It's been a month. Seems like we've had a lot of them lately. Tonight I am reminding myself of God's faithfulness and steadfastness at a time when our life is particularly topsy-turvy and difficult.
We hosted a short term team from our church in San Diego for the month of May. Fun days. Tons of hard work (on all our parts!) and lots of progress on our little jungle house....
This is what our house looked like when the team got into the tribe... (The tarps are their make-shift tent dwelling that all 7 guys slept in.)
This is our house after 17 days.... the dear woman who took the "after" pics had accidentally set the camera setting to "antique" so I don't have a single real color picture of our house! :)
Basically, all we lack is a roof... and plumbing (rain water collection off the roof and a simple septic system) and electricity (solar panels mounted on the roof to power our fridge, computers and all important fans)
Two days after Brant got out of the tribe, he became violently ill. Like never been so ill before in his life. We suspected Dengue Fever, and were relieved to find out a day later that he "just" had malaria. (Word on tropical diseases.... malaria is the one you want to get out of all the awful options. It's easy to test for and easy to treat - give the right drugs and you're feeling better within 24 hours.)
Trouble was, Brant did not get better within 24 hours. Days into the drug treatment, he continued to deteriorate. We had blood drawn daily and the dear Western nurses here poured over his numbers and tried to figure out why he wasn't getting better. We packed for a trip to the "good" hospital in the big city; his blood work there (and his skin color!) showed declining liver function. He started peeing blood. It was really, really bad. We prayed and prayed and prayed and prepped for a trip out of country.
As a last ditch effort our American doctor here recommended switching his malaria meds; one theory was that he wasn't responding to the malaria meds and the malaria was attacking his liver. (The other theories involved lots of scary things all involving us packing and moving back to America.) And we are praising the Lord the new malaria medicine worked! Improvement was dramatic - within two days he was on the road to recovery. I literally cried the first time we got his blood work back and his platelet levels had inched upward instead of downward.
Anyways, suffice it to say, Brant has a long way to go before he can get back to 100%. He can pretty much function like normal in the mornings but he's very easily tired and he sleeps almost every afternoon. His blood numbers are definitely not "normal" yet and he has quite a bit of weight to gain back, but he's getting there and we are encouraged. So work on the tribal house has been put on hold a couple more weeks.
In the midst of all of this, last Friday afternoon I got a call from a neighbor who said there was a fire down the road and perhaps my house helper's neighborhood was on fire? I could see smoke coming from the direction of my house helper's neighborhood, so I asked Brant (who was newly in the "able to walk" stage of recovery) to drive down the road a bit and check things out.... maybe our house helper would need to go home early from work? He left and returned all of 30 seconds later - tearing into the yard, yelling. A missionary's home down the road was up in flames.... Brant gathered all the men at the guest house and all the giant fire extinguishers stashed throughout the guest house and ran out to fight the fire.
The scene was horrific. I got a call to take water to all the men working on the house, so I saw firsthand. Flames and smoke and falling roof.... and Brant, still sick, was in the middle of it all. The wooden house, occupied by a MAF pilot and his wife and 2 preteens, had literally exploded when their generator overheated. The wife and kids were able to get out the back door with nothing but the clothes on their backs (not even shoes!) Men rushed to cut the roof line - the house was closely connected with another building - a guest house run by another mission. Brant and the men from our guest house tried to use the fire extinguishers to save the wall connecting the two buildings and keep the fire from spreading. But it was useless. Within 2 hours, it was over. Both buildings completely burned to the ground.... there was nothing they could do to stop it. No water. No fire hydrants. No big fancy fire trucks. Nothing.
The hard part was the house that burned was OUR house.... NOT the one we currently were living in, but the one we had lived in right before our last furlough. The beautiful house with the view of the lake and ten million pineapple plants in the yard. We took the boys to see the ruins, still smoldering, and they could pick out their bedrooms.
That was last Friday. Saturday morning, we had 50 people in our home to help us pack and move. It was total chaos. Sick Brant or no, we had to move. Fire or no, we had to move. The new family was coming in to take over the guest house ministry and we were being kicked out. And so move we did. People organized toys and washed dishes and carefully packed picture frames and candles and in less than 3 hours, our house was totally packed and cleared out - stuff stored for transport into the tribe or for storage here in town. Really, I have no idea where things are and what is in each box.... I'm trying not to stress it too much. :)
We have moved up to the international school campus and are currently living in a vacant teacher's apartment.... which, yes, does mean we will need to move before school starts in August. :) It is a beautiful apartment and quiet and peaceful up on a hill overlooking the town. The boys think they have hit the jack-pot... our new "house" is close to the playground and gym and library. :) Small detail is that the apartment is only ONE bedroom! The boys are in the bedroom and Brant and I are camping out in the living room, but it's not as bad as it sounds - it has a really big living/dining/kitchen space so it's definitely doable.
And so yes, we are very, very tired. It has been a hard few weeks. There have been many moments of feeling at the end of my rope and lots of sleepless nights and tears. Lots of grace though too. This past week we walked to the library and went to the theater to see "How to Train Your Dragon 2" and baked fresh bread and swam in the pool. Next week we're hoping for a beach trip and a date night and lots of books and sidewalk chalk and more fresh bread. :) (I'm playing with the new bread machine!) :) We are finished with the guest house ministry, so our only goals right now are to get Brant better and move into the tribe and finish taxes. :P
I know that time will bring perspective and thankfulness for God's gentleness during these days. God is always so gentle with me. Right now, though, I am just thankful that the past few weeks are over and we survived. :)
Totally not related, but I love the peacefulness of this picture taken on the river bank in our tribe.
