What a Mess!

When it comes to licking out the bowl, Theresa is an expert.

When you can't get enough on your fingers, go for this approach.

Trust Theresa - she's the pro.

Twenty Degrees

Theresa and I are going to NZ on Thursday and it's been so hot here that for the first time in almost 3 years, I'm actually looking forward to the cold of NZ.

Well, was, until I looked at the weather news.

The highest daytime temperatures in the Hawkes Bay, where we'll be going first, is 15 degrees celcius. Here the day time temperature is 35.

The overnight temperatures is 2 degrees. Here, the lowest we've had for a while was 22 degrees - that was a few nights ago and I had goose bumps because it was so cold.

Pretty much there's going to be a 20 degree difference between the sauna like Solomon Islands here and the arctic NZ temperatures I'll start experiencing on Thursday night at approximately 11:05pm.

I'm not sure I can cope with a 20 degree difference.

It's just when you don't have a camera on you...

that you wish you did.

Today was a rainy day, which is unusual. So it was a cool 25 degrees. Brisk.

I just had to dash out to get some bacon for the BLT Bagels I was going to make - a real treat, and inspired by a really good bagel recipe and the fact that I had some cream cheese left over from our birthday cakes.

So I dashed out without my handbag - just carrying my wallet. Hence, I had no camera.

But I wish I did. Instead I'll have to describe (though my skills are terribly lacking) the two images that are stuck in my mind.

Honiara in the rain.

There's a line of 5 guys skirting past me, their blue work men clothes stained with oil. The sky is grey. The rain is wet. The ground, always dirty looking, is now dirty looking and muddy. They each have their own cardboard box as an umbrella. Some have just a side, ripped and left over, held tightly as a feeble attempt to keep out the rain. Others have three quarters of a box perched on their heads like a hat.

Then on the way home, just past "loss coin" (or is it lose coin or loose coin?) the brightness of the umbrella caught my attention first and then the size. The yellow, green, red and blue contrasts with the mud on the ground and the grey in the sky. This young guy's umbrella was a sun umbrella - big enough in diameter to cover 6 people abreast. But this guy walks nonchalantly under his umbrella, ambling along with it slung over his shoulder. It looks ridiculously big - he and his umbrella almost take up half the road. And next to him is a girl - her small umbrella just giving her enough shelter from the rain.

Only in Honiara.

in the good providence of God

Today we've had rather an "olabaot" day, but a good lesson, nonetheless.

It started in the morning, when I was thinking about how cold our prayers can be and I prayed that God would help me to pray with all my heart. Well He had a plan for the day that certainly made me pray with all my heart, that's for sure.

I started looking at flights etc for our upcoming trip to NZ and I was excited about finding good prices, figuring out how everything would fit in. Then I thought, I had better check when Theresa's visa would expire. In a rare moment of brightness I thought, maybe I took a photocopy of her visa before I sent her passport away. So I hunted through my file and found that I had, against my normal characteristics, been organised enough to photocopy that page in Theresa's passport.

But then I sat aghast - the expiry date was for the 21st of September 2012. The wedding that we so much want to attend, is the 22nd of September. This is just too bad to believe.

The dumb thing is that when I got the visa last year (it's a one year visa) I applied for it early, because I anticipated problems. Well there were no problems, so the visa came early - but I didn't need it that early and now my overorganisation was coming back to sting me - the visa would expire to early. I was so upset.

Mostly I was upset with God. Upset that in His providence, He hadn't allowed me to get the visa just a little bit later, knowing we'd need it for the 22nd of September 2012. But no. So I was annoyed, to say the least.

And even more, why hadn't I checked it earlier - maybe the dates could be changed. As it was, the wedding would happen without us, getting a new visa would cost $1000 SBD - not to mention all the paper work and that all our original documents, needed for a visa, are still in NZ with the citizenship application.

Poor Jair asked how he could help, but all I could say was, "this is just another paperwork nightmare, but it's always my nightmare."

I hate paperwork and I was dreading what was involved to get another visa.

It was funny, because I was so excited about the flights, but my joy wasn't in the Lord. And then I was so devastated about the visa expiry, but my joy still wasn't in the Lord. So I came before him in prayer, frustrated, angry, but you know how God works in the heart of new covenant people. Somehow by His grace, He enabled me to trust in Him, and trust that He had this whole thing in His good providence.

After praying, I sent out an email to my prayer partners. I love my prayer partners so much - they really journey with me, in prayer, through so many things. Thanks you brothers and sisters!

Then I emailed the lady at the High Commission here asking if it's a possibility to extend it just a few days. She responded asking a few questions about the visa. And I waited, and busied myself with prayer, and doing some odd jobs.

Then a response came from the High Com. Get this: the expiry date on the visa, is the last date you can arrive in NZ, not the last date you can be in NZ. You can be in NZ for a FULL THREE MONTHS after the "expiry date" because it's an expiry date for entry, not exit. I couldn't believe it. I grabbed Theresa and through her up in the air (which she loved). I was so thankful. So incredibly overwhelmed. I couldn't believe it.

I was overwhelmed by it - that in the good providence of God, there was this little piece of information I didn't know about, but which He knew about all along - even when I got the visa way earlier than I needed last year. And that little bit of information has made this really tumultuous morning turn into sunshine and blessing after all.

Isn't that just so cool. Isn't our God just so amazingly good.

So guess what, we are coming to NZ in September after all.

Yay.