Amos 8:1-2 This is what the Lord God showed me—a basket of summer fruit. He said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass them by.
It took me a while to figure out this passage and why this might be important to me at this moment. I had to read the previous scripture passages and got a little help from Jeff and David (my 10 year old son). I came to understand that this scripture is a warning from God. We never know when He is coming again so we need to be prepared and live the life He meant for us. Amos was shown a basket of summer fruit and as I now see it, that was God’s way of showing him that He will harvest those that were “ripe”. David pointed out that maybe that was God’s way to telling us to make sure that we were the “ripe” fruit when He comes again. I am sitting up on our balcony overlooking the mission here in India and I realized that this mission is helping to ripen us into what God wants from us and it is our responsibility to take an active role in making sure that happens.
Today I was again taught a lesson in appreciation. Since being here on the mission I have been hand washing our clothes in buckets in our shower. We do have access to the industrial washer, but we have to time our wash in between the cycles and the mounds of kids clothing. Also, I have a hard time having the girls here do our laundry when they have enough to do. I had to learn how to do this because I have never done laundry this way before, but I am getting the hang of it. I do 2 washes and 2-3 rinses before wringing the clothes out and hanging them on the line to dry. A Facebook friend said it best after I posted this…”washing machines are an under-appreciated appliance” and I could not agree more. I have never been without one and I never fully appreciated the one that I had, but I am looking forward to having one again soon (okay, in 8 months).
As for Christmas preparations, I was able to get more wrapping done, as well as draw some decorations on plywood; the first is a silhouette manger scene and the second are the letters “L O V E” to be painted and added to the already hanging Hope, Joy, and Peace. The wrapping seems to take up most of the day, but my girls have helped out a bit, which was really fun to spend time with them.
One of the other things that I have really enjoyed here are the breaks for tea and a chance to catch up with everyone. It really is a time to catch up on the happenings around the mission and areas that we can help. After tea today, I did some more wrapping (it is almost done) and then spent some time in the dining hall helping with decorations for Christmas.
Today was a very nice day and a great opportunity to open myself up so God can use me in ways He needed.
Sara's Daily Scripture and Journal 