Thursday, March 8, 2012

water

on saturday i posted that we had no water on facebook. a friend commented that soon i'd be hearing from all the other missionaries about "this one time we went 7 days without water". {luckily no one did make a comment in that vane.} little did i know that we'd end up going over 5 days now without water.
we buy our drinking water, so please don't fret that we're about to all keel over and die from dehydration, but still.
i never realized how much i use water. and how much.
to do dishes. to wash my hands. to cook with. to flush the toilets. to brush my teeth. to shower {yeah, i stink pretty bad. one shower in 5 days in africa? have i crossed the line of TMI on my blog yet?}. to wash my hands {while prepping food, after changing diapers, coming in from play, washing hands all.the.time.}.
and now apparently the problem has been "fixed" {they were fixing some water main in our area or something?} but we still don't have water.
i think of most others in this city and country who {if they even have access to clean water} have to walk some ways to fill up containers and then walk back with their heavy container, full of water.
yesterday our power went out as well. and then at night. and then today again. {on and off throughout the night and day.} and i think,
what is God trying to teach me? 

i met with another missionary who lives nearby us and works in the same ministry as we do. her and her husband have been here for many, many years now and she said something to me,
we weren't called here to live a convenient life. that's not the life God has given us. 

i'm not here to live a convenient life. i'm not on this earth to live a convenient life. i believe God is slowly {sometimes it doesn't seem slow enough} stripping away the things in my life that i depend on. the main thing that sticks out here is all the conveniences i've been used to for the last 30 years.
a part of me wants to cry out,
isn't it enough that i've left behind family and friends, my home church and sidewalks, starbucks and libraries? parks and safe driving? isn't it enough? 

i think the answer {for me, at least} is that it isn't enough until i treasure Jesus Christ above everything else in my life. more than water or electricity, sidewalks or libraries. more than friends and air conditioning. i need to treasure Him in such a way that it is noticeable to everyone around me.
and right now He's showing me that i don't. 

but he is good. and merciful. and patient.

Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Hebrews 4:16

but i'm still praying the water comes on. soon.

6 comments:

  1. I feel your pain. Remember that fateful year in Zanzibar? I really feel your pain, and what with two kiddos too.

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  2. Sounds a little like you're fasting water for Lent....and seeing the Jesus fills every desire greater than any thing or person is what fasting is really all about it. You're friend is exactly right. And so are you.
    But... what do you do for washing your hands and flushing the toilets?

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  3. ugh...just saw those two spelling errors in my comment. I hate that. :0)

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  4. Melissa - we've got a rain water tank and the guys (up until yesterday) were somehow getting water in their house via a water tank which we are not connected to. So we were filling up large buckets of water and filling up the toilets manually (ain't no way I'm using the squatty if I don't have to). Using that water to wash hands/dishes as well. Just really, really time consuming.

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  5. I always thought that I was careful about water and appreciated it, but I know I'd be hard pressed to deal with it's lack. I pray you get hooked back up right now! xo

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  6. The water has been off for like at hour at our house, just so they could fix something and I thought I was going to lose my mind. I can only imagine that many days!!

    Hope it's back on and working fine now...

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