I am still waiting on curriculum to arrive. But have enough to put something together until it does. I have two new helpers with YWAM. We met yesterday and are meeting again today to get a few things ready. I have moved to the other base so pray the scooter holds up. Heidi told me they only last about a year. It ran out of gas yesterday. It was my fault, as it usually is when one runs out of gas. The funny thing was in the moment when I looked at the gauge to determine if it was on caution yellow or stop red, I thought, “no one fills up here, this thing was made to run off fumes”, it came to a slow puttering halt. Evidently the needle was more on red than yellow. The miraculous thing was that it puttered to a halt in front of a restaurant where I know the owner. I never leave my wallet or phone behind but had this time. I was helpless. She gave me the keys to her car and a gas can and I was able to get my wallet and gas. She saved me a whole lot of walking.
Rainy season is upon us. It rained yesterday and the day before. It makes all sorts of frogs and insects come out and the roads slick with mud and full of puddles. My roof leaks.
I got a whole slew of cards in the mail! Thank you Granny McCarley, Jenny Bell, Laura, Mom and Christine. I love them! I have them strewn all over the house and love the Christmas ones and the photos of your beautiful faces. Christine put gum in her cards. Laura put chia seeds. I love getting to look at you every day. Keep them coming!
I am already a little apprehensive about the fact that I have to come home. I see it partly as an interruption and inconvenience as I have things that need to be done here. Obviously my next 6 months stay in Mozambique will be more productive in that I won’t be spending the first 3 months settling in and can hit the ground running. Yet, April will be here so quickly. And yes, of course, I want to come home to all of you, but the transition can be more of a rude awakening than a nice trip. Going from here to there is not easy. Getting jerked from one culture to the other can leave you dizzy.
I have been reading and listening to a lot lately about dreams. I stumbled upon an old sermon about Dreams and put it on last Saturday morning. I found a paperback book here titled “Money and the Prosperous Soul” that included a chapter entitled Dreams. In the sermon the pastor said that most people spend their whole lives living someone else’s dream. I spent ten years serving men and women who dreamed of becoming elected officials. I spent a year serving men and women who dreamed of being a member of Cherokee Town and Country Club. Now it is my turn and I get to walk out this dream, the one that is mine. He also went on to say that in some context we weren’t even God’s first choice! I know I wasn’t. I know that so many others could serve much better in this capacity. I would not doubt that He asked a few others and they weren’t interested. In His Sovereignty they never miss their destiny, nor I mine. But I am fully aware that I was just a yielded vessel who said yes.
As I count down the days to school, I daily have to change my approach. I have to scratch one thing and recreate another. I am having to open my mind to something new each day and what this is going to look like. I am learning that so much of it comes out of a place of rest and not really striving. (Note here I have to say the word “really” in front of “striving” because I myself am yet convinced that striving is not productive). Much of it occurs through what one might call happenstance. Historian Thomas Cahill said “Leisure is the necessary ground of creativity, and a free people are free to imitate the creativity of God”. Maybe this is a bit of a stretch but I am seeing it every day and I am learning it while I am here. Here leisure includes relationship and creativity includes productivity. I am learning that getting what I need in most every area comes when I am yielded, rested, at peace. I could quite easily become overwhelmed with all that needs to be done to start the school. I make the long lists of things I need in my head and I become instantly overwhelmed. I pick a few things off the top of the list and I pray them out loud. Most every day the answers come and every time out of a place of rest. Often just walking from one place to the other on base brings about the one person I need to see or creates a conversation that meets a need. I am beginning to wonder just what could happen if I truly laid it all down. I love my lists and plans and 26 week lesson syllabus. But I am beginning to wonder if even that will work. Mozambicans are masters at relationship and patience. What, to me, looks like just milling about is actually quite productive. I have a lot to learn.
Just yesterday the foot starter thingy on the scooter broke. It has been breaking off and I keep a large rock underneath the seat to bang it back on every now and then. This time it came all the way off and a guy saw it fall of and came to help me. I wanted to just hammer it back on and be on my way. But he insisted that I come and get it fixed. We rolled it over to the mechanic shop on base. Not one person was working and they were all chatting. He came and joined the circle of men and sat and talked with them as I stood there impatiently. After a few minutes he came and told me that the man with the key to the tool box was not there but he would come. That man never came but another guy came who knew a guy, who knew a guy who might have the key. After about 15 minutes of not one person standing up but lots of chit chat on wooden benches and leaning on motorcycles, a guy came out of nowhere with a tiny wrench, tightened my foot starter thingy and I was on my way. Then 3 kilometers later, Miss Striving ran out of gas! Oh, the irony. I am learning.
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