Saturday Post - 06/06/2015

Craig left me all alone this weekend… he also left me with a punctured tire, an almost empty water tank and an empty gas canister. It is not that I am incapable in anyway, these are just jobs that Craig normally deals with. So I stepped up like a big girl and got the puncture in the tire fixed and I’m monitoring the water level in the underground tank like a grown-up. I have decided to forego laundry to conserve water, therefore I might be able to get to Monday morning and leave Craig to deal with calling the water guy after all. See? I can make real, adult decisions. And if it comes down to it, I can get the water tank refilled without a problem. However, I refuse to try and change the gas canister. I have this image of all the gas leaking out as I faff around with reconnecting it to the stove and the whole house blowing up. So I am not going to do it.

However, this leaves me with a significant problem when it comes to feeding myself. I was quite keen to not make any meals while Craig was away… why cook for one person? I can live on crackers and cheese… if I had crackers. But the truth is I was really looking forward to my boxed mac n’cheese. Not quite KD, but close. I bought two boxes in Cochabamba and I have to save them for times like these because Craig thinks they’re vile. I keep telling him he can’t insult a North American staple like KD but he won’t listen to me. I even have Heinz ketchup to go with it… but I need the stovetop to boil the pasta. So no mac n’cheese for me. I couldn’t even make my porridge this morning and I had to eat some of Craig’s cereal for breakfast… eeek… cornflakes… not enough sugar. I seriously considered adding sugar to my cornflakes. My lunch has been a papaya milkshake, because I might not have water and I might not have gas, but I do have electricity, so my blender works! Yay!

Things for me have been really relaxed since Craig’s departure on Thursday. To be completely honest I was kind of excited to have the house to myself for the weekend, because some repressed part of me reared its head and said, “Party Time!!!”, and that’s exactly what’s happening here tonight… a whole pile of young ladies are coming over to hard core party with a… wait for it… movie. I know, I’m wild. Mariana is trying to angle for some Just Dance on the Wii so that might really kick things up a notch. But I was looking forward to regressing to my late teens, early twenties… staying up really late, watching girly stuff and not cooking… but then Thursday came and I just got really sad. I didn’t want Craig to leave. And when he finally left, I felt lonely.

I have expressed this sentiment to many people and they all have said, “That’s a good thing.” And yes it is… I love my husband enough to miss him when he’s gone! Though I am still having the party tonight. Actually, I hope my Mom finds this very reassuring. I think she’s been worried about the state of my marriage since Craig posted the blog entry about prioritizing one’s marriage while in ministry. While that blog post was quite general, I guess it can easily be inferred that we had a trying week back then, and my Mom keeps asking me how we’re doing because she’s still worried. That’s sweet of her, but thankfully unnecessary. Mom, I like my husband enough that I want him to come back!

And to be fair, I’m not missing him as much as I thought I would on Thursday because I saw him yesterday. He was trying to contact me all Thursday night and finally got me on Friday morning. The cable for the projector they brought with them didn’t work… and would it be possible for me to drive and drop off another projector? Pretty please? He was very reasonable and said if I couldn’t make it, it wouldn’t be a problem… but there is a good chunk of our medical staff at the same conference as him, so the Foundation was always going to be quiet yesterday. It was a big ask in the sense that the camp ground is almost 100 Km from Trinidad, but hey… the sun was out, the windows down, there was some fast driving – as I’m not entirely sure what the speed limit on Bolivian highways is, music on the stereo, and company! Deborah Holmes, who is visiting us again from England after her three-month stint here in 2012, joined me on the one-hour trek there and one-hour trek back. And it was kind of good times… not a chore at all. And they gave us lunch once we got there. Even better… and I got to see Craig.  Yay!

So it’s really just today I won’t see him, because he comes back tomorrow. Yay!

From what I heard during our stop over at the camp grounds yesterday the Langham course is quite intensive. They are working on the book of Philemon and they are pushing the participants quite hard. But I am sure Craig will regale you with all the drama that can be found at a Bolivian preaching conference next weekend.

Other than the crazy good times that are going to be had at my way too crazy party tonight, my weekend is the same from all our other weekends. I was up early this morning for the youth group leader’s prayer meeting and I have to go do the grocery shopping at some point before youth group tonight. KC is speaking on Rahab’s faith as mentioned in Hebrews 11, so I’m looking forward to hearing more about that. Tomorrow is the first Sunday of the month so there is no communion service at 9 am, instead we’ll be sharing communion during the family service. All of our leaders are at this preaching conference so the timing worked out well in that sense. They have asked Maicol to lead the time of sharing and communion tomorrow and then they should be back some time in the afternoon. There is some debate as to whether I have to drive out there again to help bring people back as they crammed way too many people into the transport for the outward leg of their trip. I said I was willing, but I have to wait and see if I am needed. Regardless, I am looking forward to seeing Craig again… and regaining the use of my stove.

Thanks for reading this and in your way keeping me company on my weekend alone.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Prayer:

• For Craig, Miguel Angel, Elias, Romina and those from other churches at the Langham Preaching Conference. Please pray for their time there, that they would be challenged and grow in their understanding of studying and communicating the Bible. And please pray for a safe and uneventful trip back tomorrow. 
• For various Foundation workers who have recently started coming to different events or meetings that the church has organised. It has been encouraging to see relationships being solidified and more connections being made between the church and the Foundation. Please pray for our evangelism efforts in a specifically Catholic context, that the Holy Spirit would work to convict people of salvation by faith. 
• I am trying to organise a FT Workers' Team Building Day before we return to Scotland at the end of June for a family wedding. Please pray for these preparations and that taking the time to invest in our workers in this way will bear spiritual fruit. 

Praise:

• For the support of friends here while Craig has been away. 
• For the safe arrival of the conference participants to the camp grounds on Thursday.
• For a bit more clarity in regards to the ENT Surgeon position at the Foundation - once we know more for sure, we'll let everyone else know too. 
• A really good turnout at the prayer meeting on Thursday night despite all our leaders being away - Daniel Ricardo presented Cuba to us and lead us through the prayer needs of his own country.