Proverbs 31:10

I'm really excited about this study! Thanks to Kristen for heading it up!

"A worthy woman who can find? For her price is far above rubies."

As this week I've thought about this little verse, I've been challenged by it's conciseness. It's not just a suggestion, but an observation. It's up to us to work hard to become a worthy woman.

Worthy here is also translated excellent and virtuous. What does this mean? It can apply to much, but I think it's talking generally about what the core of a woman of God should be: one who has moral excellence. For when the foundation and core is pure the rest falls under that: it has a stable place to grow.

I just read in Guy N. Woods commentary on James a paragraph on righteousness- "He who does righteousness is righteous; but he who does righteous does right; therefore he who does right possesses righteousness." When we are working toward and on moral excellence and virtue we possess them, at least in part. That is such an encouragement to me! We can have confidence that we will gain a little every day, in our goals and our worth.

So what are some goals to work toward from this verse? I would say working toward more complete moral excellence. Things like integrity, honesty, true love (and I include many forms of love in that one word). What do you think are some traits that would fall in this category?

To close I want to share two other verses that are such a propelling force for me- Proverbs 12:4a-"A worthy woman is the crown of her husband" & Proverbs 19:14- "House and riches are an inheritance from fathers; But a prudent wife is from Jehovah." What more noble goal could there be then to work toward being such a blessing to your husband?

Back home again...

I have the tendency to not write something because I don't have that one certain blog that's in my head typed out and I haven't had the right time to do it yet! (you know, that "right" time when you're in the right mood, and the right situation and you're not too cold or hot...stuff like that!)

So! I'm back home again! Oh, what a wonderful feeling! To be home, with all your comfortable things- like those super comfy pants that should be thrown out they're so old! Like your siblings, close around you, telling stories and catching you up on stuff that happened. Like sweet little brothers that like to sit with you early in the morning...with their sleepy eyes and sleepy heads comfy on your shoulder. That comfortable feeling of laughing with your sisters as you're getting ready for bed...little chats with your parents throughout the day...:) It's truly a wonderful feeling to be home again.

Here are some random thoughts I'm trying to catch...

• I had a wonderful time in Africa! My life has been blessed so richly by my time there! I'm thankful for safe travels, for my dear friends the Jensen family and for the time God has blessed me with.
• Going through storage sheds and old junk is a good thing! Last Saturday we cleared out our "upper room" which translated is our junk shed! We threw stuff away, we put stuff in a garage sale pile...and it's quite neat and tidy now! We should have done that 10 years ago!
• I'm really enjoying this Far Above Rubies study with Kristen...I'm going to post more about that later.

So that's my list for now. I know this is a little random, but that's just me! :)

I hope you have a wonderful evening! Or morning! :)

12 April 2010

I can hardly believe that my month here in Tanzania is up! Time has a way of fleeing....

It's been such a lovely visit....being with the Jensen family, worshiping with the people here, the Swahili singing, the beautiful scenery...I could make a list a mile long. But I won't.

It's just good to be encouraged by people you love and to let the beauty of God's creation sink into your soul.

Yesterday Jacob, (with Don and Axe!) Julia, Luke, Linz and I took a walk up the hill from the house. It's really a lovely walk and the view is spectacular. You can see all the way to Kisongo where the school is. You can see the Maasai plain stretching out to Longido. It's just beautiful. Beautiful because there are round hills just at random. Because the yellow blossomed trees that line the road wind around like a wavy pencil line. It's beautiful because the sun is so warm and brilliant; it's beautiful because God made it that way. So we we walked and chatted and enjoyed the beauty. We ended up sitting on the green grass and just being together. Oh, Jake was brushing the dogs and Julia was taking pictures and I was not crying, just for the record! :) It was just so nice to be with my dear friends. Time stood still for just a few precious minutes. And then we walked home and that was that. But it's those moments in time that make life more precious.

That us standing in the sun-left to right, Linz, myself, Luke, Julia and Jake.

My flight leaves at 9:30 (or there about) and I'll get home around 5 pm on Tuesday. Please keep me in your prayers!

a picture is worth a thousand words

"When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, The moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him?" Psalm 8:3-4

Just a quick trip to the grocery store....

Tuesday I went grocery shopping with Julia and Mrs. Joy. Now I've been grocery shopping here before so it wasn't really a new experience but I wanted to tell you about it because it really made me think. Just to see the difference. Just to see what it's like.

In the states I usually do the shopping for the family (on my week) on Tuesdays. There is this one nice grocery store about 15 minutes from my house that has everything I need on a usual basis. So I get around, hop in the car and drive to the grocery, park, shop, push the buggy of bags to the car, load 'em up and drive home. I put them away and continue with my day. The end. Oh, sometimes I have a nice little chat with the check out girl. Sometimes I see someone I know....but that's still it.

Here's what happened on a regular shopping in Tanzania. We get around, hop in the four wheel drive SUV, wait a second while Luke gets the gate, and drive 30 minutes into Arusha. We drive on a dirt road for part of it, an extremely rough and potholed paved road and into the city itself that is lined with other vehicles, push carts, people and animals. We stop at a roadside vegetable stand and bought 1-2 kilos each- carrots, zucchini, cabbage, tomatoes, potatoes. Two heads of lettuce, two large avocados, one large pineapple, two mangos and a bag of apples. Julia and I stood there in the dirt talking with the lady (Julia did the talking seeing as I can't speak Swahili!) as she got the vegetables ready with Julia keeping a tally. We paid about 18 US. for all of that. I know for a fact I couldn't have gotten away with that much, in that quality for under 45 US. in the States!!
Then we drove about 10 minutes further to a supermarket and bought some house ware type items (like doing your Walmart shopping) and fresh milk products like cheese, (10 US. for 1 kilo.) and yoghurt. This stop made up for the cheap price of produce with things like a toothbrush costing about 4 dollars US.
The last place we went to was a grocery store called Pick 'n Pay. There we found boxed milk, canned vegetables, condiments etc. These items were about average. So we check out and they actually have a scanner system (the shop I've been to in Moshi had a calculator) and the young man boxed up the groceries and carried the box out to the Wagon for us. We headed home by way of the post office through more traffic, speed humps, daladalas, people on foot pushing carts....
Thirty minutes of it. Back up the dirt road to the house, pause at the gate while Luke holds the dogs and opens it for us. As we're unloading everything Linz informs us that the power is still off so we put away the perishable food, and wait as long as we can before Luke starts up the generator. The end.

That was their regular shopping trip- Mrs. Joy and Julia were commenting on the ease of it. Which it was...if you live in Tanzania.

I'm amazed at the difference in so many ways. Just the whole way you go about things here! It's humbling and sobering to think about the two different ways of life.

And I thought that getting a call from Mom for one more thing as I was almost to the check out line was inconvenient!

Yep, that's an avocado!

The internet is out at home so we girls are over here at the Samfords (Bonnie was sweet to invite us over!) checking our email...I had a post all typed up but since my computer is sooo smart..and can't connect to the internet, I'll have to wait! Ha! Computers! You can't live with 'em and you can't live without 'em!

The rain here has been lovely! I love rain. :) It's peaceful and lovely.

I'll post more soon!