2025(6) Faith Leap - Chapter 20: Appreciating the Manna

 2025(6) Faith Leap - Chapter 20: Appreciating the Manna

I am grateful for the joy and stillness I experienced last week. Heavenly Father obviously knew I would need that fortification for this week! My Patriarchal Blessing promises that, as I study God's word, I will have quick application for my everyday life. It occurred to me this week that one of the ways He fulfills this promise is by giving me experiences that parallel what I am reading. Anyone else feel like they are reading about their own life as they study Exodus? An impossibly long, hard journey; Miracles, yes. But how easy it is to forget about them when the next obstacle blinds our vision. And God usually answers our pleas for deliverance with lightened burdens, rather than removal of them. Or He delivers us from one trial, just to stretch us with a new one. Sometimes He parts the sea. More often than not, He gives us manna (a smaller miracle that requires unwanted work and is not necessarily what we want). It is left to us to look past the hardships that still exist, and the additional inconveniences it may create, to see it for the miracle it is. This week, it has been our challenge (emphasis on challenge) to find the miracles.

Highlights:

• A prompting helped a lengthy service project move forward in rainy weather
• Lice (again) + a broken washing machine = inevitable round 3?...
• We had a delightful time with house guests - the highlight of our week was a delightful day of exploring in the sunshine with them.
• We were painfully reminded that you don't always hit it out of the park with a sub-par youth activity. Gratefully, the Savior knows that we all learn line upon line, and the Spirit can bring things to our remembrance when we need them - so hopefully seeds were successfully planted in all of us to see where we can make adjustments to be taking charge of technology...
• Our Sabbath in Kutaisi was a delight

Prayer Requests:

• Please pray for us to successfully eradicate the lice from our home, and keep it that way. (This time I won't forget to hit publish. And, as we thought we'd beat it once already, even if you don't read this post right away, if we are still in Georgia when you read this, we would appreciate prayers to help make and keep our home lice-free)

Details:

A Prayer answered in an unexpected way

Monday, Richard spent another full day working on the dog pen. (I would be lying if I said I have not felt frustrated by the 25+ hours this "half-day project" turned into). With a light drizzle, the men gathered to pray - asking Heavenly Father if He could please stay the weather as He'd done before. (This was absolutely the last day our sole-welder was available to help before he leaves his family for 6 months to work as a seafarer.) As they finished the prayer, it began pouring. Continuing a prayer in his heart, Richard had a thought: Kroc found a tarp washed up on the beach, maybe they could create a shelter? The tarp ended up being too small. But Richard was able to find a large inexpensive tarp and bungee cords at a nearby shop, allowing them to keep the rain off of the workspace enough to get done what needed to be done that day. And, in the meantime, the time spent waiting for the rain to let up gave Lucy and her friends and family to ask questions about the Gospel. Things like being allowed to speak directly to God (rather than having to pray to icons as their advocate), portions of the Bible being mistranslated, pre-mortal life, and preaching of the gospel in the spirit world, were new and exciting concepts to them. They kept exclaiming how excited they were that things shared with them in The Book of Mormon make so much sense. Their sea was not parted. The rain created more hardship. But He knew it was what was needed. Manna.

Lice, again...

That same day, we discovered Miss has lice again (still?). 😭 If we failed to eradicate it last time, what can we do more? If it was reinfestation, how do we possibly prevent a third round? This time around additionally is harder because we all have dandruff from the harshness of the last treatment, and the twins are now have hives - a reaction to lice bites, or treatment? I don’t know… Wanting to do all I can to prevent a round 3, I insisted Richard find a metal nit comb, tea tree shampoo, and shower caps. We are nit combing everyday (instead of every other) for a full two weeks. Miss allowed me to chop 6 inches off of her hair. (with our one pair of multi-purpose scissors. Don't look closely at the cut job. But she looks super cute!) And, of course, we would again cover and wash everything, each time it was used. Except, keep reading.

 

At the end of his long day of service, Richard drove Temur home (in Batumi) and went to the large grocery store nearby, that we had not yet tried. It turned out to be a nightmare to find things, and there was a lot they didn't have. But, the pharmacy next store had the nit comb and tea tree shampoo we desperately needed. Manna.

When it rains, it pours...

On Monday night, I discovered the washing machine had stopped mid-cycle. It had no power. At all. Richard tried everything that Youtube suggested. Nothing. Tuesday morning, still nothing. This was the day that I read about the Red Sea and yes, "Come, Follow Me", I did feel trapped. I was praying for a Red Sea Miracle. Unbeknownst to me, Richard was downstairs praying for the same, and had the thought to try a factory reset (again). So he did, and the washing machine powered up! I was so happy and grateful! We successfully washed 1.5 loads!...and then it broke again😖. This time, it tripped the circuit breaker, and popped each time we tried to plug it in/trouble shoot. We contacted our Land lady and she said that she could call a "Master", but that we'd need to pay for it...🤨 (We are pushed back on that - letting her know we will, of course, pay for any repairs needed due to our misuse. But wear and tear on appliances are the responsibility of the owner.)  The repair man did not make it to our house until late Wednesday night - at which point he confirmed the cause was a power surge.  (😮 - this is my surprised face (dripping with sarcasm): a power surge? Here?! Never!) Because he had to order a part,  we were without a washing machine until Friday evening...while trying to treat for lice. Really? It couldn't have broken last week? or next week? It had to be this week?!? Whyyyyy?! 😭 Salt was added to the wound my reading of Exodus came across the verse where the Lord promised not to subject them to Egypt's plagues, so long as they are perfectly obedient. We are experiencing a literal Egyptian plague (maybe a little dramatic). I look forward to figuring out what He is trying to teach me.

A Laundry Silver Lining and Comedy of Errors

The only laundromat we could find that accepts walk-ins is in Batumi and costs $80/kilo of laundry🤑. We couldn't bring ourselves to pay that. We had used every single sheet, blanket, and towel in the house - turning all of the bedding upside down and inside out in desperation to avoid contact with potential lice eggs while we awaited a washing machine. BUT, by Thursday evening, facing our last bedding option, we learned that the landlady's assistant had returned to town, and she allowed us to hire her to wash a few loads of laundry for us - including another day's worth of bedding. Manna. I now have the washing machine running non-stop to catch up on the 10+ loads of laundry that piled up. There are ropes and bungee cords everywhere you can possibly tie them, with every radiator, chair and doorknob covered in drying clothes. Oh, and for added fun: ever since the washing machine was repaired, we cannot run more than one appliance at a time without tripping the breaker. So, while we catch up on wash, we are washing dishes by hand, and bundling up (creating more laundry) because we cannot run the dishwasher or heaters. 🤣😭

Awesome House Guests (expected this time 😉)

And, because our life wasn't chaotic enough, we had house guests arrive on Tuesday. (They assured us that lice is a common occurrence here, so they weren't stressed about coming, and they have been great about following our strategies.) Again, it is just terrible timing - not just because we may expose them, but also because any other week, we could have rotated through the beds/bedding upstairs to buy us more time between wash loads. But I digress.

M and M are our youth who live in Kutaisi (2.5 hours away). Their mother, Nona, went to Rome with our Senior Missionary couple, to attend the Temple for her first time! 🎉We have loved having M & M here! The kids play really well together, they are respectful, and happily jump in to help with chores. They speak English and Georgian fluently, which means our kids have enjoyed a new level of independence they've yet to enjoy in Georgia. They have gone to the market for snacks, explored, and played sports at the park with other village kids. They have also played lots of games, held indoor and outdoor x-shot battles, frog hunted, beach treasure-hunted, held dance parties, etc. Manna. (After a cold, rainy week, the sun finally came out for 3 glorious days! Manna.)

Wednesday, all of the boys helped complete the dog pen service project, and Richard and I strategized about being better at setting boundaries to protect family time. 😜

There is Beauty all around

Friday, rather than wallowing about our repairman finally being able to come just to be told there would be a scheduled power outage, we allowed the children to find a random point on Google maps to explore. And look at how gorgeous this little spot turned out to be! Ever the protector, Kroc went before Miss to beat down the wild rose vines for her. Plucking the petals of a daisy gave me the result I'd hoped for - he loves me! 🥰 Walking behind happy, running children in nature's sunshine has to be one of my favorite sights in the world. Climbing a literal mountain was medicine to my soul - putting my mountains of laundry in perspective. Manna.

You win some, you lose some

For Saturday's youth activity, we explored The Church's "Taking Charge of Technology"  resources. Such important information for all of us to review regularly, in this world so dependent on technology. As we expected, we were met with a good share of defensiveness and opposition, but we felt that the discussion was, overall, helpful to all and, at least, someone well-received. 😜 (Sadly, another difficult consequence of a struggling economy is that, while parents work long hours to try to cover their expenses, children entertain themselves on devices for hours unsupervised. And they do not like hearing that this is detrimental.) 

We had prayerfully and intentionally incorporated some simulations into our discussion, to make it more engaging. Including Pausing (before we discussed "Pause") to walk to a nearby ice cream parlor. It wasn't until we were there and counting up the number of ice creams we were paying for that we realized we were missing the 6 year old boy! 😲 He'd snuck out of the room early on in our discussion. We'd assumed he was with his mother (who had been sitting outside of the room). But she walked out of the church with us - without him. Fortunately, we had locked the church behind us, and he hadn't even noticed we'd left him alone. Unfortunately, he hadn't noticed because he'd snuck into the office and was surfing youtube on the clerk's computer...oh, the irony! (I have now set a password on said computer).

Sabbath Delight

Sunday morning, we left bright and early to take our house guests home, and attend church with the small Kutaisi group. There were a total of 16 people there (8 of whom it was our only or last Sunday there). I was asked to play the piano (I am not a pianist. But I can wing it in the simplified hymns. What a blessing that book is to the mission field!). I was anticipating that, if I made mistakes, no one would notice because people would be visiting during prelude, and singing during the meeting. You have never experienced a more reverent 10 minutes leading up to sacrament meeting. My every mistake on the piano was the only sound in the entire building. (And then, of course, during the meeting, we had 3 different wedding parties drive by. In Georgia, you always know when there is a wedding because the entire procession honks their horns). Despite that, though, the spirit in both of our meetings was palpable. 

Before the meeting began, Boris, our most recent convert, was sitting up front to bless the sacrament. He suddenly proclaimed to the silent group, "I'm sorry. Who died? Why are none of your smiling?" - which, of course, got everyone smiling. Boris was our first speaker and wow. His testimony is amazing. He has had a hard life: alcoholic dad who passed away while Boris was struggling through his last year at university, leaving behind a mountain of debt that Boris was unaware of, but that fell to him to repay, all amid the Russia/Ukraine war. He testified that God led him to Georgia to find The Church to help him through his trials. He said, "Trials are to help us discover our abilities and weaknesses so that Christ can gently, but firmly, help us change." and his recovery began, not when the trials were taken away, but when he learned that God doesn't expect perfection, but a willing heart. When the missionaries found Boris, he read the entire Book of Mormon in one day, and then asked to be baptized. He has found joy in his covenantal relationship with the Savior, amid his trials. His invitation to us to smile at the beginning was more than just commentary. It was a kind and gentle call to repentance: because we have the restored gospel, we have reason to rejoice.

Richard also spoke. Relating M & M's relentless pursuit to the peak of the mountain on our day of exploration to the trailblazers they and their other Kutaisi church members are as they seek to build this part of God's kingdom in it's very beginning stage. Trailblazing is difficult. It can be lonely. It requires leadership and grit and vision. If they will push forward with faith, they will see the fruits of their labors - charting a course for numberless others to follow. The Lord has great confidence in them, and will walk with them.

We continued our spiritual feast in Sunday School, as we discussed the chapters in Exodus with so many profound applications. And then we provided a small feast to say farewell to our beloved Senior Missionary couple who return home this week. Though it was gloomy outside, there was sunshine in our souls. Manna.

BIG Pigs

And, because I seem to like to wrap up my posts with something random: Pigs are one of our favorite things to watch for on our drive to and from Kutaisi. Can you spot them in the picture below? Pigs here are nearly as big as the cows!