A Bittersweet Road Trip

Our road trip was bitter for one reason: the purpose of the trip was to say goodbye to the Johnson family and to help them load their container bound for the US.  It seems brutally unfair that our time in country would overlap so very little.

The SWEET of the road trip was glorious, though.  I mean look at the smiles of these kids as they play with other missionary kids.  Oh, how I have missed that bubbling excitement......

We are also blessed by the opportunity to purchase some of the Johnson's household items.  We chose not to ship furniture and appliances from the States, but on my master planning/packing list I jotted down three items I wished we could bring, but that wouldn't fit in our luggage.  The three items were: a good piece of carpet, a keyboard, and a rocking chair.

Then I forgot about it.

Shortly before we left the States, the Johnsons sent an e-mail stating what they would be selling upon departure and we oh-so-enthusiastically committed to their soon-to-be abandoned goods. 

A couple weeks after that, we were doing our final packing in San Antonio using that master planning list when I noticed the three items I would miss without bringing a container.  When I realized we would be getting all three of those items from the Johnson family, I started crying so hard and so fast Philip thought I had bit my tongue.  Thank you, Lord, for answering prayers we didn't even know to ask.

So, last weekend we picked up those blessed items, plus their bed from the United States (yes!), a dresser, a wardrobe, and a saw.  Here we go loaded up again......the blue tarp is not to protect our new purchases from rain, but from the red dirt of the roads.....

The people group with whom they lived sent the Johnsons off well with hours and hours of singing and dancing.  It was a gift to us to sneak in on their farewell party, and we'll let you in on it, too.  Enjoy!  (Oh, by the way, the jingles on their waist are bottlecaps and the noisemakers on their ankles seem to be crushed tin cans.)

Coming Together

Today I was looking forward to a time I had set with my friend "the bleacher" (who washes and irons clothes) to walk around the neighborhood and learn some new things.  Well, of course, the never-ending checklist of truck errands needed my attention at the same time I had set with my friend, so I asked if he wanted to come along for a taxi ride and then return in our truck.  

Here is a picture of my friend, our taxi driver who is Rastafarian, and me.  Yes, that is a seashell at the end of one of his dreads.  No, we are not in Jamaica.  No, despite the look on my friend's face we are not about to have an accident.  Yes, I did learn a lot on that short drive!

After we picked up the truck, my friend wanted to take me to his home to meet his wife and daughter before our walk.  I was excited to do this since we've been so curious about where all these people live.  We drove into his neighborhood and had to back up once because the "road" (I use that term lightly) was too narrow for the truck to fit between the mud-brick walls.  We finally made it to his courtyard where he, his wife, daughter, and mother live.  The girl next to him in the picture is his niece whom he cares for since her mother died and her father cannot get a job.  All the bricks in the pile behind them he made by hand for the new house he is about to build for his little family.  It will feature one bedroom and a living room, which will be an upgrade from the one room structure in which they currently live.

This is millet hanging from the tree in their courtyard.  They grind the millet by hand and the resulting powder is on the tarp in the background.

 Inside his mother's house more millet and corn hang from the roof for future meals:

His wife was busy preparing their dinner, a portion of which she sent home with me for Sara and the kids.

By the time we visited with one of his brother's family, some of his friends, and headed back to our neighborhood it was already getting dark.  We postponed our walk so he could get back home, rest, and get ready to work his second job.  I am humbled by this hard working man, and his family's generosity toward us. 

Our truck paperwork is almost complete and, in the meantime, we are making friends.  It feels like things are coming together.

"My whole life I have been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted, 

until I discovered the interruptions were my work." 

 Henry Nouwen

Past Timbuktu

"When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.  Be careful you do not forget the Lord your God." 

Deuteronomy 8:10-11

You better believe we are not forgetting the Lord our God on this day.......the day we received our first care package! It wasn't the first care package shipped to us, but it's the first one to find us all 383 miles past Timbuktu!

I wish this box could tell us the journey it has been on the last six weeks......and why there are chicken feathers stuck to the side.

Pepperoni, craisins, and granola bars sure do make a rather exciting lunch.....all the more exciting for the simple fact that it means we have not fallen off the face of the earth! 

Packages CAN find us after all.  What a sweet day! 

Thank you, Abba Father.