Spring has progressed to
the time of dandelion and cottonwood fluff so profuse that the air is littered
with various thicknesses of white particles and swatches, and normally dark
dirt paths under the trees are carpeted in luxurious cover that looks like
snowy blankets. The trees are full of
large spring green leaves and the colorful lilacs and fruit blossoms have bowed
off nature's stage. We had quite a few
cold days last week, but the weather came back to what you expect of late
spring yesterday.
I am grateful that a care package
with some lightweight clothes came from Krista
just in time. It arrived on a day too cold to wear them,
but I trust they will
be well used as spring
gives way to summer.
At English Club this week
we played some games. The students
decided that we could have one week discussing topics of interest and one week
playing games. A few weeks ago we played
Boggle, which gives them a chance to dredge up whatever English vocabulary they
can think of from random letters that come up on a bunch of cubes like dice,
but with letters on them. We probably
should try to find a Scrabble game, too, because we had a lot of fun with that
when I was teaching English to immigrants in DC. But last Tuesday we played Mille Bornes. Did you ever play it? My brother and sister and I played it a lot
when we were kids. The Rule Book is
about 30 pages long, so we played it to the best of my memory of how to play
it, only referring to the Rule Book when absolutely necessary.
As we played it was fun to
take part in the table talk, mostly in English, though
people have different
comprehension and facility levels, so sometimes we broke down and spoke
Russian. At one point it brought back to
mind playing cards with Soviet exchange students in the seventies. Did you know that there are not universal
rules to card games that we take for granted?
The Soviets had what we considered were very strange rules and totally
rejected our rules out of hand. It was a
very interesting example of how cultural differences affect people. During the Cold War era, I used to say that
the real problem between the West and the East was that the Soviets were
playing chess and we were playing football.
Something like that
happened with Mille Bornes, too. It can
be a very frustrating
game if you are waiting for
a "Roulez!" or "Roll" card so you can begin your virtual
road rally race to go a thousand kilometers.
(Either you have played this and understand or I hope you will bear with
me as I try to make this clear.) And if
you have a flat tire but can't come up with a flat tire repair card out of the
pile, it is not unreasonable to think that you should be able to get one
elsewhere. Or that's the way the
students felt from the way their culture works.
It took a great deal of persuasion and pulling out the "It's a
RULE!" explanation in order to talk them out of it. They also were offended that you could put a
delay card on anyone at the table instead of just applying it to the person on
your left as apparently is their custom.
As we headed out when our
second game was over, I told them that maybe next time we would play it
according to the local "rules" -- and they were delighted
to hear that. It got me thinking again about what is
"normal". The longer
I have been a
"stranger in this strange land", the more I am getting used
to "normal" here,
and I suppose when I get home some things may seem strange
there to me for a
while. We all live according to sets of
assumptions about what
is right and good and
"normal". Societies work
certain ways and people
make their way through the
customs and mores and beliefs and red tape and ways of interacting with their
families and neighbors and the people at the places where you register your car
or buy your groceries. Sometimes a
stranger can make your day by being friendly and polite and helpful in a place
designed to be irritating and complicated.
And sometimes it can go the other way.
My students smile at me as
they come into our classroom, and we enjoy being together, but as I've
mentioned before, there are few smiles out on the street or in the stores. It's easier to keep them to myself than to
risk giving one away without getting one in return. But the neat thing is that when I stick to
the determination to smile deliberately at a clerk or someone on the bus, they
seem happy to talk. A week or so ago I
was buying a few things at the little store across the courtyard from my
apartment building and as I checked out I smiled and asked the clerk, "How
are things going?"
The usual answer translates
into, "As usual." But when I
ask someone I don't know they usually look at me like they are angry and
sometimes don't even
reply. I was happy that didn't happen in my little
store, though.
The clerk, who is probably
in her late thirties or early forties, looked at me curiously and said,
"As usual," and then asked me if I was from England.
I, of course, said,
"No, from America."
And then she looked amazed,
and said, "Why are you here? Isn't
it a lot better in America?"
While I answered that I am
here teaching English I considered how to answer her
second question. I thought of a hymn that has a line in it
something about although the skies are blue over my nation, in other nations
the sky is blue as well. I thought of the
differences evident to me as I am getting used to being here. And I thought of the long way they had come
since the breakup of the Soviet Union as well as the struggles they are still
having. But I answered, "You have
the same things we have."
She looked incredulous, so
I put out my hand and told her my name and asked her for hers. She smiled a bigger smile than before and
said it is Marshak, and I replied with the usual formal phrase, "It's very
pleasant to meet you." and she
agreed. So now I have a friend to chat with when I go
to my little store to pick
up a few things like
kielbasa (I like the bologna-type better than the one more
like salami), pilmeni --
something like little ravioli or tortellini, or bread or whatever.
And the other day when I
was there Marshak pulled over a young clerk who I have seen there before and
said to me, "She wants to study English.
You said you are an English teacher, right?"
I said, yes, and spoke with
the young girl about our program. She
asked where the classes are and although I could have taken here there, I don't
know the address, so I told her I would bring in one of our flyers. And now I have two new friends at my little
store. Isn't that great?! I'm happy about it. *smile*
It reminds me of that
"Pass It On" song -- and that saying, "If you see people without
a smile, give them some of yours!"
So that's a bit about some
of the joys here, but there are also struggles, of course. The biggest struggle I have had here has to
do with the allergy to mold which is part of the fibromyalgia syndrome I deal
with almost daily. I have prayed for
deliverance from it all, but it remains, so I was interested in something I saw
in the Upper Room readings last week on May 24th. I get them online, and they are always
inspiring and encouraging. The passage from 2 Corinthians 12 where Paul is
writing about his struggles with the thorn in his flesh came up that day. As you remember, I'm sure, Paul relates that
he asked the Lord three times to take away the thorn and in reply the Lord said
to him, "My grace is sufficient for you.
My strength is made perfect in weakness."
And then Paul tells the
Corinthians that because he lives out of God's strength
rather than by his own
power, he is not able to boast about what he alone is able
to do. He is able instead to give the glory to God
and boast only about what the
Lord does in Him and
through Him. Since my earliest
encounters with this passage as a child, I have always been amazed at Paul's
ability to accept the Lord's will that he has to continue to deal with the
weakness. When I was little it was hard
to understand how Paul could find peace in the situation rather then fussing
and whining about it. And it seemed like
God was being unfair because a thorn in the flesh is not that big a deal, although
it can be irritating and even painful.
A friend here said that
although it is frustrating not to be able to do all the
things you want to do
because of dealing with adversity like the fibromyalgia kicking up, life is not
about what you think you are supposed to do.
We are not human doings, but human beings, and sometimes it is easy to
forget that and focus only on what we or others do rather than appreciating the
fact that we are who we are. God loves
us not for what we do -- we don't have to perform for His approval. And anything we do out of our own strength is
inferior to what God can do in us and with us. But it is difficult because we
are raised to be people pleasers and to get our needs met by performing for our
suppers. Sometimes we think all we have
comes from the work of our hands instead of being a provision of the Lord out
of the bounty of His goodness and His riches in glory.
We run around with our own
agendas and hardly take the time to don't stop to see what the Lord is doing
and seek to join Him. God finally
answered Paul when he asked and asked and asked to be delivered from the thorn
in his flesh. And thank God Paul wrote
it down and the Corinthians not only saved it, but shared it. The Holy Spirit has made the message fruitful
for many people over the centuries, I am sure.
In the healing ministry it is an important passage because we don't
always understand why God does not heal someone. Comfort comes from believing that God always
has a reason and that He uses everything for good. We are not meant to be here forever, so when
a prayer for healing is answered with a "No" and the person passes on
to glory -- or when someone continues to suffer, we can have a hard time with
it.
We are not meant to sojourn
here forever, and sometimes our deliverance comes through passing on. As Christians we have the comfort, joy and
hope that we will be drawn to the Lord and rejoin our loved ones, and trust
that they are at peace in the fullness of His joy. And after all, this is a vale of tears,
although even in grief and suffering we can know the joy of the Lord as our
strength. So we keep on keeping on as
Paul did.
As far as my struggles are
concerned I find myself whining about them too often
when it's so much more
difficult for many other people. And my
prayer for them
is that they, too, will
hear the Lord say, "My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in
weakness," and be comforted and encouraged.
My niece, Chelsea, had her
18th birthday on the first of June and my Mom's 76th
birthday is on the 11th. I
miss being able to be there to help them celebrate. But
I'm comforted that no
matter how much time we will have together here on earth,
by God's grace we will be
able to be together eternally sharing the same love we
have now but in a new
way. Isn't that amazing and
wonderful? Praise God!
I hope you have a good
weekend and a lovely week in the Lord.
