My favorite part of the week... sleeping 9 hours at night and also taking at least and hour and half nap with A. I really needed all that sleep. It was absolutely heavenly.
The other great thing about the week was that we were surrounded by creation and we would wake up to the curtains dancing with the wind, in between their beats of dancing, we could see the trees and beautiful blue sky from the bed. It would be such a sight, until A would toss the curtain over her head and call our for Uncle A. I would just laugh thinking how I'm just enjoying this scenery and she's all ready to go and play.
I wanted to see what their life was like as much as resting, so we followed TB's schedule during our time there. But then she became my hero and I remembered why I told God I did not want to be in the tropics or is it just manual labor in the tropics since I do fine with my kind of work. :) TB one morning goes out to the field and works the beds of vegetables with the women. A and I joined. They work from 6:30am-1pm. A and I went and worked hard... After an hour and a half, I was feeling a little heat stricken and had to stop. TB went on til midday. Wow... She is my new heroine. She not only worked the beds, but carried big sacks of things over her head. I'm telling you either something is wrong with my cooling system in my body or I need to like have an electric fan blowing on my face. Heat and I just don't do well together. But I had a great time for that hour and a half... For every half bed I worked, the farm ladies did a bed and a half. I laughed at myself and they told me it's because it's their daily life they could work so fast. I would love to do that again some time. I think if I could get out on the field quicker, I could last longer since it's cooler in the mornings. I think I could at least do the morning shift before the break and then do something in shade after that. :)
The other morning we went on a hike down the mountain to visit some people and hiked back up. TB and I took turns carrying A on our backs. You could imagine going up and down mountains with an extra 18 kilos on your back. But TB and I both thought it was good exercise and had a grand time on the hike. I think that was a highlight for me or at least one of them.
In the afternoons, around 3, A went to a farmer's family's house and stayed their with her new friends. They really aren't friends, they are in high school, but those girls thought A was so cute, after they worked the fields all morning, they wanted to spend the afternoon with A. So A would be gone from 3-6. The girls, 3 of them, would take her around the farm to look at goats, fish, kittens and play doctor. A also became their English tutor. They would practice their English with A and she would talk to them in English. Usually the next morning, the girls would share with us what they did the evening before. A loved her time with them so much that when it was time to come home, she cried because she wanted to stay with them.
So our vacation time was great. We really needed it, enjoyed it and now feel refreshed.
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As I was there, I finished reading Acts, Crazy Love and thought of something.
After the flood, the Lord led me to Acts. As I read the first chapter, I had a desire to live a life like those in Acts. So I read a chapter a day and just studied it a little. I wanted to share some things I've learned.
- The Holy Spirit is at work. Jesus promises us a helper and the Holy Spirit comes and just shakes the place down. People were being filled with the Spirit and radical things started happening. - Read "Forgotten God" by Francis Chan. LORD FILL ME WITH YOUR SPIRIT!
- The Gospel was a part of everything. It didn't matter who, what, where and how, but wherever the apostles were, there was the gospel. Whenever they addressed the crowd, it was with the gospel. LORD LET MY LIPS BE FILLED WITH THE GOSPEL. LET EVERYTHING BE ABOUT YOU JESUS.
- After hearing the gospel, people were baptized right after. Many times in the NT it states, they believed and were baptized. LORD LET BAPTISM NOT BE JUST A RITUAL FOR ME, BUT THAT IT IS A SYMBOL OF BEING A NEW CREATION.
- People gave and shared everything. Once someone became part of the family, they sold and gave so that everyone may have. - Read "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan. LORD LET ME BE QUICK TO GIVE AND WITH A JOYFUL HEART.
- God's people suffered. The people that were proclaiming Jesus were being ostracized, being put to prison, flogged, beaten, killed... Jesus said that following Him ain't going to be easy. He said that if the world thinks your weird, then you are doing the right thing. LORD LET ME NOT THINK THAT FOLLOWING YOU IS GOING TO BE ALL SWEET AND GOOD, LET ME BE READY TO COUNT MY COSTS.
- This is so crazy, but I so long for it. After their suffering, after their flogging, the apostles came out rejoicing at the very thought of how great it is to be worthy to be tortured for Jesus. They had joy in all this. They wanted more. LORD TO HAVE JOY LIKE THIS. LET ME BE SOMEONE TO REJOICE EVEN IN DARKEST DAYS OF MY LIFE.
- The apostles were performing miracles left and right in the name of Jesus. LORD LET ME BELIEVE THAT YOU STILL ARE CAPABLE AND WILLING TO DO THE SAME MIRACLES. LET ME NOT JUST PASS THIS AS SOMETHING YOU DID BACK THEN.
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Please invest in the book "Crazy Love". I do not know Francis Chan and I am not getting paid to say this, but really if you want to read one book this year I think this should be it. I also ask that you read the book prayerfully. You could read the book and just say "oh that was good" and never think about it again. But I believe that if you go into this book prayerfully and really hear what he says, then this could change your world. I mean literally, you could be anywhere but where you are after you read this book.
I had thought about putting down the things I like about the book, then I think people wouldn't go out and get the book. So I won't do it now. Maybe in a few months, hoping that some of you have bought the book, I will jot down some of the points that I particularly enjoyed and was convicted on.
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A thought I had while I was at my friends' house. There is a term "ikut suami" here. It is almost like a phrase that all feminists would be attacking. It means you "followed your husband". So like on our visa here as a family, I was "ikut suami", which just meant that I am under my husband's visa and I wasn't really doing anything here.
After P died, I had trouble with that term, because people were using that on me. Saying that I just followed my husband, like I didn't have a conviction of my own. That bothered me for some time and I really didn't like that people were not seeing me as an individual that the Lord wanted overseas also. The thing is, I know that if I was not comfortable with going, P would have not gone. I also know that if I had any doubts P would have not gone. P knew that it was not just him, but that God was asking us as a couple to make the move. Yes he just happened to be on the way when we met, but that doesn't make it any less my obedience in what the Lord asked me to do.
So when the Lord asked me to go again, I honestly had some doubts. The things people had said became the lies Satan used to hold me back. The Lord worked me through that... and I came with A with God leading every step of the way. So no more "ikut suami", just me...
The other night, I was lying in bed thinking of my time here and thinking of what's next. I thought of how easy it was to just "ikut suami" and not have to do all the thinking on my own. Then the Lord said to me, "but you are "ikut suami" remember I'm your husband". Wow... I was just floored with what the Lord said to me. That's right, Jesus says that He desires to be our friend, our Savior, and even our husband. So here I am again, "ikut suami" and the best "suami" I could ever ask for.
Thank you God for speaking so personally to me.
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I ask for prayer in the area of revival. Ask for revival in the hearts of believers here and for those who do not know that they would come to know. Pray for His spirit to pour down on the people here!!!
