A TIMELY WORD IN SEASON.....

When I think of summer I think of roses, tall glasses of iced coffee and the beach....Winter again makes me think and long for hot soup, lots of rain, hot chocolate and thick woolly warm socks. Walking thru memory lane reflecting over the last few years of my life made me identify and appreciate different events and times. At this stage as I look back I can see definite seasons of life and "happenings" and tag them to a birth, moving to a new culture, country or house.

These changing seasons of life off course are part of life and unavoidable, like the earth moving around the sun. They are not always the most convenient, wanted or easy to live thru or even just to handle. I know Summer with it's beauty and life..it will give way to Autumn with death and deep warm colors, I know that every season of life will have it's own memories later to ponder and walk thru.

I'm not fully sure why I do not like physical change. Like the type of change where you pack up, give or sell away and say goodbye. Maybe it has to do with my sentimental side that loves people and carry the memory of them for years in my heart.

When we moved to this city I knew it was the start of a new Season! The day we flew here my heart was still left in Central Asia.. I still felt cut to the bone grieving my beloved country and friends. Like meeting a new friend and you just not feel ready for a new friendship! Moving here felt like it came like a season just to quick...like when it rains ice in spring when the fruit trees have blossoms....It felt like winter was here to soon I did not have time to prepare for it and was freezing.....and not ready.

We walked the streets of our city day after day in mid summer heat looking for an apartment with rental signs in the windows. After a while the children did not do well with the heat and walking, me and Etienne would take turns going out. I would go in the morning armed with my little paper with phrases and water bottle ready..... to find a place. After a week my feet were covered in blisters and I just did not have shoes that did not pressed on a blister. But I was determined and time pressed every morning to find a place to stay before we had to be out where we were staying.

In His timing He provided the perfect apartment for our family. It even had a fountain in the court yard!
But the owner used this apartment for storage and used it at times when they came to our city. We had time preasure and were desperate to move at a definite date. The morning we arranged to move in....when we arrived we discovered that they have never moved out! All their stuff were as if they were living there heaps and heaps of things.

We stood in the hallway of the apartment in shock and disbelieve. We had to move in that day we had no choice. All we could do was to pack up their things and arrange with them to move it that day. As I walked thru the apartment anger, disapointment and hopelessness overtook me. I just did not have it in me to face this yet another mayor challenge. I felt so tired of all the moving around, the stress of finding a place before we had to be out where we were staying, walking the streets in the heat of summer, trying to understand what people were saying, and just living in a new culture with small children. I faintly excused myself and closed the toilet door behind me. I sat on the closed toilet seat trying to control my upwelling emotions.

I cried and cried....until I felt I could pray.....All I could get out was: "Lord please please tell me this is not Your perfect will for me for today!" I begged. I felt gently, slowly and clearly the words forming in my heart: "Karin this is my perfect will for you for today!" I sat there for a while pondering the truth in my heart.

It was as if all else fell away.... I knew then that.... I WILL have all the physical, emotional energy I would need to get thru that day and situation. It was as if a fresh breeze swept thru my heart and mind, as if strength entered my body and hope my mind. I made a decision, stood up in faith, washed my red puffy eyes and opened the toilet door with new hope and vision as a lady on a mission with God as her helper!

That evening late the landlord came with a truck to pick up their packed belongings, and only then we could get going to move our stuff into our new apartment. I remember falling into bed that night dead tired but blessed. I had a place of Refuge. A God that hears our every cry. A personal Friend that speaks words of truth, life and encouragement to our hearts in a place of need, desperation and despair.

PSALM 18 V 2

"The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold."