Streets 4th week

September 16, 2013

Fourth Week Happenings

Here we are – into our second week of classes. Andrew and I are enjoying them. I missed half of

mine today because of a prenatal checkup. I’ve lost weight, instead of gained, but all my blood

work and tests came back great. The doctor was surprisingly favorable towards a home birth

– she just said that we will need to make sure everything is going normal. The boys have heat

rashes – especially Justice – and so we are trying to let his skin air out today. Thus he is wearing

bib-overalls with no shirt.

Our shipment came in on Saturday!!! It is very exciting to have all our stuff here. The clothes

came just in time for Justice, who was growing out of his provisions we had in our suitcases for

him. Amos is thrilled to have his toys and books back. The hammock is hanging temporarily in

the living room, and all three guys are enjoying that quite a bit. Although I can’t unpack all my

kitchen supplies yet (for lack of shelving to put them on), I am still very happy to have some pots

and quality utensils in hand to cook with again. The computer is already set up. Andrew is out

shopping now with Sundara Raj for furniture, and the furniture here in the guesthouse should

be swapped out soon for what is provided by the school for us. Two men are presently cleaning

out our storeroom as well. For those of you who don’t know yet, it has been settled that we will

make the “guesthouse” our apartment, and the guesthouse will be in the bungalow.

Last Friday there was a day of prayer held here on campus. It started at 2pm, and went until 6am

Saturday morning. Andrew was able to participate in a few hours of it, including preaching one

of the messages on prayer. He said there was a wonderful, unhurried spirit during the prayer

times. I have been very busy, especially with the shipment coming in, and will continue to be

so probably for a little while. Thankfully yesterday we had a good rest, and purposefully made

sure that that could happen. In the evening we all got our instruments out that just came in the

shipment (Andrew, trumpet; me, viola; and I gave Amos and Justice each a recorder) and played

a few songs together. That was fun. J I enjoy our singing times together, and it’s nice to have

our instruments back now too. I tried playing in church, but it didn’t go as well as I was hoping

– between my being rusty, and the viola slipping out of tune because of lack of use. I think next

time should go better.

Cooking has been going well. I’m still learning a lot – and making mistakes along the way – but

I’m definitely more comfortable with things now. I have not yet learned the right way to make

homemade butter and yogurt, but I did find out how easy it was to do it the wrong way! Leave

milk in the fridge a day too long, and it automatically turns into yogurt, and leave cream in the

fridge for too long, and it becomes the consistency of butter….I didn’t taste them to make sure,

so I can’t say that it really works. J

Please continue to pray for adjustment with grace and a Christ-like spirit….we seemed to have a

more peaceful lull in the storm of culture shock the past week or two, but now we’re entering a

second wave of it – and not just me this time, but Andrew too.

Joanna's Review

Here's a note we received from Joanna Paulus that is encouraging.

 I was thinking back today on all the connections with different people that have been made because you moved to Ft. Wayne and we came back from China (I wanted/hoped to go back within a few years) and stayed in Ft. Wayne rather than moving to CA. (I was wanting to move to CA,as had been planned, as we had friends there with similar values and almost none in Ft. Wayne.)  So we meet you, and then through Andrew meet McCulfors [whom the Pauluses churched with for several years]. McCulfors hear from us about the Training for Triumph speech and debate classes, which Anna then goes to and Grace is in her class. So the McIntoshs come to the youth meetings, and now you've started a church together. And after about 8 years of meeting one great family after another and being part of each other's lives, Father has brought us back here to China. And I'm leaving out plenty of details. That was a good reminder to me that He certainly has a better plan than we do. When I can't see what's going on (why the visa agency didn't ship our passports back overnight like we asked...why Fed Ex sent them to Europe instead of Hong Kong...why once the problem was reported, it couldn't be solved faster...why we're stuck in Hong Kong when we had things planned for this weekend in GZ...why we can't be there for the unexpected overnight company Daddy has) Father does see the big see picture and his plans are the best.   -Joanna Paulus