This last week has had a number of times when we had faced
twists and turns. Let me share a few
highlights from this last week.
On Monday, my “little” girl turned 8. She was super excited to have a friend from
school come over to play. One of the
things she misses the most about going to school is seeing her friends every
day. So the promise of having a friend over
to play was a major reason for excitement.
She was up very early (before either parent was out of bed) and counting
the hours.
All morning the
girls played happily together. All
seemed well with the world. We had a lunch
of pepperoni quesadillas (thanks to pepperoni shipped from someone in the
states). It was time for the cake. I had made her a doll cake and like requested
the dress was white and pink.
I light the candles and started snapping pictures as we
merrily sang “Happy Birthday”.
Somewhere around the second “Happy Birthday” I noticed something unusual
in the viewfinder of my camera. It
appeared as if the hair of the doll was on fire. Sure enough, the hair WAS on FIRE. With some quick blowing, things were calm
again. I moved the offensive
candle. We relight the candles, sung
again, and Alissa got to blow out her candles this time all by herself.
It was 4am. My eyes
are firmly shut as I was studying the inside of my eyelids. I hear somewhere in the distance, “Mom,
Mom.” I shake my head trying to figure
out what is going on. I hear it again,
“Mom”. As I crack open my eyes, I see Alissa
standing by the bed. “What”, I
croak. “Mom, we lost of phase and I’m
hot. Can you help?” “How do you know?” I ask still confused. Alissa response with, “My fan isn’t working
but the living room and bathroom lights are working, so we much have lost a
phase.” “Lost a phase” my mind searches
for understanding. Then it dawns on
me. The way our house is wired here we
have three different phases of electric that enter the house all are suppose to
be bringing in 220 volts. When all three
phases work, everything in the house works.
When we lose a phase, certain outlets and light will not work, but other
parts of the house has electric. I glace
at our air-conditioning and sure enough it wasn’t working so that meant phase
three was out. I know that phase three
also has the kid’s fans on them, which explained the "I’m hot." I sleepily drag myself out of bed and head to
the kid’s room, by this time Conrad is also awake. We round up some extension cords, getting the
fans running again. From each bed we
hear a small, “Thank you.” And we head
back to our room, rig up a fan so we can sleep a little longer. With fans in place, we all get a few more
hours of sleep.
Wednesday was election day here. Due to some unrest that has been happening in
the south of the country (very far from where we live), we had no idea what
would happen. We prayed for peace, had
others praying, and trusted the One who is ultimately in control. It was decided that we would stay at home
that day. So for us it turned into a
work day. We got the front porch
painted, a faucet in the kitchen fixed, the first coat of paint on the doll
house, some sorting, and a few other things done. The day was peaceful and quiet. While in our city, the voting will have to be
done again due to errors on the ballot, I thank the Lord for bringing peace to us
on a day that had so much potential for harm.
What the porch looked like before
The finished project
I would like to introduce you to the newest member of the
family.
Ok, so maybe it’s not a member of
the family but it has made my life just a little bit easier. Our electric situation here is not very
good. Each phase is supposed to have 220
volts but most times if we see 200, we feel it’s pretty good. There are times when it dips even lower than
180. This fluctuation in electric is very hard on electric appliances,
especially air-conditioners. Our main air-conditioner
has had to be fixed three times in the last month, all due to problems caused
by the poor electricity. Due to our
son’s allergies to dust and mold, it’s important that we keep our house as dust
free as possible. Currently, we are in
the dust season and the air is full of dust, so we have to use the air-conditioner
to help lower the dust in the house. Friday,
Conrad was able to take a couple of hours and find this voltage regulator. He then hooked it up to the phase that runs
the air conditioners. Up to this point
if you had the air on you had to always be listening to the fan and if it
started to make “bad” noises, you must run and shut it off and hope it hadn’t
ruined anything. Then you would wait a
little and hope the electric was better and try turning it on again. Since having the voltage regular installed,
it has been such a huge blessing to not have to worry about the electric as it
keeps the output at somewhere between 205 and 222 volts. Maybe someday we will
get the whole house “regulated” but for now I’m so thankful for being able to
use the phase three without worry.
As I reflect on the things that have happened this week, I
see a thread over and over. Life here
takes flexibility. Whether it’s a
birthday cake fire, a phase of electric going off, or unrest in the culture, flexibility
is a must. But through all the things
that have happened, I see the hand of God caring for us and giving us
peace. As I thought about the voltage
regulator, in some ways my God does the same for me. Life here constantly is throwing us twists
and turns. Causing us to improvise and
be flexible. But if our trust is in the Lord, He will keep things
manageable. The moment that I try to
handle things by myself, life starts to fall apart. But as I trust in my Lord, He is the one who
will give me peace, flexibility, stability, and the ability to continue on with
life. But more importantly all twists
and turns much first go through Him and He will NEVER give me more than I can
handle.
A view from the cockpit of the 210 Conrad was flying.
