Thursday, November 22, 2007

Giving Thanks

Someday soon my sister is coming home. She has not been in the US for at least a year and a half. She's been away, working with MCC in another country. She's actually doing what the rest us us mean when we say "So and so is a Missionary in some-far-away-place."

And while my family and especially our Dad have missed her, we know that she is answering a call to serve. I know some of us are jealous, in a way, that we aren't the ones going, as scary as leaving the "civilized world" seems (until you realize that there are places more truly civilized than where we live). We are staying here, not having the "adventure" (nor the struggles) she is having.

She's learned a different language and dialect (there isn't a place on Earth that actually speaks the Spanish they teach us in school) and a different culture. She's worked with adults and children, some easy to get along with, some not. She hasn't "shoved God" on anyone, true missionaries work with and alongside the people, not over them. And she gets frustrated with her own limitations just like anyone else, but she doesn't have the luxury of sitting back and deciding to let "someone else" do it, she can't because she is that "someone else."

And so she struggles in a far-away-place. And she makes new friends with children at a home for abandoned children. And she experiences sadness when children we've never met get sent home to a bad situation. And she experiences triumph when a plan comes together and children get sponsors. And she experiences joy when some of those same children experience reconciliation with their families.

And still, she is far from home, except that through technology, we can at least see and talk to each other. We cannot touch or hug, hold or comfort.


I want her to know I love her and miss her. And I'm thankful for the women God has made her into, for her willingness to serve and for her beauty that is so much more than skin deep.

Friday, November 2, 2007

Slow going

Confession time: I have not worked on the shawl at all this week. I wanted to. I wanted to see it finished and listed but job stress got to me and I had some paperwork I had to get done too. No fun time for me, though one evening I did work on a pair of socks I'm making for myself for two hours.

Generally, this week, I would come home from work, lay down for a nap, then do dinner, then do some more work and then go to bed (anyone who tells you that teachers "only work from 8-3" has never been a teacher, would never survive as a teacher, and deserves to be the substitute teacher in a rowdy room of middle schoolers, for a week, without lesson plans... IMHO).

So, no time to work on the shawl and let off steam. There it sits, waiting for me to pay attention to it again. I may have some time this weekend, I've already prepped for the all-day conference Monday and the meetings Tuesday...

Anyway, I am a little down about my shawl progress (and the lack thereof).

If you have anything positive to say about spinning, weaving or crocheting or crafts you do, make a comment, I could use the encouragement.