Winter Mornings

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.