Saturday, October 29, 2011

Sharing

I guess that it was inevitable that I would be blessed with Dave's cold after so many sleepless nights hearing him snore. I guess that is what married life is all about --sharing! I don't think that he will have the same difficulty that I did with sleeping but that is probably a good thing with the work load that he has right now. Hopefully I will be able to kick this cold before our really busy stretch next month. Luckily the boys haven't caught it yet. Like most pre-teens they feel immune to those things and are more interested in fashion statements than warmth when dressing for school --maybe they have adapted to the climate of Canada better than the rest of us.

Please pray for Dave's work load and that I don't pass on this cold to anyone else as we travel. This week in addition to our regular routine we will be making an extra trip to the boys school to do a presentation on Niger for the other fifth grade immersion class and doing a presentation for the National Board of Administration for the Free Methodist Church.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Thankful

I thought this was published awhile ago, but I just found it my draft box I guess I can add computer malfunctioning to my week too...

I am so thankful to be living in this time in history in this country, mostly because I can see.
This week (Oct.5) I went to see if I was a candidate for laser eye surgery to correct my vision and even though the technology hasn't developed to the place where they can correct my -13 eyes. I was reminded that I have been on the cutting edge of technology with my eyes for most of my life. If I had been born in my grandmother's generation or in a less developed country I might be fumbling around with the foggy blurr that is my vision without the help of glasses or contacts,
This is just one of the many things that I am thankful for today, I am hoping that you are finding many things to be thankful for too as we draw near to Thanksgiving here in Canada,

One of THOSE weeks

I am having one of those weeks, which probably has a lot to do with the fact that I haven’t been getting a lot of sleep. Dave has had a head cold for the last two weeks and as a result has been doing a lot of snoring. So this morning I decided to take advantage of the fact that I wasn’t sleeping and the computer was free. This is my disclaimer if this is full of mistakes or doesn’t make much sense.

It is amazing how fatigue can affect your ability to cope. I found myself struggling with reverse culture shock so much more this week. I have been trying to come to terms with how much we have in Canada and how much money is used for various things in contrast with the stark poverty that we faced daily in Niger. It can almost make you sick and I confess that I cried myself to sleep one night this week—but maybe that was a blessing because it was the best sleep that I have had in awhile. There are no simple answers, but God is gracious through it all.
In addition to those challenges, I have had my hot water tank die this week (good thing it was a rental and the gas company repaired it), I lost my son when trying to pick him up from school (partially my fault for being late, he was found an hour later), my dinner exploded in Dave’s hands when he tried to take it from the oven (thankfully he was ok, but we had to throw out the meat that was covered in shattered glass), I had two e-mails from Niger –one saying that my car had broken down and needed repairs and the other saying that my washing machine wasn’t working. I went to do a presentation in Ben’s class yesterday and the clothing rack decided to fall apart and dump everything just outside my front door and yes it happened to be raining slightly. Then when we went to give the power point presentation I realized that Dave had put the wrong one on the flash drive so we didn’t have the one that I had spent the better part of two days working on. (I think that there is a country music song in here somewhere…)

My list of gripes may seem long this week and you may have had bigger and worse items that you could add to yours, but I am grateful that in the big scheme of things they are nothing major and for all the things that have gone wrong God has turned them around for good. My prayer for you this week is that you would be able to see the good that God can bring about in whatever circumstances
Please continue to pray for Dave as he writes papers in addition to his regular work.