Golden Patches
Today’s topic: 5 blessings in my life.
As the day was ending this evening and I was contemplating all the blessings in my life, the sun shone through the clouds and turned certain parts of the city and ocean golden. That’s exactly how blessings feel - the golden patches where God is shining through all the other things and lighting up our lives.
There are so many blessings in life, far to many to name, and only listing 5 will barely even scratch the surface, especially if I began listing all the people that I am blessed to have in my life - my husband, el besto, family, close friends, coworkers, students….. the list could go on. So I want to list 5 blessings that I am particularly thankful for here in Timor-Leste.
1. Water. For most people I know, this is something that we completely take for granted. But earlier this week, we had absolutely NO water at our house for 3 days. We’ve gone without water before for short periods of time when the power was out or the pump wasn’t working, but during those times we were still able to manually get water from the tank outside and bring it inside to do the usual tasks that require water. But this time, the tank was completely empty when the pump stopped working! Things quickly deteriorate when there is no water - you can't shower or wash hands, the bathroom smells from not being able to flush the toilet, ants over run the kitchen because there’s no way to wash dishes….. it made me think of all the people in the world that face this hardship on a regular basis. I feel so blessed to usually have the convenience of running water when ever I need it!
2. A car. For the first 7 months of living here in Timor-Leste, we didn’t have a car. I caught a mikrolet (public mini-bus) to work each morning, which sometimes was difficult since they are often over crowded. And then I would walk home each evening, since by that time of day the mikrolets were not only over crowded, but now everyone was hot and smelly from the heat of the day. Grocery shopping was always a challenge because I had to carefully plan out what I needed to buy so I would be able to fit it in my backpack to carry it all home, and if I forgot something, it wasn’t easy to just run back to the store for it. It was also difficult to explore the city or run errands without a vehicle. So when we finally got a car in March, it really opened up my freedom to be able to get around and do the things I needed to do. Back home, often having a car is an expected part of life, but finally getting a car here has been such a blessing to me.
3. Nestor, our cat. Today marks exactly 1 year of having him in our lives. We often think back to the first 3 months of our time here in Timor-Leste before we got him and wonder what we did without him! He is our constant entertainment and brings so much joy to our life! Despite all the special needs we’ve had to help him get through in the past year, we love him to bits!
4. Health. In our 15 months here so far, we’ve been blessed by good health. Other than a sore throat now and then, losing my voice a couple times, a mysterious rash, and a couple spider bites, I haven’t had any major health issues. Dengue and malaria are the ones that we particularly are trying to avoid (and possibly Zika), but even viruses, stomach issues, and many other possible ailments we have both been blessed, thus far, to evade.
5. Abundance. Even though we live in a big house compared to most people here, we live a fairly simple life compared to life back home. We don’t have a TV or unlimited internet. We have to make many things from scratch if we want to eat them - bread, granola, tortilla chips, popcorn, etc. Our walls are bare and several rooms are mostly empty. But we are blessed abundantly by the things that we need, and even many of the things we want. God is good and our cup is constantly running over!
As the day was ending this evening and I was contemplating all the blessings in my life, the sun shone through the clouds and turned certain parts of the city and ocean golden. That’s exactly how blessings feel - the golden patches where God is shining through all the other things and lighting up our lives.
There are so many blessings in life, far to many to name, and only listing 5 will barely even scratch the surface, especially if I began listing all the people that I am blessed to have in my life - my husband, el besto, family, close friends, coworkers, students….. the list could go on. So I want to list 5 blessings that I am particularly thankful for here in Timor-Leste.
1. Water. For most people I know, this is something that we completely take for granted. But earlier this week, we had absolutely NO water at our house for 3 days. We’ve gone without water before for short periods of time when the power was out or the pump wasn’t working, but during those times we were still able to manually get water from the tank outside and bring it inside to do the usual tasks that require water. But this time, the tank was completely empty when the pump stopped working! Things quickly deteriorate when there is no water - you can't shower or wash hands, the bathroom smells from not being able to flush the toilet, ants over run the kitchen because there’s no way to wash dishes….. it made me think of all the people in the world that face this hardship on a regular basis. I feel so blessed to usually have the convenience of running water when ever I need it!
2. A car. For the first 7 months of living here in Timor-Leste, we didn’t have a car. I caught a mikrolet (public mini-bus) to work each morning, which sometimes was difficult since they are often over crowded. And then I would walk home each evening, since by that time of day the mikrolets were not only over crowded, but now everyone was hot and smelly from the heat of the day. Grocery shopping was always a challenge because I had to carefully plan out what I needed to buy so I would be able to fit it in my backpack to carry it all home, and if I forgot something, it wasn’t easy to just run back to the store for it. It was also difficult to explore the city or run errands without a vehicle. So when we finally got a car in March, it really opened up my freedom to be able to get around and do the things I needed to do. Back home, often having a car is an expected part of life, but finally getting a car here has been such a blessing to me.
3. Nestor, our cat. Today marks exactly 1 year of having him in our lives. We often think back to the first 3 months of our time here in Timor-Leste before we got him and wonder what we did without him! He is our constant entertainment and brings so much joy to our life! Despite all the special needs we’ve had to help him get through in the past year, we love him to bits!
4. Health. In our 15 months here so far, we’ve been blessed by good health. Other than a sore throat now and then, losing my voice a couple times, a mysterious rash, and a couple spider bites, I haven’t had any major health issues. Dengue and malaria are the ones that we particularly are trying to avoid (and possibly Zika), but even viruses, stomach issues, and many other possible ailments we have both been blessed, thus far, to evade.
5. Abundance. Even though we live in a big house compared to most people here, we live a fairly simple life compared to life back home. We don’t have a TV or unlimited internet. We have to make many things from scratch if we want to eat them - bread, granola, tortilla chips, popcorn, etc. Our walls are bare and several rooms are mostly empty. But we are blessed abundantly by the things that we need, and even many of the things we want. God is good and our cup is constantly running over!
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