The Fruit of My Labors

Seems I've been washing clothes for days and days! Ah, that's cuz I have been. We are in between retreats and only have a few days at home to rest up, regroup, and repack. My old Kenmore washing machine bought from other missionaries and originally brought to Brazil on a container boat wasn't the most cooperative but got the work done with lots of lovingkindness on my part. No dryer to throw in small items that everybody hates to hang up, just good old clotheslines and nice bright sunshine. I even hung a new line yesterday so I could hang more clothes!

Seems I spend 3/4's of my time here in Brazil on mundane tasks - cooking, marketing, laundry, housecleaning and let's not even mention homeschooling right now. All the chores of life take twice as long here in this land of constantly open doors and windows, lots of bugs and the daily washing of sweaty clothes. Ah, and no packs of white paper plates, no easy foods, and where I live - no easy to get in and out of supermarkets. I'm not complaining. I know my life is good. My family eats almost every single meal together. Almost everything on the table is stuff I made from real ingredients. We eat boxed cereal about once a month as a luxury, pleasure item. We live healthy. My boys bike or skateboard to where they want to go and many times we, the adults, do, too. It's a good life.

The downside is the little time I actually have to do the work for which I was truly sent to do - church work. My visitation times are limited to stopping by people's houses that happen to be along the way to the market or bread store. My discipleship time is the hour or so I spend with my fav Sunday School kids - Juniors. My mentoring time is sitting with the teens that look lonely before or after services for a little chat time. My women's teaching time is spent when the ladies meet twice a month for a devotional time at different houses. The actual fruit of my labors is hard to see, but at least my kids usually can find clean clothes in their drawers or on the folding table in my bedroom! I did have the joy of seeing three young teenagers attend the New Year's Retreat this past weekend that are direct fruits of the kids' camp program we've been running since 2010. Small joys for lots of hard work...