Chocolate and prayers

Thursday, February 13, 2025

We're back in town for a few days before going home. W and I head out to acquire basics we can't get in Indonesia. It feels so cold outside. We bundle up with undershirts, long sleeves, fleeces, coats, gloves, and hats.

One of my tasks is to make a 3-5 minute video for a partner group. That's a long presentation. It takes me a few hours to assemble a PPT with pictures before W edits it into conformity. We record a voice-over; on our fifth take, we are satisfied and send it off as requested.

For supper, Melissa makes a beef roast with all the fixings. Delicious. And the company is wonderful. We admire an antique doll given by Grandmama to the youngest grandchild.

W examines the face - it's old. There were a few Korean clown dolls in the basket the doll came in. We check those out online, too.

30-year-old tall mugs are waiting in the downstairs cabinet, leftovers from our previous life here. Tea tastes different, made with Seattle's chlorinated water. We've learned that boiling the water removes much of the bleach-y overtones while strong black tea makes the drink palatable.

Friday - Valentines Day

We're happy to be with each other. We eat breakfast with the family - eggs, bacon, and pecan pastries with orange juice and tea - and open the valentines the kids have made. M and the kids head out to Valentines Day parties, while W meets a friend for coffee.

After dropping W off with his friend, I shop next door to two discounters: a grocer and a dollar store. Some things that we can't get in Indonesia are easily available and cheap in American grocery stores.

In the parking lot, Asha hails me. What! I just texted her in the car, asking if she's working or available to meet. She hasn't even seen the texts - it's a nice surprise! We walk up some aisles together, hug a few times, and then she's off to her own Valentine appointments.

I enjoy an hour alone in the shops, looking at trends, admiring fast foods and prepared meals (SO MUCH! variety) while gasping at the prices. I put a two sets of reading glasses ($1.50 each) and a few other items in my cart. Back at the flat, I toss them into a suitcase. We'll pack them properly later.

For lunch, I boil frozen pirogies, accompanying them with a scoop of cottage cheese and tomato sauce. Yum. 

W returns later in the afternoon. "What's for supper?" he asks. I'm sated but give him a few options. He chooses a can of soup, which I heat up and pour into a bowl. How simple to eat at home if food just needs warming.

Our son has a stretch massager. You unroll it and plug it in, and your back and neck get pulled every which way. I try it out. Later, I stick my socked feet in their foot massager. Feels like a spa day.

That is, until I start deleting emails in one of my accounts. Yikes - how do you accumulate 2700 emails that you liked and want to read again. "Away with you," she says.

All day long, the kettle is heating water for tea. I like my little tea corner.

Saturday

We join friends for coffee in the morning. The guys' group has met each Saturday for decades. They offer W encouragement and support. Phyllis and I sit across the room to we catch up on kids and prayers and friends.

W drops me at a small mall while he recycles boxes. He picks me up to run some errands. One of those is returning items added to our bill "accidentally" by the cashier yesterday. We exchange a Bisquick package full of ants for an ant-free package. The thrift store has a half-off sale, so we spend $11 on a stainless steel fondue set and a tall bronze candlestick. Decorative and useful, both of them.

We also indulge in favored snacks. Western-style potato chips are so expensive at our Indonesian grocer that we never buy them. Today I pick up a $2 bag with hickory-smoke barbecue flavor. W and I nibble on them for a few days.

A special parcel from Keelee arrives in the mail. Inside are home-baked coffee/chocolate cookies I love, accompanied by a wooden finger labyrinth. The labyrinth is a physical accompaniment to prayer that stills the mind and rests the soul. Can't wait to use it. Keelee sends instructions as well as a loving note. My heart is warmed.

The 4 grandkids are with us in the afternoon (yay for Dicks Burgers and Half Price Books) and then occupy themselves with their acquisitions, from books to building blocks. The kids play a violin concert before we enjoy the pizza Kinsey bakes and sample hot apple cider and chamomile tea.

Wes drops by in the evening with a gift of chocolate, which our helpers will chop to bake cookies for movie night and other events. Hurrah! We pray over our families and our concerns together.

I try to sleep for an hour before giving up to read and write.

Read more:

*God said, “Ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.” Jeremiah 6:16

We want each one of you to show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope to the very end, so that you may not become sluggish but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Hebrews 6:11-12

Moravian Prayer: As we walk through life, guiding God, help us to avoid the dangers and distractions that tempt us to stray. Like the saints before us, help us to walk with you, diligently serving and patiently trusting that we will see your promises fulfilled and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

Lent Day 2: "I choose you"

It's great to be chosen. Remember those awful ordeals in elementary school, where the strongest kids were chosen for sports teams and the rest of us got picked "middle and end" of the draw?

Over 36 years ago, my good friend and I chose each other. We got engaged. My mom and I planned the wedding and sent invitations to friends and acquaintances.

Over 35 years ago, W (that friend) and I got married. We agreed our marriage would be "for better and worse, in sickness and in health, for richer and poorer." I walked down the aisle thinking, "This is the person I'll grow old with. I bet I'll still like him when we are 60." (Mind you, I also thought, "Thank God, I don't have to date anymore." A strange sentiment for a bride, perhaps?)

W and I have had romantic years and fight-it-out years. Kid years when we hardly saw each other: I nearly drowned in childcare and homeschooling while W worked overtime at church. We spent years praying and puzzling about how to guide our interesting and exasperating teens. There were years of sickness and health for our daughter when we had barely enough energy to get up in the morning. Two sons married. One child moved out of town. We went back to school to learn new things. We traveled to foreign lands to teach. And we're still together.

Even more enduring (and endearing) is the model of love we learned as part of God's family. God chose us and committed to us before we loved him or knew him. He called us to Himself, inclined us to listen and respond, and provided reconciliation between us through Jesus Christ.

On this second day of Lent, I'm grateful for many experiences of loving and being loved. God has taught us that love is meant for giving and receiving. W and I are blessed with good parents and siblings. We love our children. We have many friends to hold dear.

Underneath the experiences and the years are the Everlasting Arms, sustaining, caring, and enriching every interaction. I'm so glad to be God's beloved this Valentine's Day. How about you?

Oh ... and of course I'm grateful for Prince Charming, too! Love you, hon.

Read more:
*I am the Lord your God, who teaches you for your own good, who leads you in the way you should go. Isaiah 48:17

*Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.  So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Matthew 10:29-31 NIV

*Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 1 John 4:7-11 NIV


Moravian Prayer: Instructor of the universe, we wait with open and longing hearts for you to teach us the ways in which we should live in a right relationship with all you have created. Amen.