Maureen's Musings

Winter Mornings

2007-01-28T00:59:00.000Z

In my last post, I mentioned that Jeremy and I had planned to walk to school. We did that for a couple of times but the weather has not been very accommodating. It had either been raining or it was just too cold.

Anyway, last Monday I decided that we needed to resume our walk to school. Jeremy protested and said that it was still too cold. He really did not like the exercise and had gotten used to the ride to school or so I thought.

I asked Anthony what the temperature was and was told that it was in the low 30s. So I told Jeremy that if we bundled up, we could make the walk to school and added that we would get warm once we started walking. After some fussing from him, we were out of the door. We walked to the front of the house when Jeremy said that he wanted his scarf so we went back into the house. With the scarf round his neck and mouth, we set off again. It was cold and Jeremy was complaining, but I was determined to walk. He fussed a little but went along with my decision. This time we walked to the first intersection (3 houses down the road) and crossed it. By then, I had to admit that with the wind blowing, it was getting just too cold. We were sniffing and there were “tears” in our eyes. I looked at Jeremy and told him that he was right and I was wrong and that t was just too cold to walk. He smiled and we laughingly returned to the house. I got the car keys and we drove happily to school. When I came back, Anthony said that the wind chill was about 12 degree!

That incident started me thinking about what a privilege it is to be accepted and be able to admit that I am wrong. I make mistakes in my judgments. I am not perfect and never will be till my Lord changes me. But it is OK. I can change and move on to do what is right. My son accepted me and loved me anyway. I praise and thank God for accepting us as we are and for being so patient with us even in our stubborn ways. May we continue to learn and change to become the “Image of His Son”. Have a GREAT WEEK!

Staying on Track

2007-01-20T04:16:00.000Z

One day, last week, I went walking with Jeremy and Jonathan just to become familiar with the route to Jeremy’s school. Our first few weeks in Albany, Jeremy took the school bus to school, but since we need the exercise we decided that we would walk to school in the morning and he will only take the school bus back after school.

There are a few roads that lead to his school and they are pretty close to one another. The road we live on is one of them. It’s a pretty straight shot to his school though the road curves a bit. It’s about 0.8 miles with quite a lot of intersections. We started off that day, but at the 2^nd intersection, I decided to take a left turn and go on the next road thinking that it would be a shorter way to his school since we would avoid the curves in the road. We walked and walked and thought that we should be near the school but it was still not in sight. Jonathan suggested that we might be lost. I was pretty sure that we would soon see the school so continued walking. Somehow, as we crossed the various intersections, instead of staying on the one road, we had walked to another road without realizing it. I must admit that I was a little unfamiliar with where we were though I know that we would not be too far off. (Albany is a small town). Since we had made a left turn along the way, I realized that we had to turn and veered right when we came to the next intersection. Anyway, we finally saw the school. We were a couple of streets off where I thought we were supposed to be! It took us 45 minutes to walk to the school instead of the 20 minutes that it would have if we had gone on that “straight” road.

The experience reminded me of our Christian life. Jesus is the Way and if we live our lives guided by Him, we will reach our destination, our eternal abode with God. But if we decide to wander off and look for our own ways, we may get “lost” and not find our way. I am so glad that we have a choice to change our ways when we realize our mistake. Praise God for His patience with us.

A Sister of Great Faith

2007-01-10T13:08:00.000Z

It is hard to imagine being persecuted and blamed for the death of your own daughter whom you love and whose death is not your fault. But this is situation of our dear sister, Ablavino, in Tabligbo, Togo. We received the sad news that Ablavi, Ablavino’s daughter, died and she was persecuted and blamed by her husband and family for her daughter’s death. The reason is because Ablavino is the only Christian in her family of voodoo worshippers.

I plead with you to mourn with Ablivino and pray for her that God’s Spirit be with her and that He will bless her with His strength to go through this time of bereavement. This sister has gone through a lot for her faith and she is being tested yet again. It was reported that when some Christians went to visit, pray and encourage her, she responded with tears in her eyes, "I will receive everything that God gives with thanksgiving." Praise God for her faith. What a great encouragement! May God give us the faith and strength to walk with Him through this life whatever life brings our way!

new beginnings

2007-01-03T14:36:00.000Z

I thought I would have started back to writing after my arrival in the States last June but…….. Each time I wanted to share what was going with my life, there just seemed to be so many things I wanted to say. I felt that I had to start from the beginning of my life in the States and I was intimidated by the task. Week after week passed and the stories I wanted to share seem to be old news and so my blogs never were written.

Well, the New Year has arrived, so I am determined to leave last year behind and start anew. Before I do, I just want to ask you to praise and thank the Lord with me for guiding, protecting and leading us and finally, bringing us here to Albany, Texas. I believe Anthony has kept you all up to date about our travels and our time in Alabama. I praise God for the wonderful people (His people) that He has sent to bless our lives along the way. Thank you!

Well, here goes my first blog in 2007! I made some curry puffs (kind of a meat and potato patties with a curry flavor) for the church New Year’s Eve get together. I was using a pastry cutter to cut round shapes out of the pastry dough thinking that I would have uniform curry puffs! But I was mistaken. Though the dough was cut evenly, by the time I put the fillings in and shaped them, every one was different. Some were “prettier” than others and some were not so nice looking, but they were all basically the same – same pastry and filling. They will taste the same and I was not going to discard them just because they were not so pretty. As I looked at them, it reminded me that we are all similar to those pieces of pastry. God made each of us in his own image and yet we are different. Some are pretty and others are plain. Some are born with a silver spoon in their mouth and for others, life is just hard. Some are good and faithful and others, they just seem to mess up all the time. Nevertheless, God still loves every one of us the same, despite our differences and He will never consider anyone worthy of being discarded. I praise and thank Him for accepting us as we are.

By the way, Jonathan and Jeremy were very excited that I made those curry puffs as they really enjoy them, especially Jonathan, and they reminded him of our time in Togo when I made them often.

Happy New Year and May God bless you richly and your walk with Him be ever more intimate.

2006-05-17T02:29:00.000Z

It’s been a long time since I last posted a blog. These past months seem to have passed by in a whirl. As I write this, I have been in Singapore a week now. We will be spending a total of 3 weeks here visiting with my family before going to the States. It wasn’t too long ago when we were just planning our departure from Togo after almost 13 years in West Africa.

At this stage of my life, I feel like what Sarah might have felt when she was informed by Abraham that God had asked him to leave his home and go to a country where God would show him. She left with Abraham, not knowing where they were going.

Like Sarah, I am now embarking on a journey to an unknown destination, not knowing where I will end up in but knowing my rightful place is beside Anthony and my kids. We feet that God is calling us to go back to the States but where to, is still a mystery. This journey will be a testing of our faith. It is difficult not knowing what we will be doing (job/ministry) and where we will be going to settle with the added fact that I have not lived in the States before except for the few months that we were on furloughs.

Even though I have moments when I am anxious about the future, I am reassured by God’s faithfulness and goodness all these years. He called me to Ghana, (then Benin and Togo) and provided me with the love of my life and 2 beautiful boys. He has seen us though all the numerous bouts of malaria and other illnesses. He has provided us with all we need, friends and families who love us and encourage us, a wonderful team to work with. He has shown His faithfulness and love for us, moreso over these past months, as we packed up “our life” in Togo and left for Singapore. There were many moments of anxiety as we packed our stuff to be shipped back to the States, wondering whether it would all fit in the container (we shared a container with 2 other families), and yet we ended up with more room to spare. The clearing up of the house and getting rid of stuff that we had accumulated all these years added to my anxiety level and yet it was accomplished without too much of a hassle. I was anxious about our luggage as we left Togo since they were somewhat a little over the weight limit. (We were allowed 2 pieces of luggage each from Togo to Paris but only one piece each from Paris to Singapore, so I was limited as to what I could bring with us) and yet there was never a problem with our luggage. We were to spend 2 nights in Paris and the weather reports for our time there were showers and thunderstorms, but yet we had 3 wonderful days of beautiful weather and sightseeing. I was concerned about Jonathan as he had proved to be a handful on long flights and yet he slept through most of the flights. In all these blessings, I have been reminded of God’s love and answers to our prayers.

These may seem trivial to many, but they have reminded me that our God cares for us in our ordinary, everyday events and He is definitely interested and care for us in our future.

Join me in praising our God, the Almighty, who holds our future in His hand. May His Name be forever praised and glorified.

Home Alone

2006-03-12T07:26:00.000Z

On Friday morning, I sent Anthony and the boys off on a camping trip to the Pendjari game park in northern Benin. It is a Fathers and sons trip for our team with the exception of our teachers and Brenda Holland’s sister, Glenda. This will be the last trip to the game park for the Parker and the Holland boys before we leave Togo. It is the long awaited trip and the boys were excited. I believe the big guys are also thrilled to be making the trip.

I had mixed emotions as I said my good-byes. Jeremy, my first born, gave me kisses and hugs and said that he will miss me and Jon, though he hugged and kissed me seems more excited about getting to play on his hand held game in the car and be with the other kids. It took a couple of hours to load up the 2 vehicles with all their bags, camping gears and food and water before they leave.

The couple of days prior to the departure, I was frantically trying to make various snacks and bake calzones for their long trip. With so many growing boys and full grown men and the 3 gals, we, the ladies had been baking up a storm to make sure that our men and boys will not go hungry for the next 4 days! So, it was kind of a relief to see them off after all the preparations and frenzy. Home alone at last, I thought.

I cannot remember when the last time I was alone. I guess it would have been when I was in England working as a midwife 16 years ago. Since then, I have always had people with me, my family in Singapore and then Anthony and kids after my marriage. I wasn’t sure how I will fare during their absence. I had plan to take the time while they are away to do some packing. We have only less than 3 weeks before we have to pack our container. After they got off, Christine and Louise offered to come by the house to help me do some packing. We were able to pack most of Anthony’s books and some of the kitchenware. In the evening I walked to an Indian friend’s house to visit and ended up having a chapatti dinner at her place. I came home to an empty house and it felt a little weird. After almost ten years of marriage, I am so used to coming back home to hugs and kisses and noise from my boys.

It was kind of nice to go to bed and wake up as and when I wish and not to have to think about what I am going to prepare for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is nice to have quiet time without interruption. But I do miss the hugs and kisses, (the boys always asked to be given big hugs “so much so that their eyes pop up”. I kind of miss Jonathan climbing into bed with me at 5.30 am and asking for his chocolate milk. I miss the boys coming to me and said, “May I have something to eat, I’m hungry” even though they had a meal just a little while ago. I miss Jon asking, “Mom, do you remember….” and he will quote some lines and theme songs from certain movies and expect me to know what he is saying. I miss having my first cup of coffee brought to me as soon as I woke up in the morning (I have been spoiled by Anthony).

This afternoon, we will come together at Brenda’s place for time worship and prayers. So far, it hasn’t been too bad without my 3 boys. I have things to keep me occupied but I am looking forward to their return tomorrow. Join me in prayers that they will have a wonderful time and have a safe trip back. May the trip make beautiful and wonderful memories for them.

An Unforgettable Valentine

2006-02-14T17:28:00.000Z

This morning, we got up and were excited about going down to Lomé (the capital city) for our Valentine’s date. Just me and Anthony. Since we were going to take the car down to a mechanic to have some work done on the car, we decided to take advantage of having a meal at a nice restaurant. Arrangements have been made for our teammates to keep the boys after school.

We dropped off the car at the mechanic in Lomé and walked out to the main road to catch a taxi. We waited for a while and a taxi stopped. There were 3 other people in the taxi which is not uncommon. We just wanted to go down a little way to an art and crafts shop so weren’t too bothered about the cramped space. I started to go to the front seat but was told by the driver to get in the back. Anthony sat in the front seat beside the door with another guy in the middle. Not long after we got on the way, the front “passenger” was fidgeting about and started pushing the seat back. Anyway, the seat suddenly went a little too far back and the passenger beside me gave a big yell as his foot was “caught”. There was a lot of pushing and I asked the driver to stop but he kept on going. After a while, he stopped the car and asked that Anthony change places with the other front-seat passenger. Before long, the passenger started moving the front seat again and the guy whose feet was caught earlier fussed again. Then the driver stopped the car and told us that “it isn’t working and we had to take another taxi” The second we were out of the car, he took off. It was then that Anthony found out that not only his wallet was gone and but also the cash he had in his back pocket. It was with a sick feeling that we realized that we had been pick-pocketed. Obviously, the four guys in the taxi had been in cahoots.

You would have thought that after being in Africa for 13 years now, we would have known better. It was a scam and we fell prey to it. It reminded me what Peter said in 1^st Peter 5:8 about being alert for the enemy; the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Just as we are pick pocketed because we let our guard down, Satan can attack us when we least expect it.

Despite the unpleasantness of the situation, we are thankful to God for keeping us safe. The men could have driven us somewhere and robbed and hurt us. Anyway, we found another taxi and went back to the mechanic to get our car and ended up at a small restaurant for a light meal. It wasn’t the Valentine’s meal that we had envisioned but we are thankful nonetheless for an unforgettable Valentine’s Day.

The Oven

2006-02-11T12:22:00.000Z

It’s been a while since my last post. At that time, my oven was out and I have been doing some baking over at the teacher’s and Brenda’s (one of my team-mates) houses. I just want to share with you that my oven, has since been fixed as from last Tuesday. Praise the Lord, it was an answer to our prayers.

What’s so great about an oven being fixed you may ask?

Over here in Togo, one does not get access to a repairman easily. Moreover, even if you find one, he may not have the necessary tools or parts to replace the broken part. Added to that, most of the repairs done are done through trial and error! We have a fridge which has been with the repairman for over 5 months now and he is still ”testing” it.

Anyway, we had someone look at the oven and after fiddling with it and tearing it apart, he told us that the thermostat was broken and that was the reason why the oven would not light up. He said that he could fix so that the oven would light up, but we will not be able to control the fire with the oven knob. That was a mistake as the oven smoked whenever it was lit!

So for almost 2 months, I tried to do as little baking as possible and when I did, I went to the teachers’ or Brenda’s house. It wasn’t a big deal, though a little troublesome. What bothered me was that the stove was to go to a sister here after we leave and I did not feel good with the oven not working.

Meanwhile, we contacted Maurice, our contact person in the States, and he ordered the part and sent it to us. We received the part after about 3 weeks. The repairman who checked the oven was out of town so Anthony tried to do it himself. On the first attempt, after he meddled with it for some time, it lit up but there was lots of black smoke. After a couple of days, he tried again and it would light up and seemed to be working but when he put everything back together, it wouldn’t work. After all the time spent on it, it was a little discouraging.

Meanwhile, my teammates were thinking that since the teachers eat with each family 4 days a week and they do not do much baking, they suggested that we switch our stove. They suggested that, should the teachers wanted to bake, they could just go next door, where the Hollands live, to do their baking. I felt it wasn’t fair for the teachers to have to give up their oven to make it more convenient for me. And I really did not mind driving over there to do my baking. Anyway, I felt that if we switched the stoves, the suggestion would have to come from the teachers themselves so that they will not feel that they have to do it just because we asked them to.

On Monday, Jenna (one of the teachers) called me and offered to switch our stoves. I said that I would think about it and will let them know later. I did not know why I was reluctant to do so but somehow felt that I should wait.

Anyway, the following day, Anthony dismantled the oven again and fiddled with it and, lo and behold, the oven worked! I told him that he was my hero for working so hard on it.

A thought came to me then that the oven works because our God is Gracious. In His love and goodness, He made it work because He saw his children’s willingness to sacrifice something for others. He was able to work it out that neither one of us, the teachers nor I, needed to do without! I do not think that it is a coincidence that the oven worked on the third attempt. I have no doubt that our Jehovah Jireh can cause and loves to work out everything for good to us who love him but sometimes it gives Him extreme pleasure to see us give up something of ourselves . He wants us to learn something to help us die to self and be more like Him.

He shows he cares for us even in little significant things like an oven!

May we continue to die to self that we may grow to be like our Lord Jesus.

Broken things

2006-01-08T17:05:00.000Z

Another 4 more months and our lives in West Africa will come to an end. 12 years for me and 13 years for Anthony have been spent in the countries of Ghana, Benin and Togo. What will the future hold? Where will we be going? What ministry will we be doing? At this stage, we do not know but the only sure thing is that we know that God has a plan for us and we are to wait for Him to reveal His plans for us.

Just as Anthony has mentioned in this week’s Tabligbo Times, our team’s newsletter, “One danger that missionaries face as they prepare to leave a field of service is "checking out" too early--being physically present but emotionally uninvolved in the work. Our household appliances seem to have gotten word that we are planning to leave, and have decided to "check out" before we do. So far, we've lost two refrigerators, two DVD players, a television, a microwave oven (which we have been able to get fixed, sort of) and this week our gas oven decided to check out--a hard-to-replace thermostat mechanism went out, meaning that the oven will not even light up.” And this happened over the past few months.

It is frustrating. I have been asking myself what God is trying to teach me in all this. Yesterday, as I was driving to a village with Christine, my teammate, and as I was voicing my frustrations to her, I heard myself saying that “Boy, am I glad that in heaven, there will be no broken down things. Every thing will be perfect” and that’s when I realized that I have my answer from God. Everything on earth is just temporary and I am not to be attached to things on this earth. I am reminded about my time here on earth, people will get sick or old and die, things will get broken eventually, but what is important is not things that are tangible but eternal and that’s one thing that no one can take away from us. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your heart is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21. I pray that God will help me not to be discouraged or be too frustrated with my broken down appliances but learn to be thankful for what I have.

I praise and thank God for His Son Jesus, whom He freely gave, that we may have eternal life through Him. I am thankful for His providence of everything we need. A teammate has loaned us a small fridge to use and other teammates have offered their ovens for me to use. And I know that He will continue to provide as the needs arises! OUR GOD IS GOOD!

2005-12-01T06:48:00.000Z

Dark clouds were gathering as we were all sitting under the agbado (a shelter made with palm branches supported on poles) out in the village of Adankonukope. It was the annual women’s conference among the Watchi and over a hundred women and children were all gathered together to sing and praise God. Earlier on we had been shown to our abode for the night, a mud hut with a grass roof. Part of the sky could be seen as there was a hole in the thatched roof. We (six women from our team) had made our pallets on the tarp-covered mud floor just before assembling for the meeting. When I saw the dark clouds, the lightning, and heard the thunder roar, I couldn’t help but be worried about rain falling. Deep down, I knew that God could cause the wind to shift and stop the rain. So, I began praying as the rest of the people were singing praises to our God. I prayed that I believed He is the Lord of everything and acknowledged that He is able to control the weather. I asked that He make the wind shift and not let us have rain. My concern was that we would all be drenched and our stuff and bedding soaked. Even as I was praying, I started feeling the patters of the raindrops. I prayed more fervently. But the rain continued to fall, though not heavily. I told myself that I trust God but I couldn’t help but think of our stuff in the hut. What if it all got wet? Where would we sleep? Etc…….I felt that I had to do something. I ran to our truck and got out a tarp, hoping to cover our stuff in the hut. I realized that it was not possible to protect everything. Whatever I covered, the rain would just roll off and soak the other stuff. The only way was to get someone to go up on the roof and cover the hole. With so much going on, that wasn’t possible. As the rain continued to fall, all of us left the agbado and fled and packed into other shelters, (the cooking area and the church building.)

It was then that God convicted me that I was like Peter when he was walking towards Jesus on the sea and sank because of his little faith. I said that I believed in Him and then I was frantic, trying to take control of the situation myself. Most of the people were just sitting around and waiting out the storm. I felt God’s gentle rebuke, ”Oh, you of little faith.” I decided then to lay my worry aside and started to sing praises to God with the rest of the women. Before long, even though the sky was still overcast, the rain stopped and most of our stuff was not even wet. The rain had cooled the temperature down a good bit and we were able to have a pretty cool night instead of a hot and humid one. Isn’t our God great?! He loves us and gives us good gifts despite our unbelief. Just imagine how much we can expect from Him if we believe. “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” (Matthew 21:22)

God's Grace to Me

2005-11-01T17:00:00.000Z

Never could I imagine that when I left Singapore to work as a nurse at the Mission Clinic in Kumasi, Ghana in 1994, that God would change my life and bless me so richly. This cannot be anything other than His amazing grace.

Grace—the unmerited favor—something that we do not earn or deserve but God gives so freely!

Yes, I went to Ghana as a single woman, having given up on the idea of finding a mate and have my own family. But God had his own plan. He found me a wonderful, loving man in Anthony and blessed me with our first born, Jeremy, at the age of 40. Three years later, He blessed us with Jonathan through adoption.

Today, Anthony and I are celebrating our 9^th Anniversary. Nine blessed years of marriage, learning and growing together and most of all, walking hand in hand with our blessed Savior and Friend, Jesus.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! Daa!

My "Absence"

2005-10-26T10:52:00.000Z

My apologies to those who have been checking here but not finding anything new. Well, we have been under some health stress lately. Two weeks back I had a bout of malaria. I took some medication and thought I had gotten over it when I was feeling better. Then, last Wednesday, after our visitors left, I started feeling bad again. This time the malaria count had gone up. I felt bad and was unable to get out of bed for 3-4 days. Only yesterday did I feel good enough to get out of bed. I had my blood tested and I still have malaria. I am not sure what I’m going to do. One doctor suggested that I go on quinine. Another suggested that I hold on all medication and just take doxycycline for a week to give my liver a rest. I am pretty discouraged as I just do not have the energy to do anything. I just feel tired all the time.

But God is faithful. I read a passage in Lamentations 3:17 onwards and derived great encouragement from it. The writer says, ”I have been deprived of peace (health, in my case); I have forgotten what prosperity is (in my case, good health). So I say, my splendor is gone, and all that I hoped from the Lord. I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them and my soul is downcast within me. (In my case, I keep feeling that I’m not going to get over the malaria, so I’m downcast.) But the next verse says, ‘Yet this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.’” It was as though God was speaking directly to me; he will give me the strength to get through this.

If I Don't Praise Him...

2005-09-29T22:40:00.000Z

“If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” (Luke 19:40)

I just want to share this with you so that you can praise God with me for His goodness and mercy.

What a morning I had this past Wednesday! It started with some exercise in the yard (trying to encourage my older son Jeremy to do the same). After that, it was a rush trying to get breakfast ready and prepare lunch for the boys to take to school and have some for Anthony and me. You see, Wednesday is the day I go to Tsevie (che-vee-ay, a town about 45 minutes away from where we live) for language study. I felt rushed but managed to leave the house and arrived at my language teacher’s house only a few minutes late. I had decided that it would be my last session with Kate. The reasons are that I really do not like driving on my own especially with the road being bad with lots of potholes and also, with Jonathan starting pre-school and at a later time than Jeremy and finishing early, it is hard to juggle time to have everything done. I had a good session with Kate, said my goodbye and was soon on my way home.

All the time that we’ve lived in Africa, we’ve always tried to remember to ask God for traveling mercies because we have seen a few too many wrecks on the road! I know that if it were not for His mercy, I might not be here today.

I was driving back from Kate’s, about three-fourths of the way home, and was about to pass a trailor truck that was parked on the other side of the road when I saw two more large trucks coming from the opposite direction. When they were about 100 meters away, I saw the second truck attempting to overtake the truck in front. I was hoping that the driver of the second truck would stop overtaking when he saw my vehicle but to my dismay, he kept on coming. I realized that there will not be space on the 2 lane road (with a parked truck on the other side) so I tried to go as close to the edge of the road as possible. He overtook the truck in front but because of the parked truck on his side of the road he cut into my side of the road and “squeezed” in between the parked truck and my vehicle, almost pushing me off the road. I saw my side mirror being pushed in and then heard the sound of scraping metal. By then we had both stopped. I was scared, but I was more upset than anything at the driver for his reckless driving. Praise the Lord that I was unharmed and the vehicle had only some scratches. Since it would be too time consuming to try to make a police report, and seeing that there wasn’t much damage done, I went on my way.

As if that incident weren’t enough, when I reached Tabligbo, and as I turned into our road, I got stuck in the mud. The rain over the past few days has made mud of the newly graded road. Anyway, with help from some people who were on the road, I was able to get out of the mud and drove on to the school to pick up Jonathan. I had called Anthony and he soon joined me at the school after having walked most of the way before catching a motorcycle taxi. It was such a relief to see him and to be back safe and sound. May God bless our going out and coming in. Praise Him.

Keep It Flowing

2005-09-10T22:25:00.000Z

It was one of those days that I’ve just come to accept as part and parcel of living here in Tabligbo, Togo. The power went off sometime during the morning. And then the water came in little spurts before it stopped completely. “They must be working on the power line and so the pump isn’t working to pump the water. Hope it will not be a whole day affair,” I thought.

Before too long, the power was restored but the water came back for only a few seconds and then stopped again. It was a little frustrating at first, as it was my baking day and there were quite a lot of dishes and utensils to be washed. Anyway, we do have some barrels of water for such an occasion and so, out went the bucket to be filled and brought back to the house. The bucket had to be filled a few times during the course of the day but I was fine and did not think too much of it. By late afternoon, when the water situation remained the same, I decided to check with my teammates to see whether their water was out too. Somehow, by then, I had the nagging feeling that something was not quite right. When they told me that they had water, I knew that it may be our line. Anyway, I decided to go out and check on our water pipe by the meter. It did not surprise me too much when I found the main faucet turned off. The minute I turned it on, there was water coming out from the faucets in the house! Some little fingers had turned it off and on questioning my younger son, Jonathan, (he was playing outside the house the whole morning with his friends), he reluctantly admitted that he did it but stressed that it was an “aksidone.” After receiving the admonition that he should not play with the faucet any more, he went back happily to his play, glad that he was not punished.

It occurred to me that I had gone almost the whole day without water in the house from the faucets, not because there was no water but that the main faucet was turned off. I can’t help but think of the many times that I have gone “dry” because I did not turn on the faucet of the Living Water. Our Lord Jesus said that He is the Living Water and anyone who drinks from Him will never be thirsty.

The ladies on our team are doing the Beth Moore study,” Believing God” and something she said made me think of what happened above. “God is so much more than we have yet acknowledged and experienced. He is capable of tremendously more than we have witnessed. I have become utterly convinced that we see so little because we believe Him for so little.” “We receive not because we ask not”, James said.

May we stop every now and then to check our lives and see that we have not, by accident or on purpose, shut off the flow of the Living Water.

2005-08-24T19:51:00.000Z

It’s been a while since I posted a blog. Last month, the boys and I traveled to Singapore to see my family. It was nice but we missed Anthony as he was over in the States. A couple of days before I came back, I started to have a cold and sore throat. With the long air flights, taking care of the 2 boys and lack of sleep, the cold flared up into “full blown” bronchitis. After a course of antibiotics, the fever and cold symptoms subsided but the cough continues and it remains with me still, usually worse during the morning and at night. About 2 weeks after we came back, I had malaria (Anthony had it first) and as if that were not enough, I discovered last week that I have shingles.

It should have been a very discouraging past month but it was not. Because God has been good to me. He blesses me with good teammates who provided us with meals when I didn’t feel like getting out of bed to cook, and keeping the boys so that I could rest, He gave me strength to deal with the discomfort of the sickness. He gave me examples of people who have gone through much worse and yet able to praise God (Dee, you are one of those) and His many promises in the Bible—my favorite being, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” Also, the example of Paul entreating the Lord to remove his thorn in the flesh but was given the answer, “my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness.”, who went on to say that “for when I am weak, then am I strong.” All these sicknesses have drawn me closer to God as I have more time to talk to Him and I am assured that God’s grace is sufficient for me and He will give me the strength that I need to deal with my ailments. Thank you to all of you who have been praying for my recovery.

Scary Things

2005-06-24T16:10:00.000Z

On Father’s day, after worship, we went for lunch at a newly opened beach hotel. The food was good and after lunch we stayed on at the beach. Jonathan really like the beach and wanted to play, jumping into the waves. I was a little apprehensive as the waves seemed pretty rough but decided to go with Jonathan, staying close to the shore. There is a breakwater so I thought it would be pretty safe. We had a good time till a big wave swept me and Jonathan off our feet and we went under the water but we managed to get up. I thought Jon would be scared but when I asked him, he said that he was but he liked scary things. He wanted to stay on so we stayed for a little while more. Jeremy and Jonathan then played in the small swimming pool before they wanted to go back to play on the beach jumping into the waves again. I had them on each side of me that time. We were having fun till another big wave swept Jonathan off his feet. I reached down to get him when another wave came in and I lost my balance. Jeremy, by then, was down on the sand too. A few waves came in succession and for a second, I thought I’d lost them both. But I was able to push Jonathan further up the beach while a worker at the hotel managed to get hold of Jeremy. I had a hard time getting up as I must have hurt my knee when I fell, but was able to get out of the waves finally. Anthony wasn’t around as he was away retrieving a kite that Jeremy was flying before it got away. It was a scary experience but I thank God that He was with us and protected us from harm. Anyway, when we recovered and dried off, I told Anthony what happened and mentioned what Jonathan said about liking “scary things”. Jon interrupted and told us, “I don’t like scary things anymore.” I guess that the last wave was a little too much for him.

Looking back, what scares me most is what Jonathan said about liking scary things. I can’t help but think of what he might get himself into in the future. I have to remind myself that not to worry but to trust God to take care of him. As his mom, my job is to be there for him, to teach him and to lift him up to our Heavenly Father.

Reward for a Job Well Done

2005-06-21T12:51:00.000Z

The day before Father’s day, I helped my boys made a little booklet card for Anthony. Jeremy was excited at first but then started to whine as he thought that it was too much work. He needed some pushing but finally got it done. Just before he went to bed that night, he enthusiastically added some finishing touch to the booklet, all excited about giving it to daddy.

The next day at breakfast, when Jeremy gave the card to daddy, he was so pleased and happy that daddy loved the card and started telling daddy how he put the card together. In all his excitement, he had forgotten that it was pretty hard work to put the card together. When I asked him whether it was worth all the hard work, he smiled and agreed that it was worth it because daddy like it and it made daddy happy.

It reminded me that our Christian life is just like that, following Jesus is not always easy. We have to work hard at it because of our sinful nature but won’t it be worth it all when we see God’s approval as he says “Well done”.

A Good Day

2005-06-15T05:49:00.000Z

“Dear God, Thank you for a good day……and give me a good day tomorrow………amen.”

That’s always part of the prayer that my older son, Jeremy says every night. For a while, I have been telling him that he should not always say the same thing every night and to not always think about himself and the “give me”. Then it occurred to me that it’s his faith and trust in God to give him a good day. In his mind, a good day can only come from God and it’s OK to ask His Father to give it to him daily. No wonder Jesus said “let the little children come to me, for such is the kingdom of heaven”. For many of us, we would never feel right to ask God for a good time, or a good day. We may ask Him to guide us or provide what we need, but a good day…(at least for me) no, it just doesn’t seem right to ask for that. So instead, we trust in ourselves to have a good day, to do things that will make our day pleasant and most of the time, at the end of our day, we cannot say that we have a good day. Maybe, the reason why our days are not so good is because we do not ask. “You do not have because you do not ask” (James 4:2).

For Jeremy, he asks God for a good day and when the day is over, he thanks God for the good day. It does not matter whether he has “boo boos” or that he is disappointed over some things….it is a good day and he can go to sleep and wake up to have another good day. Oh, how good it is to be a child and just trust in our Heavenly Father to give us a good day

If at first ...

2005-06-11T06:16:00.000Z

I have always enjoyed cooking and that means trying out new recipes and “perfecting” old ones. Sometimes, the food doesn’t always turn out like it should. For me the food I cooked never turn out the same, even though I may use the same ingredients. The day before, I made some cinnamon rolls and dinner rolls. They were the best ever, soft and ymmmmm so good, (even if I say so myself). Actually my husband and kids rave about those rolls. A thought just came to mind. The rolls were so good because I had the previous ones (not so good ones) to compare with. It’s as though God is impressing on me that all our previous experiences in life counts, whether good or bad, to mold us into what He wants us to be. And if, I stopped baking just because my rolls weren’t that good, I would have missed out on some good ones.

So, don’t be discouraged by some bad experience, let God use it to teach you and mold you.