Confessions of a Missionary Mama: Out w/the old & in w/the new

Today was a GoOd day!  I am so glad to have had such a fine day. 

We got up at 7am to make it on time to "all hands on deck" day.  A new DTS starts Thursday along with a few other schools and so a brand new influx of peeps will be here soon.  (I am still trying to wrap my heart around the fact that this place is like an airport, people in and out all of the time.) That requires a major overhall of every part of campus.  Deep cleaning of everything, and much more.  The girls' and I went to the kick off to hang with daddy, for the free breakfast and most of all to see everyone after a 3 week break.   I was so tempted to kiss my hubby good bye and go back to my pad to do school after I got my extrovert fix.  But I remembered my desire to do something adventurous this week for God.  As they assigned everyone to a team I conveniently went to check on the girls' who were playing.

So, as I went to get my kiddos out of the play area of the dining hall I saw the dirty scum all over each toy and the walls and it was as if the Holy Spirit  highlighted the grime or something.  And made it look like a totally RAD task to tackle.  I acted on the nudge and asked Ava if she thought it would be a good idea to stay and help out some.  She said "Mama, we should clean the toys."  Just then, the 'need for clean' part of my spirit leaped for joy and we all three agreed to do just that.  We spent 2 1/2 hours joyfully serving.  The girls' had a blast Windex-ing the giant windows and vacuuming.  We cleaned all of the toys and repaired the children's table, donated some children's books and a few good adult reading materials to the coffee bar book shelf.  That was Mondays Adventure! 

Then.....

We have been here at YWAM as staff for 3months now.  We have no kitchen.  Nada.  A convection oven, microwave and we have been working with a mini fridge since we arrived.  I was greatful, we were not supposed to have any furnishings when we got here but we did and the mini fridge was one of the furnishings.  After about a few weeks we had out grown the mini fridge as you can imagine, but made due.  We were given this fridge by the chef here, Evan and his family as they are building a suite right across the hall from us and their new appliances arrived today.   Ahhh, we gathered up our food from freezers around campus and put it all in our new full sized fridge.  The hospitality angels were clapping as I did so, I am sure of it.  A good start to a GoOd day! 

Then a friend came over to MY pad to hang out and talk about helping me facilitate the weekly mom's lunch on Wednesdays.  (The former gal in charge just left the country for 9 months leading an outreach, imagine that...lol)  So she asked us to take it over.  It's so nice to 1st, have a friend over but 2nd, have a friend here that I actually did more than chat with while walking down the hall on my way somewhere!  I am begining to realize that maybe the reason I feel so lonely here is due impart (I stress the impart) to the protective shells ywamers wear in attempt to not be hurt when their new best friend leaves for a foriegn country or is finished with a school.  I remember the 1st wedding I photographed, I cried like a baby and prayed when everyone was praying.  By the 50th it was strictly a job and instead of praying I often found myself judging the preachers style of praying.   God help me to not become numb for the need to reach out to others after living this YWAM way of life.  Keep me sensitive Father. 
 I felt like myself again or something.  It was wonderful. 

Then I checked the mail......

and a gift was awaiting me!  I felt so blessed.  I love getting mail from home(that's not a bill that is)!  My BFF Christie over at Haigh Happenings has 3 beautiful daughters that are as different from each other than any 3 girls I have ever met.  I love it.  They are my girls' besties too.  So Aliah, her oldest that is in 2nd grade crocheted this for me.  I dropped off some yarn with her over Christmas break and in return she agreed to make me a necklace.  I love a well balanced, greatful, super creative kiddo.  Here is a pic of the Haigh girls from their November Portrait session I did ....

And here is a pic of what Aliah did with the yarn she got from us in less than 24 hours!

I just luv it.

So, that was one good day I have to say.  Fulfilling service, a fridge and a pretty necklace, what more could a missionary mama ask for?

Then, Merrel showed up out of the blue with 8 new containers of play dough for the girls'.  God, you are so good.  I managed to complete 2 full school days with amber and almost 2 with Ava w/o tears or a fight!!Thank you so much for this AwEsOme day!  It's like the hours kept being added or something!  And now I am gonna chill out with my man and catch the last half of his dude movie and not tell him how stupid I think it is. 

Oh, I have to give my man props, my good day started last night when he gave me a 45 minute back rub! 

(This transition from a spoiled suburban house wife to ministry is hard.  Pampered Chef,   to.... 'Dude where's my kitchen'  makes no earthly sense.  Nothing worth living, I hear is ever easy through.   I feel like I am literally being molded and conformed into a new woman.  Oh, it hurts.  It's rewarding.  It's filled with ups and downs.  Tears, like right now and laughter like earlier today.  Days when I feel so close to God, that I can feel that freshly shaven face of his on my cheek and days that I forget that I am his child.  Moments when I question reality and moments when I cannot deny the truth of who my Lord is.  This transition is right where I am supposed to be, but only with Jesus' strength can I  relax and learn the unforced rhythms of grace  )