who plans, who guides, who arranges the times....my job is to follow him in a close relationship and let that flow out into other relationships.
I've been struggling with impatience, but God is faithful in sending me reminders and encouragement. He truly is involved in each day, and so I can know that each moment is in his hands, and I pray to be faithful in each moment, in the little things. And he can take the little things and multiply them.
With God and in his time.....
With time, I am learning a lot of things--like how to wash dishes in a sink without running water, how to wash the majority of your clothes by hand, how to operate a washing machine that is not hooked up to water, how to survive when you only have running water twice a week (in Tegucigalpa, it was only twice a month), how to clean a recently killed chicken (another very stretching experience) and to survive in a complete Spanish environment. It is good, but tiring.
My time has been busy too--visiting people from the church, helping with special events (off to a Christmas concert this afternoon that the church is putting on), helping with youth group, helping with the election of the next women's directive, etc.
And there is a little fish that watches me as I bathe out of the pila and wash dishes from the pila (think big, big sink on the ground or a raised water container) who is very friendly. And a tree frog that lives just above the light in the bathroom--if you aren't careful, you grab him instead of the lightswitch when it is dark.
Above all, I am learning the importance of time. I am impatient--I want to do, do, do, to help, help, help. I am like a little child learning the simple steps here....how to make chismol, how to peel green bananas, how to do that and this. And it takes time to learn a language to the depth I want to learn it and to form relationships. There are no other missionaries in this area, and so it takes time to earn the trust of Hondurans. It takes time to learn their culture, to learn thier special words that no textbook can tell you, to learn which neighborhoods are hard to reach with the gospel, to learn which people are willing to work and help....But God is the God before and above time, who knows all the days, who has my days numbered, who knows the timing better than I do. God is the God who is active in my daily life. I have been reading Deutoronmy in order to prepare a study for the youth group here. It has been comforting--God is faithful, God has a plan far beyond what we can see, and God desires a loving relationship. He is the one who fights, who plans, who guides, who arranges the times....my job is to follow him in a close relationship and let that flow out into other relationships.
I've been struggling with impatience, but God is faithful in sending me reminders and encouragement. He truly is involved in each day, and so I can know that each moment is in his hands, and I pray to be faithful in each moment, in the little things. And he can take the little things and multiply them.
With God and in his time.....
Comments
Post a Comment