Sunday, December 16, 2018
The talk is simple today, since we have all the children in the hall, along with the adults. It's art Sunday, too. JOY is our topic. We put four tables around the hall and fill them with supplies for drawing, painting, and making ornaments.
Ibu Teti brings out her stash of crafts - and holds the mike to sing on the worship team ... from the back table.
The creativity is quite something
When we get home, I check on the 4.7 Kg (10 lb?) turkey brining in salt water in a stockpot. I make the stuffing for tomorrow.
There's a reason why we don't have turkey at every feast - it's imported and expennnnnssssive. This little one cost our friends $50US. Thanks for the generous gift, Bob and Riga! (EEEK. I'm missing Safeway or Albertsons of the past, where we bought a 10kg (22 lb) turkey for under $5?
Monday
I start before 6am, cooking the turkey, peeling potatoes, arranging plates, and doing other kitchen chores. Tabitha ties the cutlery into Christmas napkins and finds lots of ways to make the morning easier.
It's birthday time for three participants - plus we're hosting our annual Christmas lunch for study members. Everyone brings something along. I take a break between for an online call, which concludes after 9.
The peeled potatoes are smothered in the slow cooker by cream, garlic, and seasonings. I prep vegetables and - while the study wraps up - cut the turkey and make gravy.
The group calls me outside. They hand W and me an unexpected gift: an overnight stay at a local hot springs and resort. Oh my! I blink back tears at their generosity and love - it is just what W and I need.
Once everything is laid out and the table set, people stream into the kitchen. 17 of us sit around the dining table and squeeze into the nook (small compared to most of our home events). It's a party to fill the heart. Those we've come to love as our Indonesian family relax with us and we eat way too much together.
Ibu Sumi bakes 4 loaves of bread for us to take along on tomorrow's trip to Jakarta. The kitchen smells of fresh bread later into the night. We resist temptation and don't even pick at the loaves.
Tabi and I talk until after 9pm. When I get to our bedroom, I see a message reminding me to hop online for a meeting. Oh oh! I'm SO late. The host - my spiritual director - graciously comes back and spends over an hour with me. We wrap up at 10:45 - I am soooo tired! but by the time I get to sleep, it's almost midnight.
Tuesday
First thing, I pack up breads, jams, baskets and liners, and three White Elephant gifts. W carries our contribution to a fun event into the car. Waldemar, Tabitha, and I are on the way at 6am for Jakarta. Pak Gum drives as we snooze and read.
I've filled a bag with sliced apples and crackers, and have a thermos of tea to enjoy along the way. We curl up in the back seat but it's only 4.5 hours to the city. Not bad. There are construction holdups, accidents, and other slowdowns on the toll road and in the city, about 110 miles (160km) away. (Coming back takes five hours.)
IES Center is hosting an annual Christmas lunch downtown for staff and volunteers from various branches. It is SO good to see our friends again. There are many sweet little ones, babes in arms or little people running around - many of the young adults have married and started their families. We chat and laugh a lot: one of the activities is a White Elephant exchange - everyone takes a gift from under the tree in the lobby. Then the real fun begins. "You can open your own gift or take someone else's," Gigi explains.
Cars and motorcycles are honking at us: our rear tyre is flat. It thumps around and around until we find a place to pull over. The guys change the tire, and we're off again. We need to pump up the spare, so we pull into the first rest stop.
Meanwhile, the traffic is building. Cars and trucks weave in and out of lanes on the toll road. It starts to rain as we near Bandung. We're in the driveway before 7pm.
W and Tabitha walk to Alice and Dr H's, where the young adults are feasting together in their last meeting of the year. They're dropping off a fun "little something" with a group going to Australia to visit Scott and Sarah over Christmas.
When W and T return, we listen to "bad music" (yup, that's a genre in W's collection). And we laugh and laugh. Sometimes laughter is the healing response to a busy or heavy heart. We pray together about 10:30 pm and hug goodnight on the way to our rooms.
Wednesday
I'm up at 5:30 with the light. The agenda is still not done for this morning's meeting at 9. But all is well when we meet in the office. W and I walk home, thankful for proximity to our neighborhood - that is such a blessing! Tabitha and Waldemar jump in the car for the airport after we have a short time together. She's on her way back home to Malaysia.
Tabitha was a very "easy guest," which we no longer take for granted. Guests can be demanding and unhelpful when life revolves around them and their needs. (You wanted "real" in the blog, right? Every host across the globe will say the same. "Please stay home if you're self-centered." Oops, was that too real or harsh?)
In contrast, Tabitha constantly surprised me; she found every opportunity to help, to hold something, or put food on a plate. What a great boost in a week where people were dropping by, where we provided hospitality for church, and where the unexpected kept popping up. What a blessing. I miss her already.
At Monday's late-night meeting, I admitted to my spiritual director that high-intensity events and travels "cost me something." She noted my awareness was good; however, I needed to prioritize Sabbath in whatever form would help me recover. I do that easily. "Checking out" produces no guilt at all = I watched my dad nap after lunch and supper every day, and resume work in a "morning" mood. I also withdraw often in the busiest seasons, which keeps me refreshed for high surges of planning and activity.
Thursday
We're up early but I can feel my knees are sore. While W walks in the hills with the dogs, I edit and send a book chapter to a publisher. I start in on a second chapter, but don't have it in me yet. I'll wait.
The helpers are going through the whole house one more time before Christmas guests arrive. Alice sometimes uses our upstairs rooms for Christmas overflow - she takes care of the needs and meals of her guests. When rooms are available, people come to stay for various reasons. It's part of our love of hospitality. And it's part of the giving season of Christmas, when God came among us as a baby, to love us and show us what the Father is like.
Read more:
*The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. Psalm 19:7 NKJV
*[Zachariah spoke over his son John:] And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace. Luke 1:76-79 NIV
*[Simeon's words over the baby Jesus:] “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us—to show mercy to our ancestors and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. Luke 1:68-75 NIV
*All who obey his commandments abide in God, and God abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us. 1 John 3:24
Moravian Prayer: Living Spirit, enter our hearts and stay for a while. Give us the simplicity we need to see you at work in the world and give us the wisdom we need to submit to you at work in our lives. Give us the sense we need to praise you forever. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment