We learn that there will be no campers this month, the summer is over and kids are back in school. It kind of bums us all out because we were looking forward to helping out at a sports camp for the month. It’s something we know how to do, something we’re good at, but God has different plans.
We wake up at camp, a little tired but ready to face the day. We’re helping our hosts move from their house to an apartment on the other side of town. To us it didn’t seem like we were doing much, but the thankfulness they radiated showed us that it meant something to them. We spent two days moving them completely out and in to a new place. One of the last things we moved was their hot tub and they couldn’t put it on their balcony at the apartment so where else can it go? On a terrace at camp where we are staying. We laughed at this because our expectations of what this month looks like keep getting flipped upside down. I guess that’s why they say to not have expectations. We expected this month to look a lot different than it already has, we expected to play sports and hang out with kids, and feel a little uncomfortable. So now we’re looking for our “hot tub on a terrace,” our God moment, our thing that we can look back and see that there was a purpose in laying our expectations down for something even better.
Instead we have moved our hosts across town, which would have taken them way longer to do without the extra help. Which then led to the boys mowing the lawn out front of the new apartment, which led to neighbors asking questions and inviting us in for coffee. Which leads to our hosts being able to pour into the lives of these people, even after we leave: our ultimate “hot tub on a terrace.” To be able to build a relationship with someone new, and pour into their lives and have Karl and Julie be able to live life with them is what it’s all about.
So far we feel like we’re playing connect the dots, but the lines aren’t making sense yet. Every day I am looking for my hot tub on the terrace, one day it might be the fact that I get to call my mom and talk on the phone for a little bit. Maye it’s the fact that the town we’re staying in had a cabbage festival going on the weekend we got there and we had some of the most fun I’ve had on a carnival ride, and it may have been a little less than safe, but that’s a story for another day.Today it was being able to explore and pray for the city we are living in and being reminded that perspective changes everything. I may not feel like God is speaking to me or showing me anything, but maybe He’s trying to tell me that just sitting in His presence is enough for this moment.
