Encouragement As Needed

Well, we still have the oven ... but we think the guy that is wanting it is out of town this week. So we are still holding our breath to see what happens. Thanks for lifting us up about this. This morning I was able to make homemade biscuits and gravy! My sister had sent a couple of gravy packet mixes and I figured out how to make drop biscuits from scratch (nothing fancy!) and it was soooo good! I had a hard time enjoying it though thinking that we might not be able to do this again without an oven. BUT it's not the end of the world, that's for sure. There's are much bigger fish to fry, especially in the area that we live in.

Well, today was just one of 'those' days. Just feeling like we aren't doing enough, we are effective enough, we should have about 4 wheels spinning and we have 2, kwim?

So I went out just to ... well ... what we would call in the States "get a breath of fresh air" ... but that doesn't really apply here. Ha! Anyway, I just needed to get out. We are all the time, but was just a day I needed to go by myself..

As I am in my first of eight auto rickshaw rides, I am thinking, "wow, this might not be a good idea. Someone might do something I have no patience for right now and I need to just be ok with it."

Well, I am happy to tell you that just when we need that little extra 'pick me up' it's there.

First, I walked into a store that I had been into a few times before and the lady security guard DIDN'T EVEN CHECK MY PURSE! I know that seems trivial, but honestly it's HUGE! I have stopped every time to have this guard dig through my purse ... but today she just smiled a big smile at me and motioned me on. WOW. Just not having to go through that little stress of thinking, 'oh what will they find this time that they don't like?' and just not having the privacy of my purse contents invaded again, felt so nice.

Then on my way back, I was waiting along the side of the road to catch another auto rickshaw and there was a lady standing there. I really wanted to strike up a conversation with her, so I just asked her if this is where I should be to go to where I needed to go (even though I knew it was!). She explained that it was and then started telling me all the other ways that I could get there. Very helpful! She spoke in English, but then I told her that I was learning the local language (by speaking the local language) and then she actually started speaking that language to me! Most times, if someone here knows English it is VERY hard to get them to speak that local language to us ... they want to use their English.

Then, I was most amazed because I understood most of what she said. She even told me I spoke very properly and that I will do very well here! KAZAM! That's what I needed to hear.

So, I went back home on the 3 auto rickshaw rides that were left encouraged because I was given some grace today where there usually is none, and I was able to communicate clearly to a lady that was gracious enough to be patient as she spoke the language with me.

This encouraged me so much because I feel like there is progress ... maybe there are only 2 wheels spinning, but we've got them spinning the right way and at the right speed, I am realizing that's a hard thing to do. If we had 4 wheels spinning, we probably would be 'doing' more, but not very well. Does that make any sense? Sometimes I have to remember it's not always about quantity, quality matters more in the long run.

So be encouraged and know that He is faithful to be there in ways we don't expect, but exactly when we need it the most.