My grandmother moved to an Assisted Living / Skilled Nursing facility during the past year.  Although it was a difficult decision, it has been such a blessing in her life and has really changed the quality of her days.  During my recent visit to Texas, I have been able to visit with her on numerous occasions.   

My grandmother has found a new purpose in life.  She has her own special form of ministry to several of the other
residents.  I witnessed her as she helped one elderly man who is frequently confused and scared.  The staff actually comes and gets my grandmother when they can’t get him to calm down and focus.  Gama is able to talk him down and restore some peace in his mind.  Another resident is afraid to go to dinner because she gets disoriented and can’t find the dining room or can’t find her way back to her room.  But she WILL go to the dining room if my grandmother will go with her and help her stay on course.  While in the elevator one day, a visitor stopped to ask Gama if she would be sure to go by his mother’s room and get her before chapel time.  These connections and relationships seem to have given my grandmother new meaning.  She is needed.  She is making a difference in the lives of others.  

Last week, a new resident came to live at the home.  Gama was concerned for her.  Miss Sara only speaks Spanish.  She can’t communicate with the nurses or with the other residents.  She is confused and frustrated and sad.  Her daughter comes to see her some, and she can help translate for her when she is there.  But the majority of the time, poor Miss Sara is “alone” in an English-speaking world. Gama was worried about her.  

We went to visit Gama today and we were able to meet Miss Sara.  Since we are Spanish-speakers, we were able to sit and talk to her for a while. The nurses were able to talk to her, through us, to ask her some questions about her hobbies and desires. My daughter, also named Sarah, was able to bring Miss Sara some of that special joy that only children can bring to the elderly.  Yes, Miss Sara is sad and lonely, confused and frustrated.  We will be visiting with her more in the coming days. 
We’ll try to help the staff a little and try to make some connections that will ease Miss Sara’s transition into this new step in her life.  I’m glad we are able to speak to her in her heart-language and bring a little comfort to her.

Ministry is everywhere.  My family happens to serve as missionaries in Peru, but we are also able to serve when we are in the States with people like Miss Sara.  My Gama is serving in her everyday life in her new home.  Take some time today to consider where it is that you are serving, or where you might be able to serve.  You might consider going to visit at your local nursing home.  Maybe there is a Miss Sara out there who desperately needs someone like you today.

(Written in December - week before Christmas)
I don’t know about your household, but this household has been anything BUT peaceful over the last couple of weeks!  We are “home” in Texas for Christmas and life is moving at a frightening pace here. There has been shopping to do, food to
prepare, cookies and candies to bake, and gingerbread houses to decorate. There have been parties to attend, gifts to wrap, cards to mail, decorations to be hung, and traveling to visit family and friends.  I’m exhausted!  It seems like the only peace and quiet time available comes between the hours of 1 a.m. and 5 a.m., and frankly I’m just too tired to do anything during those hours right now.

I found myself sitting in the car yesterday, almost in tears, wishing for peace.  Not just the unscheduled time-kind of peace, but the quiet-kind of peace, too.  I wished for a place, for an hour or two, with no television and no loud-speaker Christmas music.  No radio, no commercial jingles for Christmas gifts, no telephone.  I wished for the peace that I see on the faces of the nativity figures in my mom’s nativity scenes.  Everyone looks calm.  I can imagine the tender sounds of the animals in the stable.  It makes me miss my chickens and goats and pig back in Peru, with their sweet barnyard sounds and nudges and soft fur.  I miss the donkey that brays in the morning and the sheep that softly call to their lambs.  I long to be in the barnyard with the smell of fresh grasses and corn, with an amazing sky full of stars overhead and the magnificent Andes mountains looming all around me, the cold wind swooping down from the glacier and covering our valley with clean, crisp air.

I received an answer during this moment of longing and wishing yesterday.  God hears our heart, even when we aren’t intending to pray or lift up our needs or issues – He hears. He gently reminded me that the peace in the nativity scene was laying in the manger… the Prince of Peace.  I knew that, but needed to be reminded yet again. God gently said to me, “I know it’s loud.  I know it’s busy.  I know you are overwhelmed.  I know that you long for peace and quiet and the beauty that those should bring to this season.  I also know that the demands of culture and tradition aren’t going away.  But focus!  Keep your
focus.  You are My Child and I know your heart.  I’m with you, even in the noise and busyness of this time.  I’m walking with you.  We’re still together.  Turn to me at any moment and I’ll be there.” 



So I found Peace. 
He never left me; I was just so overwhelmed that I couldn’t find
Him.  Peace amidst chaos, Peace
amidst noise, Peace that is walking with me through it all, and Peace that
understands and hears my heart and promises to stay - no matter
what.

My first Christmas on the field was pretty eye opening for me.  Our first Christmas away from “home”was in Costa Rica at language school, which is the last big training step before we arrived in Peru.   Granted, we were already having a difficult time… language school is NOT easy, the culture in Costa Rica was very different from what we had expected, our family was having a hard time adjusting, etc.  And I guess I just never thought about what Christmas might be like for us as a family somewhere else.  

I did have the forethought to pack our family Christmas stockings – so at least something from “home” was there and “normal”
for us.  But I had underestimated my attachment to other things that were so tied to our Christmas traditions… my
Christmas dishes, my family ornaments, certain foods… suddenly I realized that these things were not going to be a part of my Christmas this year.  And in a mother’s effort to try to make life (and Christmas) as “normal” as I could for my children, I began to go into a manic frenzy trying to find ornaments and things that would help us cope.

Big issue… we were spending Christmas in a tropical country in Central America!  Guess what they don’t have?  Nothing with snowmen, nothing anywhere close to hot chocolate, no gingerbread houses with snow icing, no cinnamon apple scented candles… none of that!  And all the while, leaf-cutter ants were outside my front door destroying a rose bush and reminding me (I think they were taunting me) that I was living in a rainforest country and CI really started to go into a tailspin.  I shopped everywhere to find ornaments or decorations that reminded us of home and a traditional Christmas, but to no avail.  

So that was the Christmas that we had a tropical Christmas tree.  We had a tree and we had decorations, but that is where the similarities to our traditional Christmas stopped.  Our ornaments were tropical birds and rainforest butterflies, tropical flowers and brightly colored ribbons.  It was different!  (Okay, it was actually pretty.  But it was tough to break the traditions from home.)

There was some normalcy – on Christmas Eve, our Costa Rican church held Christmas Eve services, complete with Christmas hymns and candles and full of families worshiping and sharing the reason for the season – worshiping our Savior Jesus!  I
learned a lot that first Christmas away – I learned a lot about me and my ties to tradition, about my worries as a mother, about how other people celebrate in other cultures… but most of all I learned what Christmas IS and what Christmas ISN’T.  It was a good lesson and a great Christmas!

Without
water


During the past couple of weeks, the water and/or electricity have been off at our house several times.  Sometimes for a few hours, sometimes for the entire day.  The longest period was over this weekend… no water or electricity for two full days.  We never know when this will occur.  We just turn on the faucet and nothing comes out. 

I have noticed several feelings that this evokes in me each time:
 ·        It always seems to take me by surprise and I am shocked to be without water again.
·        It is always a disappointment to me and causes me a slight feeling of depression.
 ·        I am suddenly “in need” of water for various reasons… there are vegetables that need to be washed, I need to cook, laundry needs to be done, we are desperately in need of showers, the plants are wilting, the dishes are dirty, etc.

Having just recently moved to this remote, rural mountain community, I am learning just how much I have always taken some things (modern conveniences) for granted – like running water that I can count on to always be “running”.

It also dawns on me that I often take Christ for granted –my Living Water.  He is always there, always available, always working, always flowing.  What if, one day, I woke up and found out that He had been cut off from me?  That the valve to my Living Water had been closed? Would I be taken by surprise? Would it cause me disappointment and depression? 
Would I suddenly realize just how much I need Him?  Just how much I want Him?  Just how much I take His presence for granted?  Thank Heavens that I don’t need to worry about that ever occurring!

Father – may I always be conscious of you.  May I always be connected. 
And may I continually remember the presence of my Living Water.

PS… my husband just informed me that (Surprise!) we don’t have water again… seriously.

(This blog was written in November.  As of today, our community has been without running water for over a month.  The project to replace the community water main has been slow and difficult and has not gone as planned.  As I post this note, Billy is outside digging with a pickaxe to replace the water lines to our house... he will need to dig approximately 100 yards from our faucet to the new water main so the "powers that be" can come and connect the pipe.  He is digging through Andes rock... pray for him!  Hopefully, we will have water within the week.)