46 years and counting

 Saturday, September 2, 2023

Our houseguest Eki and I sit down to oatmeal for breakfast. W's eats elsewhere, keeping the flu to himself. Later in the day, Ibu S's homemade bread tastes good with peanut butter and kaya honey.

We can only get this in Singapore.

I walk around the neighborhood. Every time I pass benjamina ficus trees, I'm astonished at their height (i.e. the tallest tree in the background). I remember the little potted plants in our Seattle house, dropping leaves left and right. Sigh. Never could make them thrive. Here it's at home and as happy as a maple or oak in the USA.

The dracaena plants you can buy at Home Depot did marginally better in a house. Here they are common and tower in massive hedges.

The problem is keeping vines and other growth off the base of trees. Look at the vines and ferns overtaking this 1 meter (3') tree trunk! So typical.

The palm trees are fruiting again. This kind has luscious non-edible red berries.

Some plants show off multiple colors of flowers and berries at the same time. This shrub begins blooming in red with a yellow center. When the red husk falls off, there's a pretty yellow flower inside.

Even the dustiest leaves may have an exotic stripe, like this brilliant yellow vein.

The neighbors are warding off creatures (bats and squirrels mostly) by wrapping the ripening mangos in rattan pockets.

I poke holes into capri shells and string them together to hang on the Porch's bamboo wind chimes. I don't have the frame I need to make a lamp, which was my original intention. I love the soft clatter of the shells in the breeze.

W is too ill to think of attending IES Bandung tomorrow. The topic is the crucifixion of Jesus (Matthew 27), which moves me to tears each time I read it. I am not looking forward to speaking alone. His death is an awful punishment, paid for my sins and yours. Such brutal suffering, which should have been mine. Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift of salvation!

Sunday

W and I have been married 46 years today, though 1977 seems like another world. We have 4 kids and 4 grandkids. We've lived in Canada, the USA, England, and Indonesia. We've traveled to other countries together and separately.

There are no anniversary celebrations today. W rests over the weekend. He 'zooms' into the board meeting after the Gathering. I haven't spoken alone for a few months, but today that's happening. I appreciate the prayers offered before the Gathering begins.

The hall flowers are gorgeous - Titik has outdone herself with roses, mums, and more.

We love sharing the Communion table each week. As we pass the plate to the next person, we say, "His body broken for us. His blood shed for us." It moves my heart as few things do - remembering.

Tuesday

W's well enough to walk around the block. The dogs are happy to be out. I've been too breathless to take them up the slope on my own. As soon as they hear W near the door, they sit and wait for him to put them on the leash.

Bailey the minipoo squeezes between the big dogs and doesn't mind. Somehow their bodies fit together whether they trot or pause.

After a day of catching up yesterday, this is a day of meetings. Laurel comes over to do her credential exam. The log-in doesn't work but the admin who could help us is sleeping at l1:00 p.m. on the other side of the world. L hangs out for a couple of hours until team meeting.

Titik's arrangement is a pleasure on the porch.

Most of the team arrives in mid-afternoon. It's our last in-person meeting for a while. It's a good group to work with.

The helpers bake cookies and banana bread for most of the day. They stay an extra hour and a half to clean up, without my asking them. What an unexpected treat not to need to clear away dishes.

Wednesday

I'm sleep a few hours before waking at 11:30 (Tuesday pm). I don't fall back asleep before my online meeting at 2:00 a.m. It's with leaders I respect and care about. Seeing them, even online, is a pleasure and worth being awake. I sleep again 4:00 - 6:30, not really long enough. But the sun is up.

Laurel comes by for another try at her credentialing exams. We call the Florida admin to find out how to unlock the tests. Natalie assists us, though it's after 8:00 p.m. there. What a gracious helper! 

Staying nearby gives me a few hours to clean up the planters on the upper balcony, read, and catch up with emails - what a pleasant break.

W takes the dogs for a walk. He's feeling much better though neither of us are up to our usual date breakfast up the hill. IbuA's banana bread is a perfect meal. Laurel enjoys a piece between her 3 exams: doctrine, scripture, and polity of the AG.

I don't remember 3 exams 20? years ago. I slogged through one long test in a room off the faculty lounge at NU. I think my proctor was sipping coffee nearby.

We head for Ethnic Resto to celebrate Laurel getting the tests out of the way. She'll have the results tomorrow or the next day. She and I order a decidedly non-vegan dish (tender steak wrapped around a crushed herb dressing@$9) and W tries their chicken schnitzel.

We pose her under the floral hedge at Ethnic to remember the day.

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*For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 1 Corinthians 5:14-21

Prayer: God, bless our day so that we can be a blessing to others. Amen.