You never know what's next...

When you go to work in the morning, you never really know what to expect. Before you get to the office, you might go down the stairs and directly to the door of the new Mission Centre, or you might go down the stairs, cross a questionable plank, and jump over a significantly deep hole dug for the water that we are praying will soon be connected.

I'm happy to say, though, that my department is now installed in our new offices and I am quite pleased with mine now that I have a desk.

With two windows in the office, even on a hot day you can get a decent cross-breeze. The same is true of my apartment so I have survived this past week well, with temperatures up in the 30's.

This week was the final week for our mission training program so there

were some interviews, evaluations, closing dinner and a group picture taken. Not long after the official group picture was taken, a bunch of the students were continuing to help with some practical work at the new centre. We asked them to gather for another more informal picture, so they stood outside the new building and some of the alumni students dumped water on them from the upper windows. In the pic you can see me watching from the safety of the office window on my level. It was a hot day so I think they were actually glad for the shower. :-) You never know what's next!

Today, another warm day, we had a sponsored mini-marathon to raise money for some various OM ministries, including our sports ministry. We all went out to the forest and ran or walked a pre-measured 2 km route. (Yes, I did too, carrying Lydia's bike part of the way!) Afterwards we found some shade in a nearby forest area and laid out our blankets and pulled out our food. We weren't too surprised to see a cute little puppy wandering about and Matthew's girls carried the tiny thing around all afternoon. We were a bit surprised to see some lovely horses/ponies wandering free through the area. But we really didn't expect to see a Momma pig and her 3 piglets wandering around the clearing and in fact it was quite funny to see the protective mother pig

chasing Corinne's dog Silas away from the piglets. Later the mother seemed to be coming towards some of our group in a somewhat threatening way. City-dwellers that some of us are, we weren't really sure how to handle the angry pig. Then one of our students - a guy from a village who keeps pigs himself - just came running over clapping his hands and chased the pig right away. It was all pretty funny. We didn't know what to expect.

Life can be like that, can't it? So often you don't know what to expect next and when the unexpected happens you can feel insecure, uncertain and even a bit frightened. Thankfully there is One who knows the character of all creatures and who can protect us from powers greater than us. He also promises to walk with us through any perils, any storms, and every day, whether hot and sunny or rainy and overcast. "The Lord is my Shepherd..."