Laundry Day

Merissa here. I will not be as flowery or well spoken but I will try to give some insight on the day to day as I feel led to write.

Humbled. Yeah, that was what I was feeling.
It was 7:30pm and there had been a pretty decent downpour for about an hour when we heard them come home. A native pastor, his wife and young daughter live below us. Technically we live in the boonies. It’s about a 7-10 minute drive from town. We tell people around here where we live and they pity you like it’s a hardship to live so far from amenities. The Ni-Vans are walking people. Very few have any mode of transportation but their own two feet. They cross massive vegetation, walk along busy roadways and rarely wear shoes. The fortunate ones have enough for an occasional taxi fare. The taxis are tiny bug like cars that make Ford Focus hatchbacks look spacious. I continue to be impressed at their ability to make their way across the island on foot. The pastor’s wife and daughter Erica had returned from doing laundry in town. They had left mid-day. I felt completely spoiled at the thought of all the “hardship” I had endured in the past week. Here a mom and her daughter had trekked through the jungle in a downpour—laundry in hand. All the fresh clothes now completely soaked. All part of their everyday life.
Just today we had another missionary deliver his spare washer to us so that we could wash our clothes. If I was honest I would say that earlier this week I was getting a little annoyed that the washer in the house was not working. The sheets were getting a mild funk which does not happen in AZ and I really wanted to wash the 2 towels we had been sharing as a family. Ethan had a reaction to a bite that I thought was ringworm and I really didn’t want to share his towel for even one more day. I felt like a washer was a need, I deserved it. Wow.
Thankful God gives us these moments right when we need them. Thank you God for showing me true need and thank you for my newly cleaned towels.