Sunday, December 22, 2013

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS

Happy Birthday Jesus!
What will I wear to His party this year? I am pondering that for advent. A spirit of submission? That will require a diet and a lot of help I would have to clean out my cupboards of all the great stuff I insulate myself with, righteousness, stubbornness, self sufficiency…No I don’t want to do that, how about wearing Joy, could I go for 24 hours with Joy on and not get it dirty with my judgmental attitudes that just seem to come. I guess that will take some help too, gotta get rid of the feeling of inferiority so I don’t need to think I have to 1 up on people. Well, I’ll keep working on the list of options to wear but I think in all of them I will need help. Thank goodness that Easter showed where to get the help. A thought.
The card this year, another thought:
Mary, you want to go to Bethlehem with me?” “We gotta be there by the end of Dec., It’s about a 3 or 4 day walk (72 miles) but, I thought we could take 2 weeks and stop and see the sights in Jerusalem since we’re so close.” “I think it would be good for us to go, the gossip has gotten pretty harsh since we decided to stick together.”
Sure Joseph, I can’t wait to get out of here.” “Do you think we could get a donkey?” “I would like to take some stuff with us and it’s getting harder and harder to carry anything on my head with baby growing my belly. “
I don’t know if they got the donkey but you just can’t find a card without it….
Have you had time to think about what it may have been like to leave home for good, have a baby, settle in a new town , start making your friends and one night get woke up and told to move to Egypt….NOW Seeing the refugees and the places they have lived near here helps my perspective. When the enemy is near you go with a piece of fabric wrapped around your waist, a baby tied to your back, a cloth wrapped around a basin on your head with some food in it and out the door you run, relocating to a safer place. The conflicts have stopped in Uganda, but the refugee camps remain and sometimes the refugees that fled, stay. Right now the Congolese are fleeing in the south and being relocated up here in some of the old abandoned camps. Why does man love war?
Okay to keep this 2 pages like I promised my auntie, I better quite with the reflection.
5 months from now should find us in a new country. This feels much like awaiting birth. When you know your life is going to change and you’re excited for it but you are only imagining the fun, good, happy, times you’re going to have and not factoring in the diapers, the fussy time the wailing hours of colic. To have a head start on when this is over I am soliciting help on What should I pursue next? Please weigh in! I will need to do something and am yet a bit confused, so, seeking direction.
Last year Christmas Kate and Conor were here and we had a great time. They got to see what our life is like and I think were surprised at that. We spent some great time sweating in Zanzibar and walked under the brilliant canopy of stars at night. It was enchanting and such a gift.

When we parted we thought we would see each other in Oct. Now, it has been a year later. We just celebrated our Christmas in Turkey over Thanksgiving which somehow seemed appropriate. We had a splendid time together. It was colder than we expected but we figured out how to wear enough clothes to stay pretty warm and what old building was heated to get out of the wind and mist. .
So in this a year what was the high point what was the low?

Low, was talking with a mother about her son. She had spent 6 months sleeping under his bed in the hospital, with her 6 month old, and 6 year old, caring for all the needs of each of them without a break. She had received $35/month from the driver of the lorry he fell off, but the $ stopped and she had to beg. We sat together and I explained that he was dying and needed to return to the village so she could look after her home, gardens, chickens and goats there and care for him until he died at home. She took a week to decide to do this and by then her son’s pneumonia was taking his life very quickly. The morning we were going to take him to the village, he died. I accompanied her to the village with her bundle of stuff, child on her back and one in hand and I cried. And I asked God why do I have so much? He and I have been working on that answer. I want to be generous but I always find that I put my expectations on what poverty and need should look like and weigh the if’s and but’s until I feel numb and confused and don’t want to do anything in the fear that it is the wrong thing. Reading When Helping Hurts (book) gave me some guidelines on making decisions but I often go back to my judgments and I fear they are not how Jesus would respond. But as I said, We are working on it.
High point was the decision to extend our time here. To say goodbye to the class that came a week before we did and would graduate in May felt like the right thing to do. Tom agreed although his job has not been what he hoped. The culture is so different here that jobs aren’t what most of us hope. Our standard of progress is different and not shared by those here. So, most jobs, 99% are difficult, if coming from the W. If you have time he will talk about that when we see you again. So, school was the focus for me from Feb till Oct. Peace Corps had the COS (Close of Service) conference at a 5star hotel and we said goodbye to those leaving for the next thing in life and it was nice to know we were staying. It felt right!

 When the volunteers here left, who we did language together and spent 6 days a week with for 3 months we had Tuna Tuesday with and celebrations together, I felt sad. I was at the post office the other day and didn’t want to go back to the school yet so I was going to stop at my friend’s office to visit, but walking that direction I remembered she had left. Every volunteer that I knew well has gone home. The new volunteers that are here are under 25 and their interests are not the same as ours. Missionary friends started leaving in Oct too so by Nov. I questioned what life would look like now.
May 23, we ring the gong at Peace Corps and off we go to the airport. It will fly by, I know, and it has been an enlightening experience giving me time and help to question a lot of things I use to hold as truth. My faith has remained in Jesus as the only hope of eternal life, but the view has softened about the great mercies of God.
OH YEA, the kids: Sorry Auntie this is dragging on.

Jake and Heather have relocated to Maryland. Jake was offered a position with a lawyer there to assist with his Constitution Law work. He gives classes and Jake is working with that department. Heather will be homeschooling and the kids will be growing without us. So this will be a priority to correct when we return.


Kate is employed at the company in DC that does global projects with grants and loans to country’s from the US. She is 21/2 years there. She would like to do field work in another country but competition is very stiff. She has had some interview but no job yet.





Conor is in Turkey studying, although he says the class load is not challenging him he is meeting many students from Asia and Europe which he can talk about politics on a grander scale and get some views that aren’t colored by the same values we hold in the US. He is having a good time debating and listening. He will finish Hamline in May and will meet Tom and I in Germany to start a bike ride to the Black Sea along the Danube River. If you look at a map the trail goes through Austria, Hungry, then becomes the border between Serbia, Bulgaria, & Romania. We are going to bike and train it. I really don’t think I will get to the sea, but we are hopeful. My time line is 2 weeks. Then I turn around and go back to Netherlands. We want to start seeing friends and Europe until a MacAulay family reunion at the shore of New Jersey in late August. So, that is when we plan on coming back to the US. We will see what God has planned.

We have met so many great people while here. I have learned to cook Indian food because we have an abundance of organic vegetables, I can cook and bake on a charcoal stove (it just takes hours), I can greet my neighbors in their language,( but don’t ask me any questions) I have been to many wedding and introductions, sat in church where the whole congregation is a choir and makes my voice sound great, watched babies born and people die. Do I understand the 3rd world, no, but I have a better idea of what can work and what doesn’t. I am grateful for the tax payers who have made this possible for us to come, see, and experience. We will be here for the holiday and PC is sending up 7 new education volunteers on the 21st. We will have a celebration here on the 24th with more wild rice soup. I will think of you on Christmas when it is in the 90’s and 15 people are coming for a meal as I cook on charcoal… But I wouldn’t trade it except for a day with the grandkids sliding down the hills of New Ulm.
I hope you all find something nice to wear to Jesus Birthday party.
Love to you as you ponder Christmas…. IN HIM, Marcy and Tom
Sorry Auntie I just couldn’t get it shorter…