Flexibility - The Glue that Holds the Ministry Together

Becca Sinclair here...I thought while the team was away today, I'd pop on in here and add my own little post to the blog. I can tend to be a bit verbose however, so it might not be so little when I'm done! *grin*

I want to first of all say, "Thank You." Thank you for sharing your wives, your husbands, and your children with us these couple of weeks. We are having a blast and are SO excited to see how God is going to use them here in Cameroon!

My husband has been commenting regularly on the word flexibility. Being on the field for almost 8 years, I have learned to be a little more flexible. I wish I could completely identify with the apostle Paul when he writes in Philippians, "I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." Yeah...I'm pretty much not even close to being there.

Today I'm learning to be flexible with water. Being the hostess, I feel a great responsibility to provide for the needs of this team as best as I can. When our water pressure started to decline a couple days before our 20 guests arrived, I started to panic a bit. Then the water finally went out. The team got here and still...no water. They immediately practiced flexibility. I have never heard one complaint from them as we gave instructions on how to conserve the water that we have in our reserve tank. "Don't flush the toilet unless absolutely necessary." (I think we all know when that is.)  "No showers - you have to bathe out of a small bucket. Be careful not to leave the water running for too long."  Quite an adjustment when you are used to walking into your kitchen or bathroom and turning on your sink to wash your hands. Or being able to flush the toilet whenever you want to. These wonderful new friends of ours have been so flexible and understanding during it all!

Then comes this morning. As the group is leaving for Bamenda, Emily comments that they couldn't flush the toilet, possibly because the tank didn't have time to fill from the last flush. No big deal - though my immediate thoughts were, "uh-oh." So, I walked right into the kitchen to turn on the faucet and check the water supply. Nothing. Nada. Our reserve tank was finally empty. I had a bit of an emotional break down. I'll admit it. As the team was leaving I was fighting tears as I stared at the mountain of laundry they'd piled up in the parlor and I wondered, "When is the water going to come back in? Lord, what are you trying to teach me?"

Flexibility.

We were asking it of our guests...it was perfectly reasonable that it should be expected of me, too - the missionary! As I sat and tried to focus on the Lord, He brought a verse to my mind from the book of Psalms, "From the ends of the earth will I cry unto thee. When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I." (Psalm 61:2)  My heart was certainly overwhelmed and while I don't know the purpose in our water shortage, I needed to be led back to The Rock. My stability. My focus must be on Him or I will drown in the sea of frustration.

So, with a new focus I began to tackle the big mound of laundry piled before me. Our day watchman, Hilary, helped carry water and filled trunks to the brim, and I manually filled each wash and rinse cycle with a tupperware pitcher. :) My 4th load is finishing up its final rinse cycle. The 2nd load is finishing up its drying cycle and I got a lot accomplished in the way of laundry. But my biggest lesson of the day was the lesson of being flexible. One lesson that, unfortunately, I will never stop learning.