So many of my days just happen to me. It's hard to plan. Every morning I plan to home school my boys and cook three meals for my family. But the rest all falls into place and I believe it always happens the way God wants it to. Some days it means an afternoon going for a walk or jumping on the trampoline with my two year old. But most other days it's spending time with a neighbor or friend.
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| Photo by UN Foundation |
Today I found out that a woman in our church lost her mother. Sadly her mother died in Sudan so she won't be able to have good closure and can't travel for the funeral and burial due to COVID travel restrictions. So I went to pay my respects ,which in this culture, means to sit and be with the person who's grieving. Often you join in crying. Some will sing.
This afternoon we sat in the dark main room of her house on a mat on the floor. There were 3 South Sudanese women and me. After our friend shared how her mother died, we chatted a bit about Corona and how much it's changed our lives and somehow the subject turned to the past when these women were young and the civil war was going on in Sudan. Each woman shared terrifying stories. I found it strange at first that this was the place and time they decided to go back to some of their most difficult memories. But then our dear pastor's wife tied it all together beautifully. She reminded us as we sat in the hot, dark room that our God goes with us from our first day to our last. We might have to go through hard hard things but HE IS ALWAYS THERE. All of us nodded and sat quietly soaking that in. God is always here.
As I walked home to fix dinner for my family, rain clouds gathered and I couldn't help but breathe a prayer of thanks to the Lord - for these simple things that I get to do each day. I count it such a privilege to live here. To share in these everyday life events. And hopefully to always point to Jesus, even in the mundane.
