Friday, August 31, 2007

Good Days...


As many of you know from my newsletter and other correspndances, I have had my share of up and down days since being here. I wanted to share with you how good God really is. I have had a wonderful week and it is all because of the people here who God allows me to spend time with! Last Saturday we had a "Ladies Tea" at our house. Tea time is a new thing to we Americans, but is something that I will be bringing home with me! We invited all of the ladies from church to our home Saturday afternoon for tea and biscuits (cookies, cakes, etc). I would say about 15 ladies came and we had a ball! Judy had baked almost the entire day prior to the tea and we had an amazing array of sweets. The ladies simply enjoyed being together and one another's company. Transportation is a huge hinderance for the members of Gelvan Park as I would venture to say only about 20% of the congregation have a car. This prevents people from spending as much time together as they would like. That afternoon we proposed and established a "Ladies Day Out" that will occur on the first Saturday of every month. We will meet and simply spend the day together. 3-4 ladies will rotate turns organizing the day. Everyone has expressed how excited they are about this time we will get to spend together. On Sunday we had our regular meeting that morning and then a city-wide sing a long that afternoon. It was a busy day as our team was invited to Auntie Jayne's home for her birthday. We went directly from church to her home for a braai and then spent the afternoon with her family until the sing a long. African gatherings often include tea and sweets and the sing a long was no exception. After singing I believe we served about 150 people tea and sweets. The coolest part of the whole day for me was after all was said and done. As you can imagine, a pretty good mess was left afterwards and we jumped in to help clean up. The young kids from church also joined us. Together we did the dishes and cleaned the kitchen allowing the ladies who usually do it a chance to sit and enjoy visiting with each other. Africans love to sing and boy did we sing! We sang everything from church songs to Christmas carrolls while cleaning that kitchen! At the end, the kitchen was sparkling and a good time was had by all. Times like this with our family make me wonder how I can even acknowledge the bad days that come. God is so good to remind us how much He loves us through those around us if we'll just open our eyes and see. After three months the new is wearing off and I finally feel like I am getting to know my family here. This to me, is what I am enjoying the most. I am so looking forward to sharing the next year or so with people I am falling more in love with every day! I would encourage you to spend time with the people around you, not simply in passing or for an hour twice a week but really make time to share in one another's lives. I promise, you won't be disappointed.

8 comments:

Guy and Nancy said...

Hi Lindsay LOO LOO! I actually have not read your blog entry yet, but Guy looked at your latest entry and said, "ahhhhh, she has zero comments" so this is a sympathy comment. haha-i do plan on reading your entry though. So, how are u? I haven't heard from you since i wrote that terrible advice to you. are you not talking to me now???? HAHA - I went to Abuelos in College Station and ate a whole queso on my own just for you..YEAH!! I missed you and was sad! Yes, you can watch the office with me...Please do! Love you, Nan

David and Olivia said...

Linds, so good to hear you refer to people there as "family." What a neat comment, and it really shows that you are one the way to becoming an African. God is good and the fact that we are continually "amazed" at all the good times He gives us always makes me smile. :) I guess that shows our true lack of understanding of Who He is, yet His true understanding of who we are. Wow. Still praying for you... guess He's hearing us! Love you chica. LIV

Unknown said...

Lindz-
When you come to Russia, we'll have some 'tea time' together. My mom will also love that tradition! Your new face lift looks great. I am all about change every once in a while! You are always in our thoughts.

Kimberly Charise Heard said...

Hey girl! It sounds like you're busy busy! That's really good. I'm proud of you for everything ya'll are doing. I know it's hard sometimes but it's comforting to know that we're all going through this together. I'm jealous of the lady's day ya'll get to have. We don't get to do that because of certain reasons and it's really frustrating but we're finding other things to do. I love you so much and I miss you! Keep serving the Lord! Ciao!

Francie said...

Hey Lindsay girl... I told you that you would fall in love with the country and the people... There is something about the simple life, simple wants that beckons to my heart and I guess yours too... I keep the boys informs on what you are doing... They think it's pretty cool... (not their words) Anyway, you are missed and we all are very proud of you.... Love you! Francie

Morgan Eliason said...

Lindsay!
I'm glad to see that you have a blog also. It sounds like you are having a great time in Africa! It is fun to see what you are up to. If you get a chance e-mail me or leave me a note on my blog and let me know if anything new is going on! My blog address is www.lancenmorgan.blogspot.com. Hope to hear from you soon. Just a little info for ya! Bryce had his third baby yesterday.. So they now have two boys and a girl! They named her Zoey!
Love, Morgan

Unknown said...

So Lindz-
I am waiting on you to write a new blog! I want to hear from you and how you are doing! We think about you often- especially today seeing your pictures up! So, blog again, or e-mail me. Better yet- do both! We love you and are proud of you!

Unknown said...

Lindsay,

I just wanted to tell you that the web address you have for us is wrong. We don't use that any more. We have allaboutcanaan.blogspot.com and moscowmissions.blogspot.com.

It was good talking to you the other day. God bless...Dougle