Rhythm of Life

Kevin's newfound chameleon friend.

The kids love to ride on top of the van when we are going short distances around New Hope. Here they are with our neighbors, Jesse and Joshua.

The annual New Year's Day potluck at the Anderson's. A great time of fellowship and good eats!!

Uncle Stu, who is now heading up the baby house ministry with his wife, Sarah. They are such a blessing to New Hope and the babies we care for!

When a vehicle moves, many come running for a ride!! Over capacity is how we move in the village!!

Good morning snuggles from our early riser! He wakes up happy and making jokes!!!

Dinner last night with the newly returned McFarland's!!!!! Staff who have been away on furlough and/or the holidays are returning and the place is getting noisy again!!! Hallelujah!

Here’s another snippet of how we, living in a foreign country, come face to face with a different rhythm of life:

How would you react if you were told that the item you ordered was ready, but when you attempted to retrieve it you were then told, by the same person, that it was not actually ready for pick-up. Before you answer completely, let’s add more components to the mix: You had to drive more than an hour into town and then fight chaotic traffic before the person bothered to inform you of their mistake (read, “lie”); the one who bought your old item had made special arrangements to receive it, but then had to wait; you had to schedule yet another trip into town, with hopes (and doubts) that it would truly be finished!

Let’s present another scenario: You travel early in the day from your remote village and into the city. Once there, you maneuver your way across traffic to make an order for paint. The sales person tells you it will be ready at 1 p.m. You get busy with other obligations and at 3 p.m. you call to check on the status. The sales person informs you that the paint is ready, so you fight traffic all the way back across town (with tired children in tow). When you arrive at the paint store the sales person (same one) tells you there is “no way it can be ready today, come back tomorrow!” How did we react??? We demanded our money back and never returned again to the store. (Keep in mind, that to return the next day is practically impossible being that we live far out from the city and have many events and responsibilities with the ministry daily—we schedule a trip into town about once a month as it is expensive (financially and timewise).

So, how did we react in the first situation? We could do nothing else but to wait. Of course, we told the owner that she would be deducting off the price the cost of our transportation for having to make an extra trip back into town. My main reaction was impatience with myself for having fallen again for the promise of ready goods. I’m not sure why this is a common situation here. Many in this culture fear confrontation and will avoid it at all costs. So, I’m wondering, is it considered a “confrontation” to tell someone “No, it’s not ready.”? But, if they tell us on the phone it is ready in an effort to avoid having to say, “No, it’s not ready,” how does that avoid the confrontation in person when we arrive and find the contrary??? I can’t suppose I will sort this all out anytime soon, but the longer we live here the more I learn about the intricacies of relational interaction. I pray that with each new “lesson” I react with patience.

Today is the day Geoff made yet another trip into town to pick up a new bed. We can’t just go in whenever we want: Geoff has to schedule around meetings with management, elders, vocational school, personal mentoring, and timber/maize mill obligations. He would never go in JUST to pick up a bed, but has to wait until the trip is WORTHWHILE on all accounts!!! So, he waited until there was other ministry business to be done and combined many duties into one daytrip. He called the furniture place this a.m. to make sure (again, how sure can we be? . . .) that the bed is ready. She assured him that it is indeed ready. We’ll see.