Tuesday, November 30, 2004

A Disappointing Day

We recently had a bad day that started on a Thursday and seemed to drag right on to about Monday of the next week. We were supposed to get a suitcase from our family in Canada on Thursday morning. In it was a whole lot of nice stuff that we have needed and did not have room for when we came over in August. Also included were some gifts for us. Well, first the Stanley's (the people who were bringing this suitcase to us) flight was delayed. That meant we had to wait until very late Thursday night. Little did we know that the wait was just begining. When they finally got here they told us none of their 4 suitcases made it hear. The next day we were leaving to go out of town (the Stanleys were going to stay back) so we did not expect to see our stuff until at least Saturday night. Well the trip turned out to be fun but not without much much trouble. About an 1 1/2 hours in we had a blowout. We got the tire changed and took off again. Not 3 minutes later we had another blowout. Well, we were all of spare tires and seemingly all out of luck but some phone calls were made and with 3 1/2 hours (on the side of the road) we were back up and running to continue our last 3 hours of the trip. Once there we had a nice time but the whole time we were worrying about the suitcases. We were excited to get back into town late on Saturday night. We found out Sunday morning that 3 of the suitcases had come in but ours was not one of them. Monday morning we called the airort and got no good answers. Finally on Monday afternoon they called and said they found it. We went to the airport and picked up the missing suitcase and headed home. When we got their and the opened the case the whole thing was soured when we found that an expensive gift from my brother had been stolen out of the case. We were very sad and disappointed... :(
What have we learned from this... Well, one thing we are learning is that God cares about every little thing in our lives (even little GPS units that get stolen out of suitcases). Just because you don't get what you want does not mean that God does not care about these things or that He is somehow leaving you out in the rain on this issue. He knows and cares about all this. He is not shaken by death, theft, or any other thing that can really really ruin our day or even our life if we allow it to. He is ruling this globe and He's been doing it for a long time without mistakes. We can trust Him all the time. We can take comfort in Him when we hurt. We can run to Him when we're scared. We can look to Him when we are confused. He's not leaving and He's not going to do us wrong.

Thursday, November 18, 2004

A Good Kidnapping

Tonight we were walking home from the store when a car zipped up beside us. It was a local missionary family and the man said "get in... You're being kidnapped." They just took us just the way we were (David just getting back from Soccer practice) and had us over for dinner. They said that they saw us walking home and just thought they should invite us over. It was a really nice time and we ate a good meal. The meal was essentially cheese and potatoes. Anyone who knows us knows that David does not like cheese and Michelle does. We both ate and we both actually thoroughly enjoyed the meal. Thank God for people just looking out for us and making us feel great from time to time.

Thursday, November 11, 2004

Hard Drive

We are going to be losing our laptop temporarily again for about three weeks while we get a new hard drive from the States. Life here is going really great (other than the bad hard drive) and we hope to be able to keep the updates coming as regularly as possible. Once we get our hard drive situation taken care we will be able to start going on getting regular newsletters out as well. This has been a real struggle since we rely on computers so much. God has provided a way for us to get our hard drive to the States and the new one brought back in which is really great because sometimes when items are shipped from the States they either don't make it or get stopped in customs and you have to pay a large fee to get things out.

Happy Birthday

Today is David's 29th Birthday!!

Monday, November 01, 2004

Weekend Off

We have been filling in for dorm parents for three weekends in a row until this past weekend. It was really nice to be able to relax and just enjoy being away from it all for a couple of days. On Friday night we went to a nice restaurant called "Le Recif" and had a really great time. It looks out on the ocean at a lighthouse and has really good food. We each had great meals, steak for David and noodles with crab meat for Michelle. Then we even had desert which we usually do not get and coffee. Luckily the prices were low enough that we were able to have an enjoyable meal without breaking the bank. On Saturday night we went out with about 15 teachers and their kids to another restaurant. This time we just had french fries to share and some desert. It was really great to get to spend some time with the staff (we usually work inverse schedules) and just to have fun on the town. We will start covering weekends for dorm parents again begining this saturday.