Sep 23, 2009 | Stories, The Good Word
A lot of thoughts have been swirling and twirling around in my mind lately. And they are thoughts that have created fear in me. And that is not pretty, and is not from God. One reason some of these thoughts have been joining my mental conversations is that some friends of mine lost their child just a few weeks ago — their four month old little boy. When you have a little one yourself, the stark and sudden reality that your little one could be here today and gone tomorrow — or anyone you love could be — can do a lot of different things in your soul. You can trust that God will take care of you and your family, but when you see what on the surface appears to be Him not taking care of friends of yours who also love Him, you might begin to think, “Well, there’s no reason that would happen to them and not to me.” And that is a scary thought.
I don’t think I realised what this thinking had begun to do in my mind until today. I’ve been praying for the family who lost their child, thanking the Lord for my family, and trying to do a better job of enjoying life each day, remembering we aren’t promised tomorrow. But today I was reading in the Bible, and came across Proverbs 10:22. The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, And He adds no sorrow with it. As I pondered this verse I began to think…gosh, I am struggling to actually believe this. In my mind I am disagreeing with it. Where has that come from? I realised it had something to do with the loss my friends experienced. I prayed, “Help me understand, Lord. In light of my friends and the loss of their son.”  And these are the thoughts that came next.
Loss and death come because we are in a fallen world. God’s blessing brings prosperity to our lives — and true richness, which is richness to our souls. He does not bring death or sorrow to the righteous. Death and sorrow are a consequence of life in a fallen, broken world. This was not God’s intention, He did not create the world to be this way, but He can still bring even these difficulties about for good.
The disciples once questioned Jesus when they saw a man who was blind from birth. (John 9) “Jesus, did he sin or did his parents? Somebody must’ve messed up for him to be born blind.” (This was the Jewish way of thinking about disabilities and birth defects.) Jesus said, “Neither. He didn’t sin, His parents didn’t sin. But this happened so that the works of God should be revealed in Him.”
In a perfect world, the world God initially created, for example, there would be no blindness, and four-month olds wouldn’t fall asleep and never wake up. But we are in a fallen world, where things are broken, and messed up things happen. The Good News is that the works of God — including His goodness, mercy, and kindness — can still be displayed in this broken world. God is still actively at work, and can bring good out of these hurtful, painful and tragic moments in life. In fact, He promises to work all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.
Financial or monetary richness is not always a sign of the Lord’s blessing. Statistically speaking, lottery winners often end up very, very unhappy people. (Examples) We are truly rich when we learn to be content with and thankful for what we have. The richness that comes from God can teach us this lesson — to see how rich we already are, because of the gift that we have from God in Christ Jesus. (That’s even better news — our time in this world is incredibly brief. If we love Christ, and are following Him, we will spend eternity with Him, where weeping and sorrow will not exist for even a moment. Hallelujah!)
While sorrow, trials and tribulation will come in this fallen world, (that’s a promise). We may not always understand why God allows them, but I am still certain that God is good, that He can bring beauty from ashes and turn mourning into dancing. I’m thankful to say, as well, I am confident that the Lord’s blessing makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it.
Sep 22, 2009 | Stories, Travel..ling Tuesdays
Mark and I had a really lovely honeymoon in Roatan, an island off the coast of Honduras. It seems like it was a million years ago, not because our marriage is tiresome, but because so much has happened since June 23, 2007! He chose the spot because my only three preferences were somewhere beachy, somewhere where I can speak Spanish, and not Mexico because I’d been there before and was hoping to go somewhere new. It ended up being an excellent choice. We stayed at Barefoot Cay, a tiny resort on a little island off the main island. I highly recommend it if you’re looking for a getwaway!
This week’s Travelling Tuesday picture is one Mark took as we drove around Roatan. It’s a small island and you can see most of it in a day or two. He particularly liked this cute little boat along the way and got several nice shots of it.
Perhaps the most memorable shot of the week, however, is not a scenic one. On one of our days at Roatan, we went to a park where you could zip line through the jungle canopy. It was lots of fun!  You could also walk around their bird and monkey park, and some of the monkeys could come and sit on your shoulder. One of the monkeys actually stole some pesos right out of my pocket, went up the tree to count and taste them, and then put them in the tip box. Cheeky monkey! Talladega Nights, the Ballad of Ricky Bobby, had come out not too long before that. I could never stop laughing at the line one of his kids said, (I can’t remember if it was Walker or Texas Ranger), “I’m all jacked up on Mountain Dew, and I’mon come at you like a spider monkey!”
Thanks to my cousin Ace and his son Blake perfectly reciting this line in a hilarious conversation the night before the wedding, I was excited to actually have a spider monkey sitting on my shoulder and send them a picture. He was a delightful creature at first, and let me feel his soft little hands, and proceeded to try to pull the hair pins out of my hair. One of the trainers began giving him sunflower seeds. A few moments later, he mistook one of my freshly-french-manicured-for-the-wedding-nails for a sunflower seed, and begin biting and pulling to try to remove it. In shock, I totally stood there with this deer in the headlights look on my face. Before Mark could put away the camera and come at him like a spider monkey, the trainers had pulled his leash and he was back at the monkey house. Their simple comments regarding our concern that I might need a rabies shot? “Oh no, you be fine. He get a shot ev’ry time he bite sunbody.”
Fortunately the wounds weren’t too bad, although I did bleed for a quite a while. It wasn’t much of a hindrance to the enjoyment of the honeymoon, and hey, we knew it would make for a great story someday! Â So, the most memorable shot from this travel adventure, just before he came at me like a spider monkey:
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Sep 20, 2009 | South Africa, Stories, The Good Word
I don’t speak Afrikaans. Some of you might need a little history lesson of South Africa in order for that statement to make sense. Well, very briefly, South Africa was first colonized by the Dutch, and then by the British. When they decided to have a fight about who was gonna be the boss, the British won. (This was called the Anglo-Boer War — ‘Boer’ means Farmer.) This might be seen by some as similar to the American fight for Independence, except that the British won. Anyway, many years and many stories later, there are an incredible number of languages and cultures swirling and twirling together in the melting pot of South Africa — including 11 official languages, one of which is Afrikaans. This language has come from Dutch, and while Afrikaans and Dutch are still fairly mutually intelligible, Afrikaans is sort of like old Dutch with some other influences mixed in, which tends to happen, due to what I think is termed language fossilization away from the homeland, and a number of other interesting things that you might study in linguistic classes.
All that to say, most people in the area where we’re staying at the moment speak English and Afrikaans, but Afrikaans is more often the default language. A lovely and amusing thing has been occurring since my arrival. Since I don’t have ‘American’ stamped on my forehead, a local might assume I also am South African, (usually until I open my mouth) and will therefore also assume that I too can speak Afrikaans. Â People often come up to me in the grocery store, and I can basically ascertain from their demeanour that they’re commenting on how cute Asher is. Â I just kind of smile and nod unless I think I am missing something, and then have to open my mouth with a big southern, “Sorry…I don’t speak Afrikaans.” At which point they politely change to English and then I have a clue of what’s happening.
This week, for my birthday Mark and I did a bit of browsing at the mall, among other things, and I found a skirt I thought I should try on in the dressing room. I came out for a moment to ask Mark’s opinion, and while I was still standing in the doorway, a lady came up in a huff, with lots and lots of garments in her arms, and speaking Afrikaans she proceeded to go on and on and on to me. I, obviously, had NOT A CLUE what the heck she was talking about. Â She just went on and on – I am not exaggerating – and wanting to be polite, I didn’t interrupt. When she finally finished, mind you I’m still standing there in an unpurchased skirt and my socks, I just looked at her with a big bewildered face and said, “I’m sorry, I don’t speak Afrikaans.”
She then switched immediately to English and began again, perhaps in a bigger huff, “I’ve got all these garments and there are too many of them for me to go into the dressing room with, but I want to try all of them on and so I am going to need some help but I can’t go into the dressing room with all of them, so what should I do and …” And it went on for a little bit longer until I finally realized what was actually happening, and, finally, I correctly responded to the situation:
“Ugh…I don’t work here either.”
Man it’s great when we finally have a clue of what’s going on! As I’m enjoying the beautiful surroundings here in South Africa, I am thankful that God demonstrated His love for us in such a way that it would cross all cultural and language boundaries. And because His love for us is evident in what He has created, we are without excuse to recognise Him as Creator, and to love and follow Him. I don’t need to speak Hebrew and Greek to know that God loves me — the translation of that love into action took place in the life of Jesus, and on the cross at Calvary.
Praise the Lord we have the opportunity to translate that message of Good News to everyone we meet, so that they too can make Jesus their Lord, live for Him, and spend eternity worshiping Him in His glory. I want the life I live for God to need no translation – for it to be clear that I’m His and He is mine, for the fruit of my words and actions to make that readily apparent. If those of us who claim to be believers could all live that way (not saying I do, but that I want to!) – what a message we’d be sharing, to everyone, everywhere.
God loves you! How do you translate that?
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Sep 17, 2009 | South Africa, Stories, The Good Word
Good news! We found a car! And we were incredibly encouraged in the process. Would you like to hear the tale? Well, we arrived in South Africa with no credit history, so the only possibility for us to purchase a car (instead of paying for a rental for months and months) was to buy a car with a credit card. (We don’t exactly have a good $9,000 laying around, and cars are a wee bit more expensive around here). We just trusted the Lord to lead us to a good car, at a good price, and at a dealership that would allow us to use a credit card to make the purchase.
Just before we left the States, someone suggested we see the movie, Faith Like Potatoes. We were glad we did. It was a faith-building story, although I cried through a lot of it. It’s about a Zambian farmer named Angus Buchan, who moves to South Africa, meets the Lord and with his pastor’s encouragement, he begins his work for the Lord as an evangelist. His family is originally from Scotland, which further interested us. He was born in Zambia, and it was fascinating to see him begin to identify himself as an “African from a white tribe,” instead of as a Scot. It helped me to understand a little better Mark’s experience of being white and African. And the leading actress was from Mark’s hometown. Side note! But I shall tie all this in. The Lord puts it on Angus’s heart to plant potatoes, even though it will be very difficult for them to grow without enough water in the climate where he has settled. I don’t want to spoil the plot for you, so to find out what happens, please watch the film!
Mark was beginning to get a bit discouraged after a few days in South Africa, because our lack of credit history was prohibiting us even getting a cell phone contract, and we were finding it challenging to get things done. (A delightful challenge of settling in a new country is that you can have platinum credit cards and a great credit history in one country, but it does not make a hill of beans in the next!) The other morning I was reading the story in Genesis 24, where the Lord gives Abraham’s servant great success in finding a wife for Isaac. The servant prays for a specific sign that he will know he has found a wife for Isaac, and the Lord shows up, just as he prayed. I was encouraged by the story, and before Mark left to continue the car hunt, we prayed together similarly, that God would give us a sign, so we would know we were purchasing the right car at the right place.
Mark headed out, and went to look at several of the dealerships we’d seen the day before, and came to one where we’d seen a Citroen Xsara Picasso that seemed to be a good price. He began chatting with the dealers about the car, and found out that it had belonged to one of the owner’s wives. It only had about 80,000 kilometers on it (less than 50,000 miles) and was in great condition. They went to further discuss the purchase upstairs in the dealership’s coffee shop, and none other than the pastor from Faith Like Potatoes was sitting in the coffee shop! After discovering the owners were Christians, Mark took all of it as a sign, and decided this was our potato!
The blessing of all blessings, the car is what we’d been praying for, and more. It was within our price range, and the dealership helped cover the costs of getting its roadworthy certificate and license plates, and helped us find very inexpensive car insurance. We were hoping for a car to comfortably seat five, even with Asher’s big car seat taking up space in the back, so that when Mark’s parents fly in to visit we can all fit in one car. It’s a diesel engine and gets like 50 miles to the gallon, and right now in South Africa, diesel is cheaper than petrol! Mark was especially concerned about it being safe, and was really glad it has run-on-flat tires, so that if I get a flat in a dodgy area, I can keep on truckin’. The windows are tinted and have anti-smash-and-grab protection as well. It even has roof racks for Mark’s bike rack to attach to!
Since the car has a bit of a funny shape, (leave it to the French!) and the encouragement for the purchase came from Faith Like Potatoes, we decided to call the car Mr. Potato Head. It was wonderful to turn in our rental car, and cross that concern off our lists. Praise the Lord who can provide us with the Faith for Potatoes, in whatever form they might arrive!
The Sermon in a Nutshell: God is the same today as He was 3,000 years ago. If your hope is in Him, and you’re walking with Him, He will supply all your needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus. (Phil 4:19) Is there a need weighing on your chest today? Ask God to give you the faith to trust Him for His perfect provision, in His perfect timing, and a content and thankful heart in the meantime.
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Sep 15, 2009 | South Africa, Stories, Travel..ling Tuesdays
This Travelling Tuesday shot is from my second trip to South Africa, the first trip Mark and I made here together. We spent some time in Cape Town, travelled along the garden route to Knysna, up toward Bloemfontein where I met Mark’s parents. The second week of the adventure, we stayed at a Game Reserve called Makhasa, run by some old friends of Mark’s (discount!) and on our last day there, Mark asked me to marry him! Â Lovely story for another day as well! Â This shot is from the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town, looking down towards Victoria Drive. On our way up Victoria Drive towards Table Mountain we saw whales breaching from our wee moped. We pulled off and watched them go by and just felt blessed by the experience. Â This is looking south from Table Mountain, the hills along the way are called the Twelve Apostles. No wonder this is one of the top honeymoon and vacation destinations in the world! It’s gorgeous!
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Sep 12, 2009 | Scotland, South Africa, Stories
Well folks, we are safely in South Africa and it is really really good to be here. Our most recent travel experiences really deserve a mention. By the end of this you might think I’m writing a paid advertisement for Emirates airline, but honestly, this is just me telling you what a great experience we had. (Although if they wanted to pay me, I would take it!)
This adventure began with our last few days in Scotland, staying with our dear friends Rob and Alice (travelling Rob), and catching up with more friends, (who had birthday prezzies for Asher, no less! thanks Worwy and Sawah [above]!) connecting with friends at church, and catching colds because it was so cold and rainy and wintry. A million thanks to the Andersons for hosting us so graciously (Rob could run a fantastic restaurant of culinary delights), to Adam for driving us to the airport in Glasgow, and to Hope for letting him when she’s so pregnant she’s about to burst and has two wee ones.
We were…shall we say… a bit concerned about our baggage because we thought the Emirates allowances were the same as Continental’s, but we discovered we were mistaken the day before our flight. We were looking at 25 to 35 pounds — that’s British Pound Stirling — per kilogram overweight. And we had none too few extra kilograms. But the travel agents were as friendly as Nessie is hard to find, and did not even mention the extra weight. When we walked away from the counter we felt like kids on Christmas morning. That upgrade we prayed for just happened. They only made me taste two baby food jars at customs (yeah… seriously) and when we arrived at the gate, they came and checked our pram (stroller) for us, and told us although it was checked to Johannesburg, there would be a pram waiting for us while we were at our layover in Dubai. That was great. The layover was more than four hours in the middle of the night, but at least we had a pram! And I am now convinced Dubai is quite possibly the coolest place I’ve never been. (Since the airport doesn’t count).
Our two eight hours flights were easypeasy. On each leg, the flight attendants gave us toys and other stuff for Asher…he got a hand puppet camel on the first flight (along with a colouring book and coloured pencils) and he got a hand puppet tiger for the second leg of the journey! They also gave us baby food, and a little pouch with a rattle, a spoon, baby wipes, a bib, baby lotion… they just really took care of us. And they took Asher’s picture and put it in a little paper frame with an airplane on it. “Best wishes from Emirates to Asher†with the flight number and crew member names. So sweet! He wasn’t looking at the camera so they tried twice. Sweet anyway! We also had a row of four bulkhead seats to ourselves on the first flight, and three bulkhead seats to ourselves for the second. Upgrade!
So here’s my thirty second Emirates promo: “At a time when most airlines are debating charging customers for extra baggage or even for going to the bathroom, Emirates is handing out hot towels and amazing meals. They’re serving cake and ice cream with tea and coffee at snack times. They’re giving kids toys and making sure their families are comfortable. Their prices are competitive, but their customer service blows the competition out of the water. (Or sand dunes, if you will). From perhaps one of the best-traveled babies in the world, Emirates gets a one-tooth smile with lots of drool, and two happy hands up!”
Thanks for allowing that digression. As the story continues, we are now safely in South Africa and it’s great to be here. We arrived in Johannesburg, stayed the night with Mark’s sister, Lyn, (who also had great birthday prezzies for Asher!) The next day was, praise the Lord, our final flight — Johannesburg to Cape Town. Mark felt prompted to wait one more day before buying those tickets with Kulula, a domestic South African airline. A one-day sale started the next day, and (thank you again, Lord!) we saved a huge amount on the tickets. Unfortunately, we did have to pay for our extra baggage on that flight, but since we’d saved so much on the tickets, we pretty much broke even.  And now the real adventure begins! Since I’ve gone a bit long, I will perhaps save the story of our arrival for tomorrow. =)
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