Puddle-icious

'Thwock!' A small rock landed in the brown puddle overtaking the dip in the dirt road. Malachi got ready to throw another one as ripples spread out from the place his stone had landed. The air was quiet and humid, but cool thanks to the overcast sky, as well as the big rainstorm we had earlier. Occasionally a car would disturb the puddle, or a passer-by would greet the busy three year old, as they delicately skirted the water by means of a raised pathway. It was a peaceful Sunday afternoon in Mochipapa.

Sometimes it is difficult to keep Malachi awake around suppertime--when he skips his afternoon nap. The great hope is that he will go to bed early, and we will enjoy a quiet evening. This hope is not always realized, however...and the over-tiredness that his family must deal with is not always worth it. But there is always hope, and some father-son bonding time around rocks and puddles.

A few other thoughts:

This morning I was half an hour late for church (Sunday School precedes the service), and I was the first one there. The door was locked. I undertook to study Exodus 18 myself, standing outside beside the half finished clinic building, trying not to sit too long on the wet log...not too many people came for the service today (and we didn't know who had the keys) so eventually we held a short prayer time and dispersed.

My sermon last week went okay, and I am recycling it for this Tuesday's chapel, with some changes.

I had a prayer answered last week, but not in the way I expected. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed at work because our morticing chisel broke, so we were morticing doors by hand...the boss had been away for awhile so I was trying to help the foreman with new customers' quotes, and scheduling pending jobs which neither of us knew enough about. I'm not exaggerating when I say that morticing by hand takes about 20 times longer. And there was a certain customer who we were a few months behind on his kitchen cabinet job due to a wood issue, and hadn't even started, and it was a huge job...just on my mind. So as I chiseled away at my piece of rosewood, I voiced these problems in my spirit, not even praying per se, but bringing God into them. At tea-time the customer I mentioned came to ask if we had started on his kitchen yet. I had to tell him no, we had not, and no, we did not know when we could start, and no, the boss was still away... yet I took the opportunity to ask if we could change the type of wood for the boxes, and he was quite affirmative and gracious, and it lifted a load off of my shoulders because it will likely save us a significant chunk of time in the midst of the busy-ness. I realized later that it was an answer to prayer.

Lastly, I hurt my upper back somehow--I think it was partly from exerting myself whilst pruning our guava trees, coupled with bad posture when reading a book the other night. Not sure if it's just muscles, or a slipped disc? I don't think it's a pinched nerve. It hurts very much to sneeze. It has put my oil-change plans on hold, and we'll see how work goes on Tuesday, as well!