bread and butter

 This fall is going fast, as it usually does. We are in week 8 of school already. For Bible, we are focusing on Jesus, and each memory verse is an I am statement. Last week was the bread of life, so we had alot of fun, as we like bread! Above is a science experiment, activating yeast. 

Then we put our expertise to good use, and made bread. 

Although the bread is more complicated, I was much more impressed by our next accomplishment: butter!

It's silly, but I was inordinately proud of myself that we made butter by hand. Who knew it was so easy? Really, you just have to shake it. and shake it. and shake it. Hannah asked for some dance music to help her keep shaking. I complied. Soon Rihanna came on Pandora. I went over to change the station, and my little girl said, "Mommy, is that inappropriate?" "Well, it sure is for you." "Oh. I thought so. But I really like it." Great! We're here already! 

The kids, of course, think it would have been great fun to live in colonial times and make their bread and butter from scratch. Me, I'm grateful for SuperWalmart. 

Four years ago, we sold the car we had and used half the money to buy our van, and the other half to pay for the midwife when Charlie was born. That van and I have grown pretty close, with all the time we've spent on the road together! (I thought about trying to add up the road trips, but I gave up. It has been alot of miles) We were hoping it would last until we left, but that was not looking likely. It was needing some expensive work, and we decided not to invest in something that would probably continue to fall apart. And, as we have quite a bit more traveling coming up, we needed something more reliable. So we (mostly Patrick) cleaned up the van really well, and it sold within a few hours! That, combined with a very generous gift, enabled us to pay for the new old van without taking money out of our Outgoing Expenses Fund. Thank you God! 

(Our new red van would love to carry us on a roadtrip to your house/church/small group/SS class. Just ask!)

The kids are doing well learning the Pledge of Allegiance and other things. We noticed this sculpture in the park the other day, of the children doing the pledge to the flag (not pictured.) My ever theatrical daughter wanted to join in. And Charlie decided on a heil hitler approach, i guess. To each their own!

We really do have a big kid now. The first tooth was a little traumatic, but that was mitigated by the promised gift left by a special night time visitor. The tooth fairy sure has changed since I was little ;-).

 Patrick is gone for two weeks, which is the longest he's ever been away. The day we took him to the airport, we took the kids to a drop in daycare place in Sioux Falls (whoever came up with that idea is my hero) while we had lunch together and did one of my favorite things, browse Barnes and Noble. Patrick picked out a surprise for the kids, which served the dual purpose of communicating "I love you and will miss you and maybe this will help your mommy not go crazy if you have something new to play with while I'm gone." Charlie does seem to be following what I've heard about boys. Not really interested in holding a pencil and learning to write or learn his letters, but he just loves putting things together, all on his own. 

We love fall! And fall here is nice. This is the first time in years we have done things like going to the pumpkin patch and not been sweating, as it is in Texas, Alabama, and sometimes Kansas. Minnesota is really known for its apples, so we also went apple picking. The kids helped me clean out these pumpkins. 

While we did it, I told them the pumpkin Gospel story. How God calls us His own, just like picking us out of the pumpkin patch. Then He takes our sin away, like cleaning out all the pumpkin insides. Sometimes it is hard to get rid of our sin, just like we noticed all that pumpkin innards like to stay attached. But when we let Him clean out all the bad stuff, then He can fill us up with the light of Christ, like the candles we put in the pumpkins. To remind us how this miracles happens, we cut out the shape of the cross, so the candle shines through, by the miracle of what Jesus did to take our sin away. 

The coolest part: the whole neighbourhood gang came to help out, so they all got to hear the story! 

 It is my opinion that Halloween is a blight on the face of a perfectly wonderful season. However, I decided that even Halloween can serve a purpose: talking about Jesus! (Wow, I really run that one into the ground, don't I? ;-) What better opportunity to share the true Light, when there is so much celebration of darkness? 

 Hope your family is enjoying this beautiful season, and that the light of Jesus is shining in your life today! 

And seeing the multitudes. . .

I concentrated hard out the dirty window of the small, battered, very missionary looking truck as we bumped along terrible, pot-holed roads, trying desperately to avoid the motion sickness that often plagues me. Going the 60 or so miles from the capital city to our final destination would take 3 hours or so, and we had been warned there were no facilities along the way. These days, 10 years later, that information would not have affected me, but at the time, I diligently suppressed the constant desire to grab my water bottle. There was no way I was going to be the one asking our male driver to stop on the side of the curvy mountain roads. Night was falling as we pulled up at a gate, not the cute white picket fence kind, but the tall, imposing dead-bolted kind. A small, shriveled, old woman sat there, her face hidden by her headwrap as she rested her head on her knees. She had evidently been waiting for us, and pushed herself up off the ground as the driver of the truck rolled down his window. I didn't understand the words, but I clearly got the gist of the conversation as she asked him for help, and he turned her away, to wait until the next morning.

My idealistic, naive, self-righteous 20 year old self was appalled. Here he was, a real live missionary, and he was not "moved by compassion." He was not moved at all, except into his dirt courtyard where he shut the gate behind us. I was in Haiti, on a trip that wasn't really a mission trip, but where I learned more about missions in 2 weeks than I had in my previous 20 years. We were staying with an older couple who had been in Haiti for a few years. She was a nurse, and treated many people at an informal clinic on their compound, and also through a mobile version, in their truck. He worked in agricultural ministry. Both these precious people were constantly, faithfully meeting the needs, both spiritual and physical, of the incredibly poor people in their area.

Fast forward a few years, to Senegal, a place where I am surrounded by people everywhere I go. (Unless I am behind a gate like the one mentioned above: at my house, a fellow missionary's house, or a mission compound.) People with needs. It was hard enough at the time. Now, I am bombarded with the "needs" of my little family constantly, and even that wears me out! At the end of the day (or to be honest, even by lunchtime!) I am so behind with meeting our needs that I am often not moved to compassion to help meet the needs of those around me, whether that means a hurting neighbor or the people I see in the Samaritan's Purse newsletter. What can we do about this? How do we become more like Jesus?

 I want to be like Jesus. But my selfishness is painfully apparent. He did not value "me time." He did not arrange his schedule to jealously guard his own space, time, or resources. He gave EVERYTHING he had, an instructed his disciples to do the same, when we sent them out. Not even to bother with an extra cloak or a money bag. How, then, am I so consumed with my own little world that I fail to notice my single-mother-of-4-boys neighbor two doors down has been out of work for a month and so one of my kids' best little friend has actually been going hungry?

Is it perhaps because when the thought crosses my mind, I should pop over and see how Maria's doing, there is always something more pressing that needs to be done? I have to start supper. I have to do laundry. Hannah and I have to finish school. I have to go running. I have to work on the newsletter or write thank you notes. (I have to update the blog ;-) I have to check in with our extended family far away, who's going through hard times. We all have endless to do lists in our heads, and, at least for females,  that list runs non-stop. If you slow down for a second, I feel like I'm so far behind I'll never catch up. It starts the second you wake up and goes till you fall asleep, and sometimes runs in your sleep as well. But the problem is, it is all legitimate things. I wouldn't say we spend alot of time or money pursuing much that is temporal and only benefits ourselves.

So what is the answer? I sincerely want to have a heart and a life that reflects that of our Lord. One that is constantly searching out and ready to actually do the good works I was created to do (Eph 2:10). But I don't often do that. Either because I'm completely wasted by the end of the day with my own family, or because sometimes I just would rather choose to go the coffeeshop for an hour break on that Saturday afternoon Patrick is home with the kids, instead of sitting in someone's incense filled living room listening to blaring music videos in a foreign language trying to politely eat some food I really don't like and try to make small talk all the while wondering how to introduce the Gospel. So how do I go from sincerely needing that break in the evening or on the weekend, to being completely willing to be spent and used up for the sake of the Gospel? 

And don't say "it's just your season in life right now." Little kids, homeschooling, trying to get overseas, all those things. I really don't see anywhere in the Bible where it says you are exempt from this because you have little kids, because you work full time, because your spouse is sick. We all have things. Things that are real, legitimate responsibilities. Good things, like taking care of a husband and children. But even in those things, we are still the lights of the world, that are to do those good works so people will see them and glorify our God in heaven. (Matthew 5:16) It says people will see our good works. Not our yard signs, our Jesus t-shirts, not our 4 spiritual law tracts. I want to do more of those good works. Not because I have to earn my salvation, but because it's what Jesus did. It's who Jesus was. And calling myself a Christian means being like Jesus.