It's Monday in Meskine

My first waking thought was how full today would be, and that there was no time to waste. Danny had already been up a couple of hours, and was getting ready to go to devotionals at the hospital. After a bowl of granola and a banana, I got dressed and ready for our church-planting team’s prayer meeting at our house at 7:30. I wanted to be ready early because I had forgotten to remind DamDam our guest house cook to prepare breakfast at 7am for a young family leaving this morning for their work in Chad. She didn’t come to get the key at 7, so I headed to the guest house to do the job myself, hoping to be back when the team showed up for prayer. As I neared the kitchen, I heard her warm laughter ring out. She had come without my reminder! I ran in and gave her a grateful hug as she was flipping one of her delicious crepes. Thank you, Lord! The morning just got less complicated.

Our prayer meeting was focused, uplifting, and the best-used 30 minutes of the day. After goodbyes, I ran off to the guest house to settle up accounts with and say goodbye to the now well-fed missionary family. While there, Eli the construction foreman found me and asked me what type of paint I wanted on the studio apartment being remodeled nearby. I headed back to my house to make a list of repairs at various residences and to work on the maintenance calendar to make sure we’ll be finished before rainy season begins in June. After reviewing the list with Eli’s assistant Yaouba, I checked on the progress of the studio. Yes, the ceiling was varnished, the last coat of paint was being applied to the exterior, and the carpenter was starting on the cabinets.

I planned to visit with Ruth who ministers to our Chadian patients because today she was down with a bad back. On the way there, I noticed our Fulfulde tutor working with Andy, which reminded me of my lesson in five minutes! Ruth would have to wait. I trotted off with purpose to our house to put my books, oscillating fan and cold drinking water out on the porch. Right on time, Adamou rolled up on his bike, and we were all class nouns and agreement of adjectives for the next hour.

As the lesson ended, Yaouba and Dieudonne arrived to check out my oven which recently had belched out flames from the oven control knob. Yep, this is an oven with a history, and they were eager to tell it. Repairs will be tomorrow morning, hopefully before I need it again. I checked in on Ruth, whose voice answered my customary greeting,”Assalaamu aleekum” with a weak “ Aleekum ussalaam.” She walked slowly and stiffly to meet me at her door, and as we visited, I showed her the exercises Jason Greene taught me just before we left the US in November. She’s the second team member to benefit from them, not including myself! I zipped by the guest house again to ask DamDam to bring Ruth’s lunch to her today.

Danny wasn’t eating lunch today, so our house helper Daada Dorcas and I lunched and chatted on the porch. Next was a 2:00 meeting with Daada S, one of our MBBs, at her house. Discipling her is one of my highlights of the week as “God shows up” and enriches our fellowship every time. Today I went on the guest house bike which is fine except for the lack of brakes. So there I was wearing a blouse and long skirt with a billowing third drape tucked around the shoulders, my head covering, and my bag strapped on the back of the bike with a strip of black rubber. Despite yards of fabric, the wind still kept me clutching at my skirt to make sure all stayed decent, this while avoiding the many pedestrians entering the hospital gate or the motorcycle taxi drivers outside hoping to snag the next potential customer. I successfully exited without increasing our patient load, passed by the market selling daily necessities, and headed down the road to Daada S. After our meeting, I biked to our old neighborhood to meet another woman interested in learning more about Jesus, but didn’t find her home.

So I returned home in the blazing sunshine at 3:30, drank a gallon of water, and dried off in front of the fan before finally getting time alone with the Lord in His Word. At 6pm I met with a dear friend using training I received at the Chapel. Edie Mitchell walked me through the same principles when we returned to the US from the field in 2002. How precious to help others know how to draw upon the life of Jesus within to live abundantly right now! Next was a Pilate’s exercise time with Kari at 8 at the guest house. I grabbed my mat, put exercise clothes on under my skirt, and made my last trip of the day to the guest house by flashlight. No matter that we couldn’t get the DVD player to work. We would tighten abs another night! Once home, Danny reminded me that I had a couple of e-mails that I might like to see. Well, that led to a wonderful chat on gmail with Brooke, my sister-daughter-friend and former office-mate at the Chapel. Could the day get any better than this? Yes! Tyler popped in for a chat, too. Ahhhh, sweet! And before I logged off, I saw that Kim was on my facebook page with a faithful reminder that we needed to feed our blog.

It is already the wee hours of Tuesday, and in 5 ½ hours, we’ll start it again, same main events—different details—new mercies!

Note: we do not necessarily endorse the ads that appear on this blog site and apologize if the content is questionable. We have no control over this feature.