“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
I’m struggling with this one today.
Saturday Gil came home after two weeks in the States for his brother’s wedding. Joy!
Saturday night the power went out. Sigh. Long night. Gil can barely sleep with no power; I do better but not by much. Imagine trying to sleep in your car on a hot day with all the windows up. That’s what it feels like.
No power all day Sunday.
No power all Sunday night. Gil came to school and slept in his classroom.
No power all day today. Broke a record for us–previously, the longest we had gone without power was 36 hours.
Called the power company–again–this afternoon.
They finally admitted that the transformer for our neighborhood blew up because someone stole the oil out of it–a common occurance.
And they don’t have a replacement. And they don’t know when they will.
Last night I took all the meat out of my freezer to a friend’s house who has a deep freezer. In a couple days our house will run out of water, since every few days it has to be pumped in by electric pump.
I am not feeling thankful. I am not feeling joyful. I am actually feeling quite grumpy.
And bitter.
I am very, very mad at the thieves who took the oil. People like that are tearing their country down instead of building it up.
And now what will we do? We can’t realistically stay in our house with no power and no water. Our house is quite dark during the day, without lights. And totally miserable without fans. Without a fridge. Or a computer to do our work on.
And I am pouting. Because we had plans to decorate for Christmas this week. And instead we’re looking into guest houses or hotels or house sitting for someone. For who knows how long. Really, it could be weeks. The thought of not being in our house for Christmas–and the big celebration I am already planning–is almost more than I can bear.
But what does Scripture say? Be joyful always….give thanks in all circumstances.
And I am mad at myself, at my own reaction, knowing full well that billions of people all over the world…less than a mile away from me…never have electricity or running water. Never have Christmas decorations. Never have health and daily bread and all the other things that I have been blessed with.
So I am thankful for this situation because it does reveal attitudes….motives….idols in my heart that need to be dealt with. Pray that God roots them out and disposes of them.
Unknown
Thank you for your transparency. I will pray that your alternate housing is a Christmas blessing.
Jayme Solomon
Oh Amy… That has to be so tough. I’m so sorry. I’ll definitely be praying for you guys.
Anonymous
awww amy im sorry you guys are going through a tough time right now but i hope your power problem will be fixed soon.
Emily
I know what you are going through except when our transformer blew a few years ago, I only had me to manage…cant believe no power with two kids…pretty soon the fridge will just became another shelf – thats when you know it is bad. Hope its shorter than our outage then…praying for you all!
Chocolate, Vanilla and Caramel
That’s awful! How incredibly frustrating and especially with Christmas just around the corner. I will surely be praying for you. Thank you so much for your honesty. That’s why I love your blog so much — it’s so real and you have a great way of laying the truth out there, unvarnished, which is the reality of life. I think people view missionaries as having these wonderful lives all the time and I’m glad your blog is the “real” story of life on the mission field.
da halls
Thanks for being honest. I will pray for you.
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mb
jibberish
Extending heartfelt sympathies and warm wishes for a melty . . . I mean, a merry Christmas! 🙂