Rooted

Happy September 1!

It's hard to believe it's already September. But I've been looking forward to today for over a month now.

Why?

Because today is the day that we, at the River of Grace, begin our devotional, Rooted.

Why is that a big deal? Because it's by us, for us. We as a group (both past and current members) will be reading and studying through the Word together. Our small groups here will be using this daily devotional as the topic of our times together. The daily entries are being written by those who are or have been leaders within the River.

I have the privilege of previewing all the entries because I edit them before it goes to print. But even though I've already read them all, I'm still so excited to start this. In fact, I'm so excited that I was tempted to start on Friday when the books arrived in the office.

This month we'll be reading through 1 & 2 Corinthians. But the month starts off today with Psalm 1 and about being rooted in the Word.

Alright, I can't wait any longer...

Another gift!

Wow, this has been a week of blessings!

Sunday afternoon, as I was getting ready for our second service at the River, someone came up and handed me this new phone:

It was a gift from someone at the River. But let me back up a bit...

Up until a week ago, my phone served me without a problem (other than me texting too fast for it to keep up). But last Monday morning I woke up and my cell phone alarm went off as usual...but I was unable to turn it off. I had to remove the battery just to shut off the alarm. And the whole week was like that. I was only able to answer a couple calls and barely managed to squeek out a few text messages. My phone decided to become unresponsive countless times throughout the week.

But about the same time that my phone started acting up, my anonymous Gifter placed an order for this phone. You see, this phone is not a locally made phone. It's not some black market, bought out of a cardboard box on the side of the street phone. It's from Europe. It needed time to arrive here. The Gifter didn't even know my phone was acting up!

So Sunday I got another great gift. I love that the Father sees even the little things, the things that matter to us even though we know they shouldn't...and when all we're seeing is frustration, He's watching us thinking "just wait...something better is coming."

Old? Or out of touch?

I've had a few interesting revelations this week. The first is in relation to music. The second relates to slang.

Most of the songs we sing here at the River are "popular" wrshp songs. But I realized that I'm pretty sure they have a different meaning for us (or at least me) here because we don't have them thrust upon us by radio stations and popularity charts. If we hear them, it's because we've chosen to add them to a playlist and listen to it.

Sure, I know what's "popular" and "in" for wrshp services in the states, but I know because I'm reading blogs of other wrshp leaders and seeing what they're playing. When I see new songs listed in their weekly song sets, I look up the lyrics, the chords, and an mp3. That's how I'm exposed to new music. And that's how the River is exposed to it- mostly through my "research."

And I'm glad that the songs that encourage us, challenge us, comfort us aren't songs that we hear 80 times a week on the radio. Sure, hearing the songs on the radio could encourage us repeatedly through the week, but maybe we just wouldn't be encouraged at all anymore. But also, I like that I'm not constantly hearing "professionals" sing the songs the "right" way. The songs we sing become "ours" and they morph a little- to suit our multi-cultural group.

My second revelation happened just now for the umpteenth time this week. I had to look up an abbreviation that I saw on someone's FB status. I'm lucky I even know that FB stands for Facebook. Having limited access to the "lingo" of the online world means that I now sometimes don't understand people's status updates. All those abbreviations, random symbols, and weblinks that don't even look real (actually, at first I thought they were all spam-related and couldn't figure out why so many people's FB statuses had been spammed).

Don't people use words anymore? Can't we just go back to the good ol' days where we spoke in complete words?

I feel old. How am I going to feel when I'm my grandparents' age?

Aw, my very first......

When people move back to their countries, they pass on their things to those who stay behind. Sometimes those things are a huge blessing, sometimes (when you don't need yet another set of dishes, pots, pans, etc.) you end up stockpiling things until some new person comes along.

So someone left. Among their left behind belongings was coffee beans (which can be bought at a price here, so most of us carry coffee & creamer in from our own countries). But the person who they gave them to doesn't drink coffee...so I got them. As well as a hand grinder...which can grind about 2 Tbs of coffee in about 8 hours.

Ok not really, but it's cooler to look at than to use. So I borrowed a friend's electric grinder from the states. As I was fighting to get the plug into the socket, I noticed they'd taped a piece of paper that says "110V ONLY!!!" I almost fried their American coffee grinder. But I have no converter, so I'm out of luck.

So I requested one to be brought with the next visiting team. If they could find a 220V one, awesome. If not, I'm sure I can figure out how to get a power converter.

But just now, a neighbor came by and handed me this box:

I was trying to read the characters as fast as possible to figure out what I was holding, but there's Chinese and Japanese on it and my brain was not cooperating. I wanted to look excited and grateful, but I had no idea what it was. I mean, it could have been a plastic Hello Kitty cup with sparkles floating inside for all I knew. And then he said "it's a coffee grinder. 220V."

What? Seriously? Where did this come from? Who left?

He was in the city today and happened to stop at a household supply store and they had coffee grinders there. Made locally. Wow, this country is changing!

Aw, my very first coffee grinder EVER. I resisted the urge to bust out the coffee beans and make me a cup o' Joe...after all, it was evening.

Wait...how do I use this thing? The (Chinese) instruction booklet says to put in 65 grams of beans. Grams?!? How many Tablespoons is that? Eh, who needs instructions. Dump some beans in, push the button, voila!

This morning I remembered that another neighbor had said he thought I have a 220-110V electricity converter in my house. He explained what it looked like and I went on a scavenger hunt and found it!

This thing seriously weighs about 20 lbs.

And finding it means I can use something else that I found in this house (oh, the joys of living in a big house with lots of random stuff):

Espresso machine!!! Fortunately, this is from America, so the instructions are in English. I'm going to have to go to that household appliance store myself and see if they have a locally made espresso machine that's 220V.

For breakfast this morning I had homemade bread and espresso made from freshly ground coffee beans. Awesome!

Pruning

Any branch in Me that does not bear fruit [that stops bearing] He cuts away (trims off, takes away); and He cleanses and repeatedly prunes every branch that continues to bear fruit, to make it bear more and richer and more excellent fruit. (Jn 15:2 AMP)


This spring, the trees in the area got a severe pruning. Pruning happens every year, but it seems this year was the first year for most trees to go through the process. And man, does it look painful. And ugly.

Some are left with one lonely twig sticking out their hacked off tops. In the spring, these trees seemed like a visual reminder of the season I was in- all non-fruit bearing branches, cut away...and fruit-bearing branches, cleansed and repeatedly pruned. The trees looked lifeless.


I wish I'd taken pictures of these trees as they continued to grow. Green puffs of leaves soon grew out the tops, and later these trees looked like funny lollipops, or Dr. Seuss trees. Now, they are full umbrella-looking trees (which is what they're supposed to look like). They are alive & well.


And even pruned, they looked better than these trees:

In case you can't tell, those are fake flowers taped onto the lower half of a tree. And white Christmas lights randomly thrown (like you would with toilet paper) into the tree.

I think it's better to just embrace the pruning. And wait for the "more excellent" stuff.

Yay!

I've been away from much of the internet for too long. But a friend recently found a way to sneak past "the wall" and I'm now able to surf freely again. And it's just in time- western sites have been harder and harder to access in the last few weeks.

But...hmm...we're having yet another rare thunderstorm and the lights just flashed. I guess my internet time for the night is finished. Time to light some candles and play guitar...what else am I going to do in the dark?

Oh boy...gots to go!

Something's Awry...

Sometimes I like to challenge the ... how do I say it without using the key words ... the impenetrable curtain that prevents me from enjoying cyber-based social freedom.

How do I challenge it?

By attempting to go to places on "the other side." You see, I'm currently VPN-less. Indefinitely...or, at least until I can afford to renew it. So for now I have to live "on this side."

But the grass is greener on the other side. So today, after seeing a blog in my blog feed (I can read the texts on my google home page but can't get to the actual blogs, can't see the pictures or videos), I decided to click on someone's video. And it attempted to play, then told me that an error had occured.

I was frustrated that my hopes had been lifted, only to be smashed. So I copied the URL and tried to go directly to the video site...which has been on "the other side" for a very long time. And, to my surprise, the page loaded. Not that particular video, but I was able to watch a different video (ironically, a Chris Tomlin one...though not a Lent one). Strange.

FB-still a no-go.

Someone's personal blog- hey, it worked! My own personal blog-hey, it worked too!

So what do I do? Get on my blog and blog about being able to blog! ...but it won't last...something's awry...there must be someone important in town...or someone has left their "desk" for a bathroom break.

Goodbye, greener grass...hope to see you again soon...you look nice. But, you know, grass is just for looking at here...it's not for walking on. ;)

School

One week ago I arrived "home" after spending two weeks in Liberia. I've gone back to my normal day-to-day stuff. And even though my entire life is mnstry-based, it's hard to see the progress made in this type of setting. Short-term trips (esp. in non-sensitive areas) have easier-to-measure accomplishments. So today I want to commemorate what we accomplished in Liberia.

This is the school we helped...their old building. The small building, near the flag pol, is the kitchen where the children eat lunch.

There are 117 students, 57 of them are orphans. The rest come from extremely poor villages nearby. There are five teachers in the school. They've been working without pay for years to help these children receive education that very few in that area have available.

So we bought a piece of land down the road from the current orphanage property and school property.

We had foundations laid.

We bought two shipping containers...

...had them placed on the foundations. SO thankful for the Chinese company down the road who gave us the use of their crane for free (cranes are extremely hard to find, almost impossible to get permission for use if you do find them, and really expensive once permission is granted).

...put a roof on top to cover both containers...

...had a wall built between the containers, forming a large classroom in the middle. Each container was also divided into two rooms (4 rooms total, plus the large central room between the containers): 2 classrooms, 1 library, and a storage room/office.

We had the container cut out, windows & doors welded in place and secured with bars...

...peeled all the letters & numbers off the containers....

...painted...

And then we celebrated...

...from room to room...

Tomorrow (Monday) the school will begin having classes in the new building!

Back to My Favorites :)

One week ago I was shopping for juice boxes and snacks to give to each of the 50+ kids at the orphanage as a celebration/goodbye party at our new school.

So I decided to take a look back at the first day I met my favorite new friends...our first full day in the country. We went to the orphanage, spent some time with the kids, then they walked us through the bush to the garden/farm that we'd sent seeds and agricultural experts to train them how to manage it.

Here's the farm. The oldest kids, along with some adults, help maintain the farm.

The kids showed us around and told us what has been planted in each area: corn, cucumbers, peppers (various kinds), pumpkin, collard greens, okra....and SO much more.

Hot peppers are popular there and grow well. So the orphanage is able to sell some of these to help bring in much needed money for food for the kids.

We had brought stuffed animals for all the kids, which is why you see them all carrying them...and, of course, their new toys had to pose for the camera too!

My buddy decided to show off his tree-climbing skills to pick a Paw paw. Not super flavorful, but every time I was offered a piece, I found myself eating it again.

These are mud bricks, for building. They're a very strong, natural, and economic way for people to build their homes.

Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE these kids?!?

The Country

Taking a break from "my favorites" to show some scenery. Sunday afternoons were times for us to go out for a drive to see more of the city.

Here's some random shots from around town.

A bus stop.

This is the road I lived on. It was hard to find at night because there's no lights to see where the road actually is. Our driver missed it a few times.

Here's the not-so-pretty side of town...the not-yet-rebuilt side. Sunday afternoon the streets were empty, but during the week...yikes. Lots of people.

In this part of town, you can still see the marks of years and years of conflicts on the buildings...

...and on the streets. In the last couple years, the major "highways" have started to get redone.

We went to a soccer game one Sunday afternoon in the not-so-pretty side of town. This stadium is a place where people would gather to pr. for peace during the unrest.

Not a ton of people in the stands.

The two teams were both local. One team was made up of members of the church we went to on Sundays.

These are the buildings we looked at if we looked out beyond the stadium.

You can see there's still a lot of rebuilding to be done.

Here's the ocean. Friends have told me that the beaches have just been cleaned up in the last couple years...they used to be really trashed. Literally.

So beautiful!

Next time...more of my favorites! :)