A Sigh of Relief

It was so great to see Nationals around ITF today. I walked out of my hut and was greeted with "Moning Nikio!" and "Etahiabe Nicky!" Ahhh, sigh. It is so good to be back. I've missed my home.

For those of you who don't know, we had to move out to Lapilo for 2 weeks and ended up hosting our latest conference there as well. While living at Lapilo I was able to take advantage of all of the health-care facilities. I somehow managed to get a major bladder infection, 2 cavities, and a wicked stomach virus that I affectionately call "The Plague"- all within 10 days. Leave it to me to spend a month hanging out in the villages almost every day, without incident, but visit a little city and I'm knocked out flat! It was a rough couple of weeks. But now I'm home, and finally able to walk around and eat normally. I really like food, and everything tastes especially delicious at the moment.

The last couple of months have brought a lot of changes in my life, some of them very painful, but once again I've seen God providing what I truly need in extraordinary ways. Have I written already about how I love the smell of jasmine? I found out a year ago when I was at this organic fragrance store in San Francisco that jasmine is like my special scent. I don't think I'd ever smelled it before. And then I came to PNG and it blooms all over the campus here. Today I was out in the cabin circle... I had the very boring job of opening up all of the cabins and counting how many bunks are in each, so that we could make the cabin assignments for our next conference. It's not a hard job, just tedious, so I was having a hard time maintaining my "servant's heart". After I finished locking up the 24th cabin at the bottom of the circle, I stopped to take in the view across the valley below. It was still early and the sun was coming out full force - the morning fog pulling back over the mountains. A breeze came up and ruffled my hair, bringing with it the sweet aroma of jasmine. I stood there for a long moment... this moment that was clearly meant just for me. I suddenly knew how David felt when he said "I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this" - because I was crying and laughing and felt like dancing, but I just spun around a couple of times and said "Hi God!"

"If you want a wonderful experience, take your New Testament and use a concordance to look up the two little words, but God. See how many times human resources have been brought to an utter end; despair has gripped the heart and pessimism and gloom has settled upon a people; and there is nothing that can be done. Then see how the Spirit of God writes in luminous letters, but God, and the whole situation changes into victory." ~ Ray C. Stedman