today was a normal saturday. Saturday is our productive day, sometimes it's spent in extra service to people around us, some days it's spent tinkering around home doing odd jobs. Sunday is family day.
Today was a normal day like any other. I was tinkering in the living room when suddenly the clear sunny sky turned grey and the heavens opened up.
Water poured from the sky and Kendal said, "you know what this is?"
I pulled my head from under the corner I was in tinkering, "what?"
"this is a perfect opportunity to test my new rain boots" - a present from home.
A tick went by and then I had a thought... RAIN TAG!!!
We ran outside, shedding our socks and shoes, except Kendal who put on her boots. The kids were outside already playing with friends, I found Calvin stripped with clothes under the overhang running around without his shirt.
Suddenly, something we had never done, but everyone understood "Rain TAG" began.
We ran all over the yard, me, Kendal, Calvin, Sydney, the neighbor kids, and other gathered friends. We had about 9 people, of which 5 were running around, the rest were watching the "Crazy Whiteskins" running around under the protection of the roof.
Soon the grass was all underwater, the water tanks were flooding into waterfalls, I had a drink. We splashed, kicked the
ball around, and then as we finished, almost like from Rockwell painting, Kendal pulled fresh baked chocolate chip cookies from the oven, and we each huddled under the porch roof eating them and smiling.
It was a purely spontaneous wonderful moment. AND.. bonus, I had needed a shower anyway. Ironically as we came in to dry, the song on the radio was "It Came Out of the Sky".
It has been a tough and busy week at work. There have been conflicts and biblical resolutions (this is a hard discipline to foster, but I'm glad we all made wise choices this week). It has been a time of hard work, and accomplishment. It was one of those weeks where you really earned your paycheck if you know what I mean.
I tend to be tenacious when I come across a problem that needs solving. If it last multiple days, then for multiple days
I'm focussed on solving that issue. Sleep doesn't come easy until it's been solved. Friday I solved an issue for the entire center that has been bugging me for about 6 days. I was very relieved as I solved it at 5pm on Friday.
Earlier today I had looked around and realized that this is truly what contentment felt like. I live in peace knowing that my life is spent in service, that there are those who agree and support us as a team, and that during the tough times God is there with us. We have the assurance of a support family back home, we have the comfort of a God who loves us personally.
This isn't a bad life at all.
Calvin's face is healing very well, he's somewhat sad because people have stopped asking him what happened to his head.
The big challenge for me this month is that it's going to be a very busy month starting on April 1, and we will be short staffed for 1 week of that.
Kendal will be a kindergarten teacher next year as the primary school really needs teachers there and the ESL teacher is returning. She's fine with that as she knew she was a stand-in, and she's excited about teaching kindergarten.
You know Kendal so it doesn't bear me mentioning but she's a pretty nifty lady, and she really puts a lot of priority on early school teachers preparing students so that later in school they are well prepared to do well.
