Finding Faith in the Battle

We're down to the wire. We have two suitcases packed, and piles of clothes, diapers, and bottles of Advil, bug spray, and sun screen scattered all over. It looks as though a Walmart vomited in our room!!! And I'm excited, and I'm in shock. Every time I pack a cloth diaper, my stomach does a flip-flop. I'm not sure why the cloth diapers hold so much power over my psyche. I used cloth for Anya, my first, here in the US. It could be because I also tried to use cloth for my second, and it only lasted 3 weeks before I collapsed in fatigue and overwhelmed-ness (is that a word?). It also could be that those soft, white innocent diapers represent all the ways that life in Africa will be more challenging. Cooking from scratch, for example, as in no seasoning packets or cans of beans. How on earth is my family going to survive if I have to think ahead enough to soak beans for 24 hours before I can make chili??? It should be an interesting first month of cooking again. I foresee l...

No creative juices are flowing today, sorry! We're winding down our time in orientation now, with just over a week to go. The final commissioning service is next Wednesday the 26th, and then we're done. Our tickets are booked, leaving Richmond for Malawi (via Chicago, then London, then Johannesburg) on April 5th, arriving on April 7th. Our first Sunday in Africa will be Easter. There's something sweet about that...new life celebrated in our new life. We're anxious to get out there, and we're sobered as we think of the final good-byes, the changes, the stresses we'll no-doubt go through. Pray for us, that we will finish this 'race' of Orientation well, finish the 'race' of our American lives well, and that we would start our new Malawian 'race' with energy, zeal, and excitement; all while running the 'good race' in our public and in our private lives, for His name's sake.