Sunday (Journal Entry)

August 13, 2005
Today is your day Jesus! Today is Sunday, the first day of the week. Today we are going to church! It’s not perhaps a church I’d pick to go to if I was home. However, there aren’t many options here. It’s not a church that I’ll go to every week, but at least try once or twice. Asha is meeting Robin and me to go since that’s the church she goes to.

The service is in English and Hindi at the same time (or rather, the preacher preaches in English, and it’s translated into Hindi)- how cool! Of course, while good for language learning, it may be distracting, but I think anything will be distracting at least for a while til I get used to it.

I read some from Exodus today- about the Passover. The book “What the Bible is all About” has some interesting thoughts on it. It stated that it is not the life of Jesus that saves us. Just as it is not the white-ness of the lamb that was necessary on the door frames of the people. But it was the death and the blood of Jesus on the cross and the blood of the lamb on the doorframe that meant something. Jesus death (not his life) was what saved us.

However, if it had not been for his life, his death would also be worth nothing. If he had not lived a perfect life and still died, that would not be something to save us. If he had not lived at all, just came and died somehow- that would not demonstrate the true love for the people that He had. His life and his death---but even then, more importantly his resurrection is what is important. His death saved us yes, but had he stayed dead, that would not have saved us.

Basically, Jesus- the whole person of Jesus is important in our salvation!!!

Two days ago a new family came to live at the guesthouse where we live. They have three kids- two who are twins I think (about 1 ½ years old). The other is an infant. I think they may have just arrived from the U.S.A- thus are still on jet-lag. The kids are very cute, but very loud. They cry at night- or rather they scream. Around 3 or 4am, they start screaming. They don’t stop for about 15 minutes. It’s incredible- I didn’t know a kid could scream (in anger) that long. It’s as if we (Robin and I) are the only ones affected by it or the only ones who hear it. Our room is right next to theirs…but mainly it seems the parents do not do anything about it. It’s as if they are sleeping right through it!!!

It’s frustrating. Added to that the fact that we have no water- and even more a limited supply since there are now 6 new people to share the water amongst.

What am I to learn from this situation? When the kids are screaming in the middle of the night, part of me wants to go to their door and ask, “Um, your kids are crying.” Or this morning, I felt like saying in a jokingly manner to the little kid crawling around on the floor while her dad played the guitar in the sitting room, “Are you the one who keeps making so much noise at night, or is it one of your sisters?” Ugh…I must keep those thoughts to myself. How would I handle having a family, including three small kids here? Taking a shower and brushing my teeth without any water is hard enough.

Perhaps I need to ask how I can help them? I need to take on the attitude of a servant and see how I can help the situation.

Lord, thank you for giving me a place to stay and water only when I need it. It causes me to depend on you more. Thank you for giving me ears to hear the screaming kids- for if I could not hear them, I would not be able to hear anything else. Lord, thank you for providing food for me, even if it makes me sick. Thank you for taking care of me to the extent that I need. Thank you for showing me that my life in America is so full of so many things not needed and how it is possible to live on very little. And yet, still what I have is more than most around me. Thank you for allowing me to have just what I need.

In your name, I pray.

~ Amen