Aden and the fan

The other night John was talking into the fan and the Aden was laughing at the 'vibrato'.  So a few minutes later he thought he would do it himself.  We also have been trying to teach Aden to make faces. :o

Here is a short clip...

Grapefruit

Not quite the reaction I was expecting, but still not a big fan...

Hopefully it means he'll like it later in life like his mommy :)

The Bigger Person

Yesterday in my women's bible study, the topic of "being the bigger person" came up in regards to conflicts with others, particularly our spouses.  I'm sure everyone who has a spouse (or even in relationships with friends or family) has come across the opportunity to take the higher ground in a conflict.

John and I don't argue or have conflicts that often, but every time we do, I can feel the Holy Spirit tugging at me to take the higher ground, forgive first, be the "bigger person."  Yet often the sin nature deceives me and tells me lies that say "no, no, you have a right to be upset"  "he's just going to have to learn not to speak to you like that, and if you just let him get away with it, he's not going to learn" "trust me, you'll feel better when he finally comes to his senses and apologizes for the way he acted" "you've done nothing wrong and therefore have no need to apologize."  Can anybody relate with this internal war?

This morning I meditated on Ephesians 1:7-8... "In him [Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding."

I spent some time thinking about how I so often I sin.  I have the capability in my heart to be a BIG TIME SINNER.  And so often I am.  The sin of anger, impatience, frustration, selfishness can bubble out of my heart like a river after a flood.  Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.  God knows and understands these sins yet every time I sin, he does not condemn me nor sentence me as I deserve.  He does not get upset and want to the hold the sin over my head until I am really sorry.  With EVERY sin, He has taken the high ground, He has been the "bigger person" and forgiven first.  I am so thankful and pray that I can learn from his example to be the "bigger person" because that is who He is.

YOUR stand

I am doing a personal bible study by Kay Arthur (one of my faves) called "Lord, is it Warfare? Teach Me to Stand".  I bought it for $1 at a garage sale of a fellow expatriate who used to run an orphanage and was trying to clean house.  Right now we're in Ephesians and something caught my eye today in chapter 6...

Ephesians 6:11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take YOUR stand against the devil's schemes.  (NIV, emphasis mine)

Satan knows our weaknesses and mine vary from yours and yours from mine.  But we are each responsible for putting on the armor of God in order to take OUR stand against the devil's schemes.  Sometimes I tend to rely on the convictions of others as good examples for my own walk and my own stand.  While it is important to let iron sharpen iron and to spur one another on in love and good deeds, I am ultimately responsible for MY stand, MY being firm in the Lord, and recognizing when Satan is scheming after MY heart and mind.  We can easily spend our time following in the footsteps of others, all good Christians, but fail to spend time putting on our own armor that has been strengthened by the time we have hammered it in the fire.  Nobody cares about your own protection in times of war and the strength of your armor more than you do.  (or maybe that's just me because I'm selfish?) And if that's the case, WE must spend that time in the fire with God as he prepares our own armor, that he especially fitted for US, for the areas that WE need to take a stand.

Playing ball...

John usually plays ball with Aden in the evenings and they have a wonderful time.  John was picking up our teammates from the airport after their short furlough in AZ.  Here is a little ball game when mama is in charge... lot more clapping than ball throwing that's for sure!

Aden plays with John Barry

After John left for the evening, he asks, "where did he go?"

Umbrellas

How creative are these for the rain?

The _____ face

It took 3 tries for me to get the picture on camera... but can you tell what he's doing in the last one?

Camping in Ronurie

A few weekends ago we spent the weekend camping in one of the villages.  We will be going out to this same village with two teams in a couple of weeks to drill a well.  In preparation for that many people... John decided to set up some toilets and showers.

The framework for the girls' side... 3 showers and 1 toilet

Digging holes for the guys' side

The bamboo sticks they used

Enclosing the rooms with palm leaves woven together

 Isn't it pretty?

Adama (Abdul's wife) doing some dishes at the campsite

Here's our little water and cooking station

Gas stove!

Consider it all joy

Interesting how I wrote about fair-weather faith last week because that very thing was tested starting last night when I started feeling a little feverish and had a headache... aka malaria symptoms. 

We had some friends over for dinner and I had to leave early cause I wasn't feeling well.  I took 2 malaria tests.  One was positive but it could have been left over antibodies from when I got it a month ago.  The other test which tests for something different looked mostly negative.  I could see where the positive line "would be" so to speak, but nothing was there.  I decided to wait it out over the night to see if my fever got higher (it ranged between 100 and 101 F).  There is also a cold going around my group of friends with similar symptoms, but by the morning I couldn't shake the feeling that I felt like I did with malaria last time.  Also, I had no cold or stomach bug symptoms that I would have if there were another reason for my fever like I have gotten before.

While I hate taking medicine... especially strong drugs to treat malaria, after seeing John get it seriously a few times, I felt like this was one of those "better safe than sorry" type situations. Plus, the last time I took this drug, I had really no side effects from the meds which is not the case with many malaria treatment options.

I must admit as I was trying to figure this whole malaria "do I have it or not" "do I take treatment or wait it out", I think my faith initially failed me as I cried "Not again Lord, please not again" "Why do we have to live here and suffer this sickness" Yet this morning those words came back to me as well as a few other verses from James 1...

² Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything