What am I up to?!

Well, mostly this week I have been packing, repacking, and shuffling things. I actually enjoy this process because I like organizing and I like puzzles. Packing is a combination of both. And I like the challenge of both space and weight restrictions. I bought a smaller suitcase this summer so that I would be incapable of packing overweight but still managed to get more than 50 lbs. into it.



Other than that, I have been resting and reading. I recently finished a book called "The Heavenly Man". It is the autobiography/biography of a Chinese Christian called Brother Yun. It was striking to read how the Bible was true in his life and how verses about suffering and persecution applied literally to his life. His call to the Western churches for partnership and revival were amazing. I definately recommend the book.

A little unsure...

So, lately being confused over many things...I came across these verses. Finding that Paul gives no explanation but only the promise of understanding as a result of reflection, I am now reflecting. Please reflect with me.


2 Timothy 2:3-7Endure hardship with us like Christ Jesus.

Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor's crown unless he competes according to the rules.
The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops.
Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this.

Status Quo

I haven't posted for a week and I hadn't even realized it. I have not been really busy, but more of my life takes place face to face when I am in the States. Instead of e-mailing friends I call them up and we go out for coffee. Instead of scheduling Skype calls with my family we sit down together and play a game on a whim. Thus, my computer sits neglected and forgotten.

I have to admit that I don't miss it. I think lots of things we spend our time on we wouldn't miss if we had found something better. Sometimes we have found something better we just don't realize it. For example, I didn't miss TV when I first left my parent's home. My roomates and I didn't get TV channels and life was perhaps even nicer with books and real people instead of the flashing light box.

So, I haven't missed my computer or spending hours reading e-mails and checking the news. I know I will go back to that when I move back overseas this fall. For when I am there, that lifestyle is the way to communicate with my dearest friends and my wonderful family. But for now, for me, things like sight, touch, and smell are gifts much too beautiful to give up for telephone calls and feelingless typed words.

So I saw the Harry Potter movie...

The things I continue to notice...

Our silverware here in the U.S. of A. is fabulous. It doesn't bend at a 90 degree angle very easily at all. For those of you who have seen The Matrix, I am certain that they used Kurdish metal eating utensils for the "bend the spoon" tricks.

In addition, we have spoons that will fit in your mouth. In Kurdistan there is one size of spoon, it is generally the size we would use as a small serving spoon, just a bit larger than a tablespoon. Ahh... revel in your instruments for eating! They are a great blessing.

After so many years I still don't get it...

And now is the time to pray. It is sad how I only value prayer as much as I ought to when it is the only thing left I can do. Really I should go to it first, but somehow it seems that I try other things first. Why do I do that? And then things become a mess. It isn't my fault really, but I regret spending so little time in prayer over it all.

A man...

There was a man on the Areopagus that day that really struck me. There were other people there too, but this man wasn't part of some tour group or a tourist or anything. This man, whoever he was, made me think. He was most likely drunk or high. As he tried to talk to us his speech was garbled such that I couldn't tell if he was speaking Greek or something else. He seemed king of friendly, but my female companion and myself know better than to get mixed up with drugged foreign men. All in all, though, I was intrigued with the thoughts of what St. Paul would have done had he been there now, in this modern day. This man was the kind of man that Jesus gathered up, that the disciples would have healed, that Paul might have preached to. This man was here, on the Areopagus, and this city was stretched out before us, and they were both lost. What would Paul have thought standing there almost 2000 years later? What would Paul have done for this man? It seemed both hopeless and inspiring.

Paul's speech on the Areopagus (Thanks to blueletterbible.org [RSV])

Acts 17:24-30

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything.

And he made from one every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one of us, for 'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your poets have said, 'For we are indeed his offspring.'

Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the Deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, a representation by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all men everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all men by raising him from the dead."

My Personality...wierd.

Your Personality is the Rarest (INFJ)

Your personality type is introspective, principled, self critical, and sensitive. Only about 2% of all people have your personality - including 3% of all women and around 1% of all men. You are Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Judging.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

Things I have come to appreciate about the U.S.A.

1. Strangely enough the first thing I have come to appreciate is the government. Let me explain. I know very little about American politics and I grew up thinking many politicians were corrupt and out for themselves. This all may be true, I don't know. But I do know that they at least deal with issues in the country, they do accomplish things, and they are not nearly as corrupt as people in some other governments. Our politicians don't pocket the government's money, take bribes as a matter of course, or spend all their time vacationing somewhere far away. They also don't have armies; imagine the Democrats and the Republicans each with their own fully trained military! All in all, considering all the things that they have to deal with, our country is doing pretty well. In addition, despite the fact that most people in foreign countries supposedly dislike America, it is still where they all want to live. Anyway, my point is, my country's government isn't so bad.

2. America is trash concious. We don't throw our pop cans on the ground, their are fines for littering, and we put trash cans in public areas. If Americans go on a picnic, generally they pick up their trash before they leave. People in the Middle East don't. There is trash everywhere. In fact, we joke about how the world's supply of plastic bags must grow on the trees there and be "harvested" and shipped around the world.

Temptations

It is interesting to me to see how Satan behaves differently in different places. In the Middle East there are many kinds of temptation and it all depends on the person. For me, I fought against loneliness, comparing myself to others, and self-pity. Here in the U.S. those things are still temptations, but things are added that I never really dealt with too much overseas. For example, today I got my financial reports and began worrying about money. There aren't any new problems or anything, it is all pretty much the same stuff and the same needs. But I began to be anxious. After about 10 minutes it hit me what I was doing and thinking and how I just let myself fall into it after being free from those sorts of things for a good long while. I refuse to be a slave to my worry. It is not hard for me to trust God in some areas, but sometimes I get blindsided by old struggles I thought I had passed beyond. But there is a beautiful solution. I love how the Bible says, "if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." I am so blessed to serve such an amazing God.

Questions & Answers

This question was posed by e-mom specifically, and I get asked it a lot generally.

Do I ever feel unsafe?

Only when I am driving. Actually, no. I have never really felt like someone was going to kill me or even that I was in a dangerous place. People stare and make me uncomfortable. There are men with AKs and M1s (translation: guns-for my less bloodthirsty readers) all over the place. The windows are barred, sometimes elegantly. We have thick concrete wall around our house. There are checkpoints all over the place. Occasionally car bombs go off in nearby cities. But I walk to buy bread or groceries. I do drive. I go to the bazaar (not by myself, but without a body guard). Life has a normal flow to it. I feel safe. I know that I am not in my own hands, or in Al Qaeda's (which has decided to make Christians a target). But I am in God's hands.

"Now if you told me I could die without God meaning it, then I would be worried."

(George MacDonald--The Marquis' Secret)

Things I have noticed...

• I did a double take turning on the stove top today... All you do is turn the knob. I felt like I had to do something else... Ours overseas is propane flames...


• I put leftovers in the microwave and just turned it on. My mind went through the motions of "do we have power and with this power do we have the amps to run the microwave" and I had to conciously dismiss the thoughts.


• Drinking glasses are enormous!!! Nearly all glasses we have overseas are about 3/4 cup by measure.


• Malls, roads, and everything else are also large, except there are no real mountains here.


• The internet is so much faster!


• Unpacking takes less time than packing.


• I was in 5 countries last week... wierd.


• I am cold. My body had finally adjusted to being comfortable in 100 degree (F) heat. Now it is 70 degrees (F).
• I opened the fridge to get some water and overwhelming disappointment hit me as there wasn't any water in there. Turning towards the counter, it hit me... I can drink water out of the tap!

I am sure there is more to come later...

Greece

I saw the Parthenon.
I stood on the Areopagus.

I swam in the Mediterranean Sea.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

This is the "Las Vegas" of the Middle East (except for the weather). I slept in a hotel here for about 3 hours. When I got in at 1:30 in the middle of the night it was 102 F and incredibly humid. In the morning when I tried to take a picture, my camera lense fogged up. Thus, these pictures came from the back of the taxi. It was a pretty place... but I wouldn't recommend it in the summer. Then I flew on the Emirates airline. It was fantastic... definately would recommend them... nice seats (even in economy), footrests, good food, movies, etc... It was definately the best of the 5 different airlines I flew on last week.

Power Lines, Gold Shops, and Satellite Dishes

Leaving...

In less than a week I will be in Greece. Wow... never thought I would make it to Greece. But when you live halfway around the world, you have to stop SOMEWHERE. So, stopping in Greece for a few days de-toxing for re-entry into the States sounded good and actually one of the cheaper options (Olimpic Airlines has some good deals through Dubai!). Being a Classics Minor in college, visiting the Acropolis is an amazingly exciting experience beyond any of my expectations. Then on to some de-briefing in the States and finally back home in the Northwest. It will be a long haul but then I get to spend almost 10 weeks with my family!!! I will have reliable internet, so I might post more... but I will have less to say since my main occupations this summer will be driving my post-op sister around (and having to learn to drive stick shift... yes, I know...), learning Kurdish vocabulary, and exercising (because I have become rather rotund during my time indoors in the Middle East). Those don't provide much entertainment, however. I may have become enough used to this "foreign" culture that American culture could be entertaining... you never know. If any of you nebulous readers have any specific questions (especially anything about Islam, the Middle East, or Christianity) that you would like me to post about... ask... I might be able to answer them...I might not.

The First Fruits

This is the first fruit from our kumquat tree. It was really really good! You know the funny thing about the word "kumquat" is that although I knew it was a fruit and if you had asked me what it was I might have thought I knew... but when I saw these for the first time, I had no clue what they were. Although I have grown up having learned the word "kumquat" and even knew how it was spelled, I had never known what it really was. Now I know... they are a small citrusy flavored fruit with very large seeds in the middle.

Smelly Update...

Yesterday's pungent adventure gave me a paranoid sleep where I was up at 1:00 am sniffing about our house. As of this morning, the house smelled fresh and airy. There is not a hint of the stomach turning smell from yesterday. I came home this afternoon. Entering the house, we checked the air in the rooms... still no smell. We never found the source of the odor. But, for the time being, it seems to be gone. Praise God for this blessing... Pray that it never returns.

Pungency...

It is Tuesday morning. I am sitting in my car in our carport typing because everything that needs done, needs done in the house, and I very well might throw up if I have to go back in there. We awoke this morning to a smell my house-mate declared “pungent”. In addition, this happened on the very day where we were going to clean and prepare our house for our departure. The smell we thought was coming from Autumn’s room. But then we traced it to behind the ceiling tiles in the living room. We still can’t find it. It smells soooo bad. We pulled half the stuff out of the room into the hallway. We opened and sniffed cupboards till we were blue in the face. It stinks. That is all I can say.

Eventually, we gave up. The house is aired out and mostly only the living room smells. We still have no idea what to do about it. We had half our team over for a good part of the day scoping out the stink. Pray for this situation. I don’t want to wake up to that smell in the morning.

This is a picture of our living room: Today we cleaned it out, took up the rug, swept and washed the floor, as well as rearranging some for the family that is coming back soon to live here. Then they will be stuck with the smell problem. I am soo sorry.

In the Middle of the Afternoon

Try to put this image in your head...

A man buying cigarettes wearing his polka dot pajamas.

Go figure.