Here’s a game I like
I like this mouse game. Why? Because! 😉 When I play the game I learn about colours. If you want the game, it’s free here:
😯
Whose turn is it?
I really need to keep track of whose turn it is, so I guess I’d better write it down. Whose turn it is to be sick, that is. Here’s the way it looked in March:
Hannah gets sick
Shari gets sick
Hannah gets better
Jim gets sick
Shari gets better
Hannah gets sick
Jim gets better
Hannah gets better
Shari gets sick
Shari gets better
Yep, that’s what I was afraid of. It’s MY TURN!!! :crazy:
Seriously, that’s how it has been in March. Yikes. I think we’re all healthy at the moment, but of course very tired. The rest of this week is still busy, but I don’t think quite as crazy as it has been the last couple of weeks. Unless, of course, one of us gets sick again!
We did have some encouragement in the midst of it all. We were able to get together with some friends (in between sicknesses – right after the last ‘Hannah gets better’ and before ‘Shari gets sick’) on Saturday night. On Sunday night I presented the last half of the 2000 years of Missions seminar, which I think went well (you’ll have to ask someone who went for the real story!). And yesterday night we enjoyed some time with friends in Three Hills. Thanks so much to everyone who came! Hope you had fun.
Anyway, today we’re slowly getting unpacked and trying to get some semblance of order in this place! See y’all later. 🙂
Gearing up for the weekend
It’s time for an update on all that’s been happening here. Let me just say that it’s been a tiring, and very expensive week! So there’s good news and bad news, I suppose.
First, you’ll be glad to hear that whatever Hannah had only lasted 24 hours. So she’s over it. Praise the Lord! But it was rough while it lasted.
Secondly, the car is fixed. We did all our running around on the bus yesterday, but we were able to get the car back just in time this morning for Shari to make it to an appointment she had. The repairs were costly. It was actually nothing new – just a nagging problem that we’ve had for a couple years that we just didn’t do a good enough job of fixing the first time (it wasn’t anybody’s fault – just a judgement call that didn’t turn out to be the best). So in a way that’s good news that there’s nothing “new” wrong with it. After all, it is 21 years old. It may have been time to buy a new vehicle rather than spending so much on repairs, but we’re still in the process of raising money for a new vehicle and so far have only a small % of what we need. So for now this will have to do!
I was determined to get to bed early, to start catching up on a week and a half of sleep deprivation. Of course when you want to sleep, you can’t! 😕 And then at one or two in the morning Hannah got up and decided it was time to play, and had a temper tantrum when Shari told her it was time to sleep. So we dealt with that, and once again are looking ahead to the day when we can again get a full night of sleep!
Ending on a good note, though. Though exhausted, I seem to be over whatever I had – it lasted about a week (Monday to Monday). And we have some bright spots over the next few days. Saturday night some guests are coming over and we’re going to share a bit about Mexico. Sunday night I’m presenting part II of the 2000 years of missions seminar (come!). And on Monday we’re heading to Three Hills to share there. Yes, we will be lucky to survive all this in our condition. But you have to understand that these are encouraging points in our lives and they will at least renew us in spirit if not in body! Meanwhile, pray that God would multiply our sleeping hours! 😉
When it rains it pours
When it rains, it pours! Do you know where that saying comes from? It’s an old proverb that was reworked into it’s present form by a salt company. Pouring of salt is actually a rather new way of doing things. Salt was often a little moist, and might be served on a plate. You could just take a little pinch and add it to your food.
Of course, in this day and age we like the convenience of pouring salt, but at first it was a problem – if the air got too moist, your salt shaker would clog up. So the Morton salt company came up with the slogan – When it rains, it pours!, and they started using the logo of a girl holding an umbrella. This is achieved by putting chemicals on the salt.
Well, around here it’s pouring! I mentioned in my last note (written this morning) that Hannah had been sick overnight. Well, she’s been kind of struggling all day – nothing serious, but enough to mean we’ve had to watch her and do a lot of laundry (which around here is costing us a fortune. 9 loads in one day and more to do!). After a week of very little sleep (I was sick) and a lot of work, we were up half the night and looking forward to perhaps the same tonight. I also went for a long walk and run this evening. No, not just for fun – some car trouble. We were actually taking the car in on Wednesday to have it checked out, but it didn’t last that long. So I walked home, called the tow truck, jogged back to the car to meet the tow truck, and walked home. This was on the way to my errands, so I guess they’re just going to have to wait!
So here we are, car-deprived, sleep deprived, and hoping there will be at least a little sleep tonight! I hope though that it will be said of us in times like this, that when it rains we can still pour …we can still be the salt of the earth and praise the Lord. I have to still say that the Lord is giving us strength. And hey, it could be a lot worse. We really do have a lot to praise God for! For example, Hannah’s happily playing here at the moment. I’ve been able to eat a little today. But do pray that we will get through the next few days, and survive the cost of laundry (!) and car repairs. And I’ll try to report in later! Meanwhile, visit the Morton salt company by clicking here.
Ploughing ahead
God’s been giving us strength as we’ve ploughed ahead over the last few days! Shari has been slowing getting over whatever bug she had, although I (Jim) have now been pretty sick for about a week. Last night I was able to present the first half of my seminar, 2000 years of Missions, at our home church. There was an excellent turn-out, and I’m hoping for even more next week (so if you’re in the area please come!). The response was great and I got some helpful feedback that I’ll use next time I present the seminar.
Last night I was having trouble sleeping. I finally got to sleep, but then woke to hear Hannah in distress. We got up and found that she was sick, so we’ve been more or less up with her ever since (with a few naps in between). So needless to say we’re all a little tired around here at the beginning of another very busy week! But God is giving us strength, and I’m sure He’s listening to your prayers.
Hannah seems to be feeling a little better at the moment (hence I’m able to stop in and say hi to you!) so here’s hoping!
Patrick’s Letter to Coroticus
I finished reading Patrick’s letter to the soldiers of Coroticus, which was actually a public rebuke of a raider who had taken a whole group of new Christians as slaves. Patrick writes with a kind of poetry that works like copyright protection. The letter was probably meant to be read and recited all over Ireland, and it would have been very difficult to copy incorrectly because the poetry would no longer “work”.
Here’s one section where Patrick defends his calling as a missionary, explaining that He is a slave of the Spirit and yet he does what he does for the wonderful eternal life that he looks forward to (reminds me of Hebrews 12:2). (Patrick was, of course, carried off as a slave to Ireland originally):
Could I have come to Ireland without thought of God, merely in my own interest?
Who was it made me come?
For here I am a ‘prisoner of the Spirit’ (Acts 20:22) so that I may not see any of my family.
Can it be out of the kindness of my heart that I carry out such a labour of mercy on a people
who once captured me
when they wrecked my father’s house and carried off his servants?
For by descent I was a freeman,
born of a decurion [a position of leadership] father;
yet I have sold this nobility of mine,
I am not ashamed, nor do I regret that it might have meant some advantage to others.
In short, I am a slave in Christ to this faraway people for the indescribable glory of ‘everlasting life which is in Jesus Christ our Lord’. (Rom 6:23)
For more on Patrick click here. Some of you may recognize this as chiastic poetry.
I used Patrick as an illustration when I spoke this morning in church – he’s kind of the opposite of Jonah, who did everything he could to avoid sharing God’s mercy with his enemies. Patrick, on the other hand, risked his life to share Christ with those who had taken him as a slave in his younger days. That shows what God’s mercy is really all about (see Rom 15:8-9, Luke 6:27-36)