Only The Dirty Can Get Cleaned

Where to begin? Today is the break-in day. You have one day to get in groove with where you are. Now, if you have never traveled overseas, then this may not seem to be all that difficult, but after having been removed and moved over 9 time zones, you feel a little … out of sorts. Languages, food, atmosphere, customs, sites, smells, paperwork, norms, expectations, etc, etc, etc - this all seems to conspire to kill you. Elaine keeps asking, “What time is it in Texas?” and usually someone retorts with “Don’t you mean what day is it?” You spend so much time, energy, and money preparing for a trip like this and then when it gets here, you feel like you volunteered to see what being washed in a washing machine feels like only to be followed by really desiring to see how that “Gentle Cycle” on the dryer works out.

“Bang … bang… bang …”

“What is that, your shoes in the washing machine?”

“No, that’s my head – I’m in the washing machine.”

Then the hotel appears, you get attacked by a strange bed after having found the slot you put the key in to get the electricity to your room turned on only after having discovered that the AC control was installed by the same people who put them in Glorieta - you can set it on “Cool” all you want, but it’s just a fan, kind sir! Then you wake up wondering the same things all over again and further wondering whose idea it was to place the pickled herring and meatballs at breakfast in such close proximity with the boiled eggs. “There’s no bathroom on the bus, you know!” Meanwhile, Tad, Bandon and I are finishing off our fourth cups of coffee (they were small cups, honey) and laughing at the irony of coming this far just around the world just to discover another group of Americans (from Brigham Young University) that are studying Russian, one of which, having just graduated from my former high school in Marietta, Georgia. “POW!” World’s collide.

“Thud … thud … thud …”

“What’s that thumping sound?”

“It’s me. In the dryer.”

World’s collide and the energy dispelled, propels. Feel free to put that on a bumper sticker.

After a day of tourism and a two-hour team meeting where we watched Joella’s head spin around (she could organize the rocks on the moon, and still have time left over for a mission trip!) while giving us our marching orders for tomorrow. And march we shall. We’ll be downstairs with luggage (we head to our next hotel) at 7:30, eat breakfast, and load up by 830am. Then a two hour ride where we’ll disgorge into our new home for the next five nights and then immediately run off to the two camps. Return to our unseen rooms, another meeting, another opportunity to watch Joella, and then rinse and repeat … I mean, get up and do it all over again.

But amidst all of this, something happens when God is at work and you’re staying out of His way. You know how all the clothes sometimes turn into a rope while they are in the washing machine or dryer? No? Okay, well it happens to me more often that I have told Anne. You pull out the one pair of jeans you want and everything else is all wound up and just comes right out as well. Looks like Man vs. Wild used them to climb out of a window. Well, when God is involved, and He would not do this to your laundry without good reason, you go through this process with a group of people and a similar effect happens. Where one goes, the others go. What one feels, the other feels. It’s called being a family. It’s called serving the unserved, loving the unloved and giving from our lack instead of our excess. It’s depending on God and his adopted children for … everything. It’s saying, “Take my life Lord. No, seriously Lord, take it. Not just lyrics, take it. If my life will save one other life, you can have it!”

Tomorrow is the first day of five. We begin an adoption process tomorrow. The kids will adopt us and we’ll adopt them and prayerfully, somewhere in that process, somewhere over the next five days, if the ground is good, if the seed is well cast, and God desires it – maybe, just maybe we’ll get to see the sprouts of what will be a future brother or sister in Christ. Another adopted son or daughter of the kingdom.

“BuZZZZZZZZ!”

“What’s that buzzing sound?”

“It’s me getting out of the dryer. I’m done.”

“How was it?”

 

“Cleansing.”