Good to be back, overall May 30, 2008

This week was full of ups and downs – but then again, which week isn’t? On Tuesday and even Wednesday I was still very tired from the trip back (one would say I had a transatlantic flight behind me or something), and aside from the satisfaction of sorting out my room and finding a place for all the new things I bought, and catching up on the Internet, I felt very useless. I saw one or two people I had gotten stuff for in SA, and it was nice to visit with them. Yesterday was extremely frustrating. Our water bill was lying on the dining room table, and I couldn’t figure out whether it had been paid or not, so I thought I would go by and see, as I couldn’t reach Angie to ask her. To my dismay, there was a terrible cue in front of the water company’s offices, which I stood in for over an hour until Angie let me know that our bill was paid, and I gave up my idea of trying to pay the Grace Missions bill while I was there. Therefore, what I thought would be a quick trip to town ended up taking nearly three hours. I was further upset because our building permit still isn’t ready – originally they said it would be 2 weeks, and now it has been more than 2 months already, and because when I went by the bookshop I discovered quite a few things that our workers there haven’t been doing right. They weren’t open yet, and so I was quietly fuming about everything that was wrong, without being able to discuss it with them. At such times I always feel I should make more of an effort to spend time with the workers, going by there on hours that they are open and making sure again and again that they understand what I expect of them. And yet, when I get busy with other work days can go by that I’m not free to even do the most basic check-up on matters there. I also feel frustrated by the challenge of balancing all the different aspects of my job – the upcoming conference, the bookshop, the book programme, the Grace Missions workers… I am happy though that the fog of the first few days have lifted and things are once again familiar and I feel I sort of know where I want to be going. It has been wonderful having Angie here and getting to know her better – and a added bonus was that she could cut my hair yesterday!

A few prayer requests:

- that our building permits will be processed speedily and granted without hassle

- that I would maintain a joyful attitude even when circumstances beyond my control throw off my day and waste my time

- that the Lord would give me wisdom in giving the right amount of attention to all the different jobs that I need to do, and make me a better and more grace-ful bookshop manager

Back home May 27, 2008

Originally I would have been in SA for just short of three weeks, but for various reasons, it turned into four. It’s astounding how fast the time flew! My sister and I spent a long weekend in Vryheid with our mom and grandmother, where we also attended a wedding. It was 3 May and freezing cold, who would have thought it? It was an old friend from church who got married, and a friend my time at seminary who preached, and it was a blessing to be there and share in their joy. The weekend was far too short, though, and I would have loved to spend some more time with my mom.
Back in Pretoria I needed to do a lot more preparation for a presentation that I was scheduled to do at my home church’s Missions Week. I needed to present not only the work of Dr Woodrow and I, but also that of a couple connected to our church who work in Chiconono, in Niassa province, as well as Roland and Susan Seiler who are here at the SIL centre and who also have ties with Constantia Park Baptist Church. I think it went okay, I certainly talked a lot… After that it was nice to enjoy the rest of the missions week and not have anything stressful to think about for a few weeks. I was mostly  without transport, which meant that friends who wanted to see me needed to come and fetch me. I therefore also got some good rest by being stuck wherever I was staying, but it was rather frustrating as I needed to do quite a lot of shopping, stocking up on certain things, getting some things for the flat and also buying specific articles for friends in Nampula. This was one of the reasons that my extra week was truly advantageous, because it took much longer to get everything taken care of than I thought it would.

It was a great blessing to be with my friends from church – I felt very loved and well taken care of! I managed to be with my old Bible study group twice, and each time I was so encouraged. Roland Eskinazi, our speaker at the Missions Week, spoke amongst other things about joy in and love for Christ being our greatest motivation in mission, and he addressed so many issues close to my heart. The fight for joy in Christ and continually walking in His presence has been a recurring theme in my life the last months, a struggle with no end even remotely in sight. Yet I think I needed some reminding that intimacy with Christ is not an end in itself, but should lead to zealous proclamation of His Name and glory to the lost.

The trip back to Nampula was tiring, having to get up early to miss the peak hour traffic on the way to the airport, then waiting to board, and then a further 3 hour stopover in Maputo that turned into something more like 4 hours, as we were sitting on the runway waiting for some problem with the door of the aeroplane to be resolved. I finally got home around 17h45 yesterday evening, only to discover that the city has been without water since the weekend. That didn’t exactly put me in a wonderful mood, but mostly I just needed sleep. Everything seems more familiar and do-able today, thank the Lord! A very busy, but hopefully also exciting, time lies ahead of us.