Monday, October 12

Marulaon Woman’s Daybook

Just for today...Monday, October 12

On my bookshelf… Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl. Just wrapped up this one, it’s a fun read about a New York Times restaurant critic that takes a thoughtful turn toward the end.

Creating in the kitchen...when we were in linguistics school in Dallas, one of the local grocery stores frequently donated its bruised produce. We coined the term “blessing soup” because we never knew what would show up each morning, but we were grateful for whatever God provided for the soup pot that day. Here in Marulaon, we often have soup for lunch, whatever vegetables showed up at market, cooked in coconut milk with curry and salt. It’s on the menu again today, with ears of corn on the side.

On my knees in prayer...for our satellite email system. Still not working. And I’m realizing more and more how easy it is to try and fill up my day and my heart with communication with the outside world. Even though we don’t have internet, so we don’t have access to any social media, I still crave connection and relationships. That’s a healthy desire, but not when it becomes an idol.

A grateful heart…that my girls can safely run and play around our village. I know that our neighbors love Olivia and Katherine and are always looking out for them. One of my friends who has daughters around the same ages as my girls phrased it this way, she keeps her eyes open for the “two legged katalea/crocodiles”!

Pondering these words… “Do you think, perhaps, that God has let you hunger for whatever it is you are so hungry for so that you might become more desperate for him, more convinced that he is the source of what will fill you up? Do you think he might want to retrain your appetites, redirecting them away from this world, this life, even this age, so that your anticipation of the age to come might begin to shape your perspective on whatever it is you lack?” -Nancy Guthrie, Even Better Than Eden

Noticing...that a group of ladies just walked by my house, and several of them grabbed the stamen from the red hibiscus bush. It’s a local “Q-tip”, and as they proceeded down the path, they cleaned out their ears.

A few plans for the rest of the week…Aaron is working with the catechists from several different villages today and tomorrow, he’ll be making a trip over to the eastern part of our language group on Wednesday to make sure everything is in order for the Lavukal Translation Committee meeting on Thursday and Friday in Nono Village.

A peek into my corner of the world…when kids get hungry here, they go looking outside for a snack. This time of year, the two most common snacks are kino/cutnuts and sival/mangoes, so we see a lot of kids climbing trees.