crash

Sacramento is one of those citys that looks exactly the same at any given place, big buildings and lots of traffic. I wasn't a very good passenger. I spent most of the time with my eyes glued to traffic helping David drive from my perch in the passenger seat. David is what Grandma Roberts calls longsuffering. I would have told myself to shut up in his place but he only smiled and held my hand instead of the stick shift. The unsupervised stick shift should have increased my discomfort but the real issue was me, not traffic. I've been a little jumpy ever since we auctioned off or packed up everything and started living out of suitcases and relatives' spare rooms. We were in Sacramento to meet the Maranatha team and learn what exactly I was supposed to be doing when I got to Delhi. Thursday we followed Google maps to the KVIE studio and watched filming. Friday We met the office staff and I got a hurried explanation of the job description. The choleric young woman who seemed to be in charge explained that I will be writing scripts and then showed me an example, left column: time prints for appropriate video, right column: audio accompaniment. I explained to her that I do not do visual arts. I was told I was supposed to write. I write. She appeared unshaken by my profession. Not only must I arrange both the audio and video portions of the program, I must figure out how to integrate the two. I think I turned white, recovered slightly, and suggested that there would probably be a significant learning curve.

Now I'm staring wide eyed out of the passenger side windshield, knuckles white, legs braced, preparing my expectations for a head on collision with reality.

restless

After traveling for almost a week and making many stops along the way David and I finally arrived in Reno late last Thursday. We are staying with his parents. We spent a long day Friday shopping for essentials: good close toed shoes, sterling silver wedding bands, underwear, a camera tripod. It looks like Reno will be the final resting place of a good portion of the stuff we packed up for India because a check on the airlines website reveals that our checked baggage weight limit is 50lbs not 70lbs as we had optimistically assumed in the beginning. We are going to have to lighten up yet again. The last couple of months are beginning to look a lot like EGW's dream of the little company traveling on a narrow ledge who had to continue leaving stuff behind and tossing it over to keep going. At least trying to make it all fit is going to give me something to do. I've been involved in frantic activity for so long that the lack of it has been alarming and disorienting. Some of the busyness has dissipated leaving behind it a vauge desperation and swirling memories without any tangible object. I'm almost relieved to have some crisis to direct all my residual anxiety towards.

What's worst is the not doing. People keep asking me if I'm scared? Scared? I'm impatient. One has no time or mental energy after the house is gone and the stuff has all been dispensed with for regret or uncertainty. The decision has been made. It is no longer up for review. Such determination and single mindedness does not attest to any saintliness on my part but just a good dose of choleric. If I were a saint. I would go more patiently. I would go more quietly. It was alright when I was surrounded by to do lists and piles of boxes and paint cans. It was awful, but I was busy. This sitting and waiting is much harder. This limbo world between the worlds where nothing moves and no one belongs is terrible. If I were a saint I would not be afraid of the silence.

introducing googlegroups

I'm still discovering the wonders of Google (not just for searching anymore). Check out our new google group below. It's like a blog but anyone can post or upload to it if they are part of the group. Wanna join? Send a request.

 


 gulkiz


 Visit this group

Paid to have tea

Every time David is asked what we will be doing in India he waxes eloquent on the needs associated with installing third world water and sewer systems and his experience with coordination and design. If anyone is courteous enough to query what I will do there is an admission of awkward uncertainty. Pastoring? Chaplaincy? There's no position yet, but they'll make one (we hope). It's been a point of discomfort. Especially delicate is the looming question of what I will do during his 7-10 days a month spent on the road touring building sites and doing inspections. I haven't been looking forward to those trips.

A phone call from Maranatha today settled the awkwardness better than either of us could have hoped. A sudden vacancy in the media department has created an immediate need for a journalist to prepare human interest stories for regular television features and magazine articles. "Would I, could I, maybe possibly be interested in trying..." the request was cautious and apologetic. Would I! You mean I get to travel around, have tea with people, write, and get paid for it? This isn't pastoring or chaplaincy in the traditional form at all but who would pass up the opportunity to have tea with fascinating people from all kinds of different places and cultures and then share that with others? "So, I asked casually, is this the kind of thing we could combine with David's inspection trips so we could travel together?" "Oh, of course. I mean, we didn't plan it that way but it just makes sense." YES! Thank you LORD!

I'm getting paid to have tea with people. That's almost as good as being paid to be a pastor, maybe even better, because I don't have to talk as much. Teachers and professors have been suggesting publishing to me for a long time and this is a perfect way to get some experience. If all works out you should see some of the new friends I am going to make show up on 3ABN and in Maranatha magazine soon.