The author would like to apologize for the delay in updates to this Blog. It has been Christmas... and Christmas in The New Place has been at once familiar and all together different...
I will be doing several posts over the next few days replete with pictures and some anecdotal stories. We're currently enjoying the presence of our wonderful daughter "Butterfly" who after 30 some hours of travel, sleeping in airports, weather delays and lost baggage that just arrived last night...is finally here living life at The New Place with us! What a celebration that has been! Tonight we plan to go out for New Years Eve and celebrate 12 years of marriage with most of our precious children (though with holes in our hearts where our son, The Rockstar and his bride, Princess, belong.) We're taking Butterfly over to the infamous Night Market here in our metropolis of 10 million for some bargain shopping, sight seeing and certainly red cheeks from the cold!
Our Christmas was amazing and bittersweet. The Christmas program performance in front of 600 employees of the corporation who funds our school was a success! Part of the delay in posting is that I hoped to have the video ready to post here too so that you can see the performances yourself...but that will come in the days to come. The Nativity Portrayal was a hit. As I've blogged about already, most who saw the performance have no idea why Christmas is celebrated they see the holiday as a chance to get the best deals at the department stores of the year and one for a talent show displaying jugglers, belly dancers and hip hop dance crews. We believed that our school's contribution was one that really enhanced the "show."
The very next day we hosted our Christmas Party for all-comers. I'm telling you what...we had 62 people in our apartment for the fete where we served spaghetti, pizza, Christmas cookies made by the cookie baking crew, cranberry punch, cheese and crackers, etc. Every student and their parent/s from our school was in attendance! Then we had a short time of Christmas carol singing led by Daddy and followed by an introduction to the Christmas story! We were thrilled and exhausted by the event...but we believe it was another excellent opportunity to let our light so shine before men that they might see our good deeds and praise our Father in heaven!
As we were decompressing from the massive party we received a phone call from our good Brother Fred. He was calling to report to us that our dear friend here (the man with whom he had the key conversation during our Thanksgiving Dinner) had gone with him just that evening to a special meeting with about 350 locals. There were many decisions made that night...41 to be exact...and one among them was our dear friend! We have been lifting him up for 2 1/2 years! This made our Christmas here the most meaningful of all.
After Butterfly arrived early Monday morning, we set about preparing yet another massive dinner project. After school we came home to prepare a meal for 20...the entire family of our dear local friends (3 siblings, their spouses, kids and grandkids) came for dinner. For nearly all of them it was the very first time they'd ever been exposed to Western style food, our family tradition of Christmas and of course Christmas carols! We made pumpkin pies again (I'm getting pretty confident in roasting pumpkins to get the puree now) and apple crisp as well as a large pasta dish that was ample for all! We now know that next year, we must build into our budget the holiday season of opportunity with our neighbors here! We've entertained well over 100 people in these past four weeks and have shared in our home the meaning of Christmas and Thanksgiving with all of them! This is an incredible time of openness and interest and it's getting a bit easier as we become more practiced. The kids are such an incredible help with it too!
Our hearts were homesick too, of course. If only we had you here with us to enjoy this time of life! Yet, we have more of an understanding still of how we fit in here and how our enormous, conspicuous family draws people in out of curiosity first and then, we hope, for friendship. Remember all the seeds we've planted in this time...
We were blessed yesterday by our co-workers at the school admonishing us to take a "Special Holiday" today (our Dec 31st, which is a school day) so that we could enjoy more time with Butterfly. How amazing! Here our colleagues are so sensitive and caring for our family that though we never thought of it, they insisted we allow them to cover for us today so that we could have more precious time together before Butterfly leaves on Friday!
We're about to celebrate the last leg of our Christmas marathon. Then tomorrow another play day before we're have to send Butterfly back home. Please lift us up during that painful time of parting.
We have school this weekend on Sunday (yes, we are at The New Place) to make-up for our Friday holiday. We have a serious press then to conclude our semester and to give Final exams on January 12th. Our enthusiasm is high in expectation of our time for Spring Festival, which gives us 3 weeks off of school! From January 16-February 9th! We have some travel involved in the plans...I'll give you more on that later.
Off to celebrate...and then, I promise tons of pictures in the next day or two....promise!
31 December 2008
18 December 2008
Remain Calm - Remember Why You Came...
So tonight I rushed home because I need to bake some Christmas cookies to serve for our now MASSIVE Christmas party to be held on Saturday.
Daddy is not home with us because on the way home from school we were handed a sheet detailing the additional clothing items (white turtlenecks, white tights and dark pants) required for the performance TOMORROW! Did I mention that we have no car, that the nearest shopping is a 20 minute cab ride away and it's THURSDAY night when I need to be baking?
Facing these surprises is a daily thing...so we remain calm and remember why we came...
I've got all three of the "littles" in the bathtub. They're alternately crying and squealing with glee as I hastily wash their hair and bodies so that they might look the most becoming on the big stage tomorrow night in their sequined get-ups.
At the door someone is knocking...
I remember...oh yes, I told Teacher J from the Kindergarten that she was welcome to come over tonight and participate in our Christmas Cookie baking attempt. (Of course this was before Daddy had to be called away for emergency costume shopping.)
But, I said to myself..."remain calm...remember why you came..."
Magpie opens the door and behind it stands not just Teacher J...but Teacher S, Teacher A, Teacher JN, Teacher JY, Teacher T, another lady who works at the company and a gentleman whose name I do not know...8 surprise guests!
"Hi!" Teacher J said, "We were all at dinner and they said they'd like to come see you bake the Christmas cookies."
Remain calm...remember why you came...
"Oh sure" I say bravely "Just let me finish washing, drying and readying these three for bed."
You can imagine the joy the 3 littles felt at the sight of all their teachers in their home, some for the first time, right at bedtime! This on a night that Daddy is calling now every 10 minutes trying to find the costuming items and I'm trying to bake for the massive Christmas party that is less than 48 hours away...
Remain calm...remember why you came...
I work on a plan...where will I roll out the dough? All these eager bakers cannot possibly fit in the kitchen!
With some fast thinking and the help of Magpie and The Bug...we converted the huge dining table we're using this weekend into a set for a cooking show.
I am not kidding...they videoed the whole project.
I came into the room from the kitchen hearing Magpie describing for the camera the contents and their measurements as she added them in to make the Chocolate Chip Cookie dough (this is our first time to make them here!)
Within a few minutes we'd converted to a full on cooking/baking class and all the students were eager to get into the action...it was already 8 PM!
I gave anecdotal stories about this cookie baking ritual at The Old Place. I even showed the precious sugar cookies Gramma Juice sent in the big DHL box last week.
They oooohed and aaaahed!
After three and one half hours...the last ones left...and we've made another memory of living here in The New Place...
Most of the cookies they cut and colored have little to do with traditional Christmas shapes...but I took the opportunity to play and sing many Carols for them and explain to each of them the story of Christmas...
Though I was so tempted to say..."it's too late...we have a huge performance tomorrow...and by the way, I didn't invite 8 of you to drop over tonight for a cooking class..." I'm so thankful that I remembered to remain calm and remember why we came...
This little light of mine...I'm gonna let it shine...
16 December 2008
Form without meaning
Yesterday we tromped over to the company's auditorium for the "Dress Rehearsal."
This is a special time of high anxiety in the hearts of the performers, big dreams and sad realities. It's the same in any production and as I've been in a few throughout my life...I know the drill.
A bus picked up our 16 Elementary Students and 40 Kindergartners and we shuttled down the road to the company's building.
The auditorium seats 1000 and is an amazing room filled with beautiful red theater seats and a massive stage.
As I've already blogged, we (the Elementary School) are doing a living nativity scene. We're using narrators (Magpie & our 6th grade boy) who are sharing the story directly from the gospels. We have Mary, Joseph, four shepherds, three wise men (even though they really didn't show up at the stable), one donkey, two sheep, a cow and an angel (played by the Bug.) We constructed a manger and a massive Star of Bethlehem that will hang over the stage some three stories high. We have costumes that resemble some of the clothing from the period. (This was so interesting to provide pictures of the appropriate dress to the parents who most have NO IDEA what a shepherd or Mary should wear.) After everyone arrives at the manger the children sing 3 verses of "Away in a Manger" and 5 verses of "The Friendly Beasts" with three solos injected from the cow (all white and red), sheep (with the curly horn) and the donkey (shaggy and brown.) Then The Bug closes the performance with singing "What Can I Give Him" as a simple, a capella solo and after singing she turns and bows before the manger.
I cannot tell you how many conversations we've had with the student's about this story, where it comes from and why we're telling it. Most of our student's had never heard of it...but of course, more of them had heard about the West's tradition of Father Christmas. There are some books in our library about the life of Christ both for children's reading and pictorial depictions of the nativity. They (our students) now get it that this is an important story.
Daddy and I have been drafted to perform a guitar and vocal piece for the extravaganza as well, "O Holy Night" is on tap. So, we've been practicing it with another brother who plays the guitar. Most of the rehearsals have been disasters,but the dress rehearsal yesterday was the first time that the guitars didn't sound like cats mating in the alleyway. And my vocal interpretation has sounded like nothing more than a middle-aged woman who's eggnog was spiked at the Christmas party and then was surprised but obliged the groups when she was asked to sing (very heavy, very affected and too cumbersome.)
Yesterday we saw where, in the order of performance, they've placed the precious performance of the kids and our massacre of O Holy Night. The Elementary school leads off the entire performance. Which is great since most people watching will have no idea what the Christmas story is all about. All the scripture and the lyrics will be translated into the local dialect and shown on big screens in the auditorium.
Then the Kindergarten performs (with Brownie, Potato and Bub.) Let me just say that though I've seen this bunch performing their dance and song numbers (and have been totally amused by the dance number, in particular) I was unprepared for their sequined costumes that made them look like very junior ballroom dancers. Brownie continued to suffer repeated costume malfunctions as she vigorously shakes "what her Momma gave her."
So right after this Kindergarten's display of cute mixed with 80's flashdance and Star Search...then it's the foreigners up to sing O Holy Night. Let me tell you...it really flows...
Then after we have our big high note finish to the classic song...the next act comes up to perform...a hip-hop dance crew of 8 employees from the company....dancing their funky feet off to a blaring Asian hip-hop band.
What's after them, you wonder?
A belly dancer.
Followed by another hip-hop crew dancing to an American hip-hop group with lyrics that would make even a hardened criminal blush.
Then a traditional local dance number with ladies in beautiful pink satin gowns.
Up next, a traditional flute accompanying a popular love song from the radio here.
Followed by another hip-hop crew.
Folks... it's like a talent show. A talent show to celebrate Christmas.
I sat there in the auditorium yesterday nestled next to the Angel and the Donkey and thought..."this is so RANDOM! Everyone here wants the party of Christmas and they have the tree on the stage, plus Santa hats on here and there and NO ONE has any idea why we celebrate it."
All the form (okay, some of the form) yet no meaning...no understanding.
So lift us up as we prepare for our big night on Friday. For so many it will be the first time anything has been associated with the talent show for Christmas that has anything to do with Him. We struggle with feeling silly... and missing home where everyone would get misty eyed at the Angel's dramatic proclamation to the Shepherds... and just plain old overwhelmed at the field before us...
Daddy reminded me last night..."this is why we came...we came to bring the heart of Christmas to this place."
So Christmas 101 takes off on Friday night...
This is a special time of high anxiety in the hearts of the performers, big dreams and sad realities. It's the same in any production and as I've been in a few throughout my life...I know the drill.
A bus picked up our 16 Elementary Students and 40 Kindergartners and we shuttled down the road to the company's building.
The auditorium seats 1000 and is an amazing room filled with beautiful red theater seats and a massive stage.
As I've already blogged, we (the Elementary School) are doing a living nativity scene. We're using narrators (Magpie & our 6th grade boy) who are sharing the story directly from the gospels. We have Mary, Joseph, four shepherds, three wise men (even though they really didn't show up at the stable), one donkey, two sheep, a cow and an angel (played by the Bug.) We constructed a manger and a massive Star of Bethlehem that will hang over the stage some three stories high. We have costumes that resemble some of the clothing from the period. (This was so interesting to provide pictures of the appropriate dress to the parents who most have NO IDEA what a shepherd or Mary should wear.) After everyone arrives at the manger the children sing 3 verses of "Away in a Manger" and 5 verses of "The Friendly Beasts" with three solos injected from the cow (all white and red), sheep (with the curly horn) and the donkey (shaggy and brown.) Then The Bug closes the performance with singing "What Can I Give Him" as a simple, a capella solo and after singing she turns and bows before the manger.
I cannot tell you how many conversations we've had with the student's about this story, where it comes from and why we're telling it. Most of our student's had never heard of it...but of course, more of them had heard about the West's tradition of Father Christmas. There are some books in our library about the life of Christ both for children's reading and pictorial depictions of the nativity. They (our students) now get it that this is an important story.
Daddy and I have been drafted to perform a guitar and vocal piece for the extravaganza as well, "O Holy Night" is on tap. So, we've been practicing it with another brother who plays the guitar. Most of the rehearsals have been disasters,but the dress rehearsal yesterday was the first time that the guitars didn't sound like cats mating in the alleyway. And my vocal interpretation has sounded like nothing more than a middle-aged woman who's eggnog was spiked at the Christmas party and then was surprised but obliged the groups when she was asked to sing (very heavy, very affected and too cumbersome.)
Yesterday we saw where, in the order of performance, they've placed the precious performance of the kids and our massacre of O Holy Night. The Elementary school leads off the entire performance. Which is great since most people watching will have no idea what the Christmas story is all about. All the scripture and the lyrics will be translated into the local dialect and shown on big screens in the auditorium.
Then the Kindergarten performs (with Brownie, Potato and Bub.) Let me just say that though I've seen this bunch performing their dance and song numbers (and have been totally amused by the dance number, in particular) I was unprepared for their sequined costumes that made them look like very junior ballroom dancers. Brownie continued to suffer repeated costume malfunctions as she vigorously shakes "what her Momma gave her."
So right after this Kindergarten's display of cute mixed with 80's flashdance and Star Search...then it's the foreigners up to sing O Holy Night. Let me tell you...it really flows...
Then after we have our big high note finish to the classic song...the next act comes up to perform...a hip-hop dance crew of 8 employees from the company....dancing their funky feet off to a blaring Asian hip-hop band.
What's after them, you wonder?
A belly dancer.
Followed by another hip-hop crew dancing to an American hip-hop group with lyrics that would make even a hardened criminal blush.
Then a traditional local dance number with ladies in beautiful pink satin gowns.
Up next, a traditional flute accompanying a popular love song from the radio here.
Followed by another hip-hop crew.
Folks... it's like a talent show. A talent show to celebrate Christmas.
I sat there in the auditorium yesterday nestled next to the Angel and the Donkey and thought..."this is so RANDOM! Everyone here wants the party of Christmas and they have the tree on the stage, plus Santa hats on here and there and NO ONE has any idea why we celebrate it."
All the form (okay, some of the form) yet no meaning...no understanding.
So lift us up as we prepare for our big night on Friday. For so many it will be the first time anything has been associated with the talent show for Christmas that has anything to do with Him. We struggle with feeling silly... and missing home where everyone would get misty eyed at the Angel's dramatic proclamation to the Shepherds... and just plain old overwhelmed at the field before us...
Daddy reminded me last night..."this is why we came...we came to bring the heart of Christmas to this place."
So Christmas 101 takes off on Friday night...
14 December 2008
When they're quiet...be concerned...
Last evening, after all the littles are put to bed and while enjoying my book along with Magpie and The Dutch Girl who has returned to us from points far beyond, (Daddy remarked when he entered the living room with all of us our noses in our respective books..."Gee, I feel like I'm visiting the Chrstian Science Reading Room")...
I suddenly hear a proclaimation from The Bug..."BUB! You are going to be in so much trouble!"
See, he'd gone to bed without any protest. I'd kissed his forehead and told him what a good, good boy he was and he'd smiled angelicly. Then nothing from his room...SILENCE...a parent's dream!
Finally, after parenting all these young I've arrived at "professional motherhood." My children obey my every request and they are model young citizens! I am accomplished!
Not so.
Bub decided to finger paint a beard on himself with Potato's special skin allergy cream.
Why? He would not say.
Certainly he slept all night with out a itch on his face or hands.
"Pride cometh before mess to clean up in the bathroom and on the kid"
13 December 2008
O... Christmas Tree
They just ain't easy to find here...
You see them around. Big department stores have them, hotel lobbies have secured them that rival the National Christmas Tree in DC and once and awhile you find a 12 inch model on a table in a restaurant....
But we did find our own...
It was at the "faux-western" market where we buy many of our foodstuffs. There, amidst the rice cookers, toilet seat covers (more on this necessity later), and green tea...a tiny section of CHRISTMAS DECOR!
The trees offered were no match for our trees at The Old Place. But, this is The New Place and we always remind ourselves that a "change will do us good."
Or so we hope...
The Christmas decor aisle was about the size of the car floor mat section of Walmart at The Old Place. Many of the offerings for this year's holiday season were like circa 1978 at The Old Place. Plus, lots of funky purple tinsels, pink lights and crazy-eyed Santa replicas. (I know my dear friend MB is all in with the pink/purple offerings.)
But we're going for red, green and some gold stuff. Those traditional colors that I've always loved on our trees of Christmases past.
For the first time we score tinsel for the tree... the kind that is big, bushy and wraps like a snake around the tree. We find a few packages of ornaments that fit our desired color-scheme and one artificial tree that appears to have suffered from an eating disorder.
BUT WE ARE HAPPY!
Frankly, we needed a little Christmas, right that very minute...
So, like generations of our people have done...we turned on some Christmas song favorites and trimmed the tree.
These rituals are important and this will be an important Christmas for us as it represents an unparalleled opportunity to share about the meaning of Christmas in our classrooms, in our company and with all who will visit our home.
We're planning two parties...
Next Saturday we'll cram in as many locals as we can fit in this place. We'll sing Christmas carols and share about the birth of the King. Please lift us up during this time as it will be an exciting opportunity.
Then, after our oldest daughter, Butterfly arrives here on the 26th of December...we'll host another large dinner party on the 27th! (Which is also Daddy's birthday!)
Wow...that's going to take a lot of work and co-ordination for the food for both events. (How I wish I could enlist the skills of Mama K's Catering Service!)
These things sandwiched in between performances our family has been asked to give at our local fellowship and the coffee house we haunt on Friday nights. Plus...our school Christmas Performance next Friday night will be a portrayal of the Nativity scene, narrated in full by the scripture's account with the student's singing and acting our the roles. This all done in front of the entire company's workforce in an auditorium that seats 1000!
So...it should be a low-key holiday for us...
Brownie
This one cracks us up.
She's been the one who has astounded us with her Local Dialect. She's been the one who is the first to give negative feedback to the rest of us if she's too cramped in the back of the taxi, too hot on the bus or too thirsty to take another step.
She is our canary in the coal mine.
She's always ahead of her siblings by about 30 minutes or so before we face outright rebellion. Just before the tsunami of complaining hits us...she's the early warning system.
But she is so very, very funny.
Last night she crawled up in bed with Daddy and Momma and we were having a love fest. "Oh Brownie we are so thankful that God gave you to us! What a precious blessing you are. We love you so, so much."
Alight with the flame of love, Brownie, in her best Director's voice says to us "You two, put your heads on me."
Swept up in the beauty of the moment we gently rested our heads on each side of her outstretched arms. She hugged us, giggled and we continued to pour out affirmations on her...
"Wonder who God has made you to be? A great leader? A devoted mother? A doctor who heals people in the jungle? A brilliant musician? You are an amazing gift to us!"
The experience was so lovely. She returned our affections. She kissed our foreheads and told us what wonderful parents we were.
We wanted the experience to go on and on...
...but, this is Brownie...and soon the temperature began to rise, the pressure on her arms and chest became a bit uncomfortable...and so without warning to us...
"OK guys, that's enough. Get off."
A girl who knows what she wants...gotta love it.
06 December 2008
It's all coming back to me now...
...I was such a brat sometimes to my dear mother....
the same is true in regards to my brothers and sister...my close friends...my dear husband...
...if ever someone had a misspeak, an error...I was merciless.
I would poke fun incessantly. Usually until the verbally clumsy party was totally angry at me...and then I would relent.
If DNA is to blame...there are roots of this "teasing" well back into the family tree.
And it lives again in the newest generation of my family...
Last night we were at our Friday hang-out. We finish our week with pizza and then conversation at the English-speaking coffee house upstairs.
I realized that the waiter did not bring us glasses for the kids' drinks.
So, in my best local dialect, I informed the waiter that we needed some glasses.
At that point, The Bug, in a shrill...LOUD VOICE...said "M-AAAAAAH-M, you just asked him for a BLANKET!"
It was a slight, tonal problem...but she was right...I had asked for a blanket.
It was then that the sharks saw blood...
My own offspring, laughing mercilessly at me..."Wow Mom, it is cold, but I'm not sure they have blankets here with dinner!" Magpie said, eyes alight with her mockery of her poor, illiterate mother...
I shot them a few, "I know where you sleep at night" looks, all to their frenzied pleasure...
Then we settled in to eat.
A few minutes later, I discovered that unfortunately the waiter had shorted us one glass (not a blanket) and that another request was in order...
Fearful, but knowing one must always get back up on the horse that has thrown them, I say loudly, in a clear voice..."Waiter, we need one more glass please."
Or so I thought...
Magpie literally EXPLODES in laughter...."M-AAAAAAAH-M....you just asked him for a NOSE!"
She continues, just over the cacophony of laughter around the table (including Daddy who likewise didn't know the difference between blanket, nose and glass but couldn't resist the feeding frenzy), in her best imitation Momma voice "Uh, please waiter, please could you bring me a nose? Mine doesn't seem to be working and I'm unable to smell my food!"
There they all were...
...my offspring...
...my dear husband...
...nearly hyperventilating with the kind of laughter that makes your sides ache...all relishing my error!
And then it all came back to me...
...how many times had I walked in their shoes...in the seat of power...laughing at one of my kin and their unfortunate misuse of the English language...?
...alas, I did not feel so superior anymore...
...but the haughty eyes of my children said it all...
...my mother was right...
"Someday your kids will tease you and you'll deserve every minute of it!"
...like a freight train coming down the tracks...I have many years and many offspring from which I will be the butt of the joke...
So I would like to take this opportunity to say sorry to my dear mother...and the rest of my family...
Signed,
Apologetic in Asia
the same is true in regards to my brothers and sister...my close friends...my dear husband...
...if ever someone had a misspeak, an error...I was merciless.
I would poke fun incessantly. Usually until the verbally clumsy party was totally angry at me...and then I would relent.
If DNA is to blame...there are roots of this "teasing" well back into the family tree.
And it lives again in the newest generation of my family...
Last night we were at our Friday hang-out. We finish our week with pizza and then conversation at the English-speaking coffee house upstairs.
I realized that the waiter did not bring us glasses for the kids' drinks.
So, in my best local dialect, I informed the waiter that we needed some glasses.
At that point, The Bug, in a shrill...LOUD VOICE...said "M-AAAAAAH-M, you just asked him for a BLANKET!"
It was a slight, tonal problem...but she was right...I had asked for a blanket.
It was then that the sharks saw blood...
My own offspring, laughing mercilessly at me..."Wow Mom, it is cold, but I'm not sure they have blankets here with dinner!" Magpie said, eyes alight with her mockery of her poor, illiterate mother...
I shot them a few, "I know where you sleep at night" looks, all to their frenzied pleasure...
Then we settled in to eat.
A few minutes later, I discovered that unfortunately the waiter had shorted us one glass (not a blanket) and that another request was in order...
Fearful, but knowing one must always get back up on the horse that has thrown them, I say loudly, in a clear voice..."Waiter, we need one more glass please."
Or so I thought...
Magpie literally EXPLODES in laughter...."M-AAAAAAAH-M....you just asked him for a NOSE!"
She continues, just over the cacophony of laughter around the table (including Daddy who likewise didn't know the difference between blanket, nose and glass but couldn't resist the feeding frenzy), in her best imitation Momma voice "Uh, please waiter, please could you bring me a nose? Mine doesn't seem to be working and I'm unable to smell my food!"
There they all were...
...my offspring...
...my dear husband...
...nearly hyperventilating with the kind of laughter that makes your sides ache...all relishing my error!
And then it all came back to me...
...how many times had I walked in their shoes...in the seat of power...laughing at one of my kin and their unfortunate misuse of the English language...?
...alas, I did not feel so superior anymore...
...but the haughty eyes of my children said it all...
...my mother was right...
"Someday your kids will tease you and you'll deserve every minute of it!"
...like a freight train coming down the tracks...I have many years and many offspring from which I will be the butt of the joke...
So I would like to take this opportunity to say sorry to my dear mother...and the rest of my family...
Signed,
Apologetic in Asia
04 December 2008
Joy in the Journey
There is a song written by Michael Card, one of my all time favorites, called "Joy in the Journey." I'll try to share some of the lyrics, from memory:
There is a joy in the journey
There's a light we can love along the way
There is a wonder and wildness to life
And freedom for those who obey
Forget not the hope that's before you
And never stop counting the cost
Remember the hopelessness when you were lost
There is a joy in the journey
There's a light we can love along the way
There is a wonder and wildness to life
And freedom for those who obey
This song is on my mind this morning as I find myself experiencing once again that peace and joy that passes all understanding. We should feel anxious, homesick and at the very least weary from our four months here. But this morning as we walked to school in the whipping, cold wind, hand in hand I felt the Joy in the Journey.
When you taste that joy, you never want to go back to the substitute joy with which you used to sustain yourself. With everything different: food, friends, language, climate, culture, expectations, school and work life...you find yourself perhaps more conscious of how those things used to fill you up. So much so sometimes that it's easy to forget Him...or at least allow Him to fall low on the priority list.
Don't misunderstand me...the same thing happens when you dive headlong into a new culture as a family of 7. In the struggling to find who you are and where you can fit here... at first you cling moment by moment to faith but soon it's easy to forget that He is the author, the Definer of who we are. We found that around 2.5-3 months we hit a really difficult time with our priorities. We found it to be increasingly difficult to meet with Him each day. This is disastrous.
Thankfully, upon correcting ourselves and getting back into closer fellowship, we are left with this awareness:
Everything has changed...and yet what really matters has not.
Our Sustainer never changes...He is constant.
So here we are, in the midst of challenge and change and we feel deep, zealous joy. The kind of joy that will not fade away when we go to the market tonight and crowds of people gather around to stare, touch and question us; even though we're tired. The kind of joy that comforts and heals our broken hearts when we feel the ache of home and of missing loved ones. The kind of joy that brings focus and purpose into your life when you've chosen to obey...though it defies reason.
There is a "wonder and wildness to life" as the song lyric says...but I didn't much feel the wonder and certainly not wildness before we let go of what we knew to embrace what we live now. Everyday we experience wonder...and everyday wildness...the greatest adventure we've ever known.
And freedom...much we could write about freedom. As there are so many financial worries, political dreams and nightmares and uncertainty about the future...we read the news...but we feel free. For we know, we have experienced, His hand holding us and sustaining us far outside of our ability to make it work on our own. We have found Him faithful in all things we've entrusted to Him.
So no matter what the future brings...we have freedom...as long as we are in obedience...we have confidence not in ourselves and our finances, but in Him and His economy which promises that we will always have what we need.
...forget not the hope that's before you...
There is Joy in this journey...
There is a joy in the journey
There's a light we can love along the way
There is a wonder and wildness to life
And freedom for those who obey
Forget not the hope that's before you
And never stop counting the cost
Remember the hopelessness when you were lost
There is a joy in the journey
There's a light we can love along the way
There is a wonder and wildness to life
And freedom for those who obey
This song is on my mind this morning as I find myself experiencing once again that peace and joy that passes all understanding. We should feel anxious, homesick and at the very least weary from our four months here. But this morning as we walked to school in the whipping, cold wind, hand in hand I felt the Joy in the Journey.
When you taste that joy, you never want to go back to the substitute joy with which you used to sustain yourself. With everything different: food, friends, language, climate, culture, expectations, school and work life...you find yourself perhaps more conscious of how those things used to fill you up. So much so sometimes that it's easy to forget Him...or at least allow Him to fall low on the priority list.
Don't misunderstand me...the same thing happens when you dive headlong into a new culture as a family of 7. In the struggling to find who you are and where you can fit here... at first you cling moment by moment to faith but soon it's easy to forget that He is the author, the Definer of who we are. We found that around 2.5-3 months we hit a really difficult time with our priorities. We found it to be increasingly difficult to meet with Him each day. This is disastrous.
Thankfully, upon correcting ourselves and getting back into closer fellowship, we are left with this awareness:
Everything has changed...and yet what really matters has not.
Our Sustainer never changes...He is constant.
So here we are, in the midst of challenge and change and we feel deep, zealous joy. The kind of joy that will not fade away when we go to the market tonight and crowds of people gather around to stare, touch and question us; even though we're tired. The kind of joy that comforts and heals our broken hearts when we feel the ache of home and of missing loved ones. The kind of joy that brings focus and purpose into your life when you've chosen to obey...though it defies reason.
There is a "wonder and wildness to life" as the song lyric says...but I didn't much feel the wonder and certainly not wildness before we let go of what we knew to embrace what we live now. Everyday we experience wonder...and everyday wildness...the greatest adventure we've ever known.
And freedom...much we could write about freedom. As there are so many financial worries, political dreams and nightmares and uncertainty about the future...we read the news...but we feel free. For we know, we have experienced, His hand holding us and sustaining us far outside of our ability to make it work on our own. We have found Him faithful in all things we've entrusted to Him.
So no matter what the future brings...we have freedom...as long as we are in obedience...we have confidence not in ourselves and our finances, but in Him and His economy which promises that we will always have what we need.
...forget not the hope that's before you...
There is Joy in this journey...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)