24 hours

The past 24 hours have been a blur...

• This time last night our landlord’s wife came to our house and asked Brant to help take her sick husband to the hospital in the next biggest town, 30 minutes away. Despite the fact that we were in the middle of dinner and 2 of the boys are sick, we were excited to have an oppotunity to build relationships with them and help them out. Brant jumped up, showered, changed, got the car cleaned out, and grabbed coffee for what we thought would be a long night and went to knock on their door... only to find out the house all locked up and dark... they had decided to call a taxi.

• We were furious - how dare they change plans without even bothering to tell us? Until we realized that perhaps Brant had taken too long in getting ready.... and in their Asian mind-set, a person would never come out and say “no” to a request for help.... he just would find a “polite” way to get out of it.... so basically Brant had turned them down when they asked for a help... in a very “polite” yet insulting way.

• Sleepless night... what had started as an opportunity to build relationships has turned very bad fast.

• This morning - I am exhausted and trying to get the boys breakfast when we hear screaming bloody murder outside. Run outside... our neighbor (different neighbor - 2 houses away) was outside sweeping her porch and fell over dead. Screaming, wailing, horribleness for hours by her family. Funeral preparations begin right away.

• Our landlord and his wife spent the whole day avoiding all contact with us... Brant came home from shopping this morning and they got up off their front porch, went inside and closed the door and windows without so much as glancing at him. Later the wife came out, saw us, turned around and went right back in.

• We spend the day with 2 sick, fussy boys, trying to figure out what to do with our landlord and his family and what to do for our neighbors... the daughter of the lady who died is a good friend of mine and teaches the boys’ Bible class here in the neighborhood.

• Tried to get Elijah’s room set up to homeschool. Went and taught my class at the school and tried to wade through piles of dishes and laundry when all I really wanted to do is sleep.

• Made a new Indonesian dish for dinner tonight - soto ayam, or a type of “layered” chicken soup made with lemongrass. It’s my favorite dish, but have never been brave enough to make it. Wasn’t the day to try a new recipe, but had already planned to make it today, didn’t have anything else on hand. It turned out SO good. Will make it for you next time we’re back in the States! :) Nice bright spot in the day. :)

• Got the kids in bed by 6:30. Praising the Lord they went to sleep right away. Praising the Lord that the funeral got postponed til tomorrow. Praising the Lord that our landlord did come out this evening and talk to Brant and Brant got to explain his side of the story and apologize for whatever cultural cues we obviously missed. Who knows if things are actually patched over?

• Taking tylenol and going to bed. Praying that the thunder that’s rolling in will not turn into a huge storm and wake the boys. Gotta love missionary life sometimes. :)