The Variety of Our Days

 "Sometimes I can't believe the variety of our days." My husband's words drifted to me across our bedroom as evening fell and we each sat at our respective computers in the corners we call our "offices." I understood exactly what he meant, having started the morning with an 8 AM pick up of a mother and daughter from church to deliver them to the airport (with a "minor" hiccup when my car battery died between arriving and loading their bags!) After being rescued with a vehicle switch by my husband, I made the half hour drive each way out of town while he got children up, dressed, and in school mode. Silas' jardin called to ask him to delay arrival because the keys to the school gate had been forgotten, so in the end both of us returned simultaneously and had to do the "car dance" to get parked.

For the next few hours, he delved into sermon preparation while I started laundry, read a bit, handled correspondence by email/WhatsApp/Messenger (which often feels like a full time job) and worked on promotional materials for FLORECE before picking up Silas at 12:30. The plan for the older kids this Friday afternoon involved the boys helping missionary aunt Noni to film her daily drive downtown as part of her furlough presentation preparations, then enjoying sandwiches and fresh fruit juices from our favorite La Ecuatoriana, and finally earning a few bucks providing a car wash for her bright little Ford Fiesta. 

Meanwhile, Pedro and Silas and I headed down to FLORECE for a scheduled lunch appointment at 2:30 with the wonderful Christian architect who designed its remodel, along with her husband and two sons. Six-year old Max and five-year old Silas hit it off with high energy last time they met, and today was no exception. Delightfully roly poly baby Santiago was all smiles as we chatted over lunch. The purpose of our meeting was a continuation of the previous Friday's endeavor to visit the three neighboring properties and request permission to measure them. We'd managed two, but had one more to go. Really two, because as we had learned in our investigation of online appraisal paperwork there were side-by-side structures measured and valued as one. Long story short, we were allowed in one but not the other so we are still stuck and will have to make a third visit to the real estate conservator office to request further information. 

We learned that our friends were headed to the grocery store to obtain food boxes for two immigrant couples they had met selling candy on the street, and we were happy to be able to offer them already prepared boxes we had at FLORECE. One of the women is pregnant so we included our flier and hope to make contact this week. Silas fell asleep on the ride home, which included a stop at a Western Union provider to send payment to the friend-of-a-friend Venezuelan graphic designer who has been working on our church plant logo this week.

And thus we found ourselves back home in the evening, winding down the day and considering all it held. This past week included multiple tramites and ministries including visiting the Conservator, the Internal Revenue Service and the Municipality; starting Silas back to in-person school; trips to FLORECE for my regular volunteer shift and for Pedro a scheduled counseling session one evening with a client's boyfriend who did not show; multiple meetings both in person and by Zoom; marital counseling with friends starting at 10 PM one night at home; a live Facebook interview about FLORECE which also began at 10 PM a different night; music practice; a video call with a young lady serving God across cultures; airport runs for friends at the front and back end of the week.

Our days do have variety, and sometimes can be overwhelming but never boring. I pray with the Psalmist that God will "teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom." (Psalm 90:12)