Our Kuna home
Have you ever been in a situation where your heart goes “into shock?”
My life was totally surreal! The storm had passed. We had pulled the mosquito netting over us in the darkness to keep the blood-sucking mosquitos and vampire bats from attacking us as we attempted to spend our first night in our remote location. Night passed slowly…
The jungle had a different face in the morning light. I slipped out of our king-sized plywood bed that was topped with a firm 3” piece of foam rubber and welcomed the possibilities of the day. Two little faces popped up out from under the netting. Both were happy, dry and VERY hungry!
Don’t you just love it??
I surveyed the barrels all around the open room of our new home…eighteen of them! Which barrel had a cooking pot for oatmeal? No toast…no electricity!
I was paralyzed wondering where to begin. But two little rested and hyperactive girls have me well motivated…they were HUNGRY!
First Barrel: Rice and beans and dry goods, but no oatmeal!
Second Barrel: Clothes…no oatmeal!
Third Barrel: Pots and pans…yeah! But still…no oatmeal!
While opening the thirteenth barrel, a beautiful young woman walked through our front door offering us bananas and mangos!! Since I did not understand her language or culture and not wanting to be aggressively offensive (I REALLY wanted to grab that fruit!), I waited patiently for her to put the fruit in my hands and graciously thanked her. I lifted my head toward heaven, whispering, “Thank you, Lord… for the kindness of my new neighbor and for a perfect breakfast!”
I had heard the women stoking their fires in the very early morning before light. They had already eaten, having cooked bananas hours before. They were now filing into our house with an understandable curiosity, and began pulling everything out of every opened barrel!
All I could think was…PLEASE, LORD, LET THEM FIND THE OATMEAL!
The Kuna women seemed to have an inexplicable interest in my appearance. Did they think I was a man? I was too tall, too skinny, my hair was too short, and I was wearing jeans! I was a nursing mother, yet I towered over every living person in the village at 5’8”, with the exception of my 6’2” husband.
Being the strong, confident woman I am, I took it all in stride…NOT!
Not at all! This was totally surreal! Would my life always be like the
last 24 hours?
Would they ever accept someone like me?
Clearly…. culture shock had set in!
While in training for this mission, the instructors (who were seasoned missionaries) introduced us to this phenomenon. I told myself I was not going to be the “weak” one who goes into her village and gives in to her fears…that was for someone else…I hated failure!
There are certain undeniable signs of culture shock:
- Screeching in the night for your kidnapped baby who has been abducted by near-naked, tribal people who are “way deep into what you once considered your comfort zone”
- Crawling into a bed that has been drenched by the rain coming through your bark walls and adjusting to the misting on your face through the mosquito netting, but unable to sleep
- Furiously tucking in the netting around every inch of your bed…not knowing what is already in there with you (it’s pitch black after all!)
- Listening all night to the critters scurrying under your bed and in the open ceiling rafters and visualizing the unthinkable! What animals are nocturnal in the rain forest? All of them!!!
- Having an intense desire to communicate with the women busily dissecting our belongings, yet powerless to do so…
- Etc., etc.
The dictionary defines Contentment as freedom from care or discomfort!
Genuine Contentment is avoiding the bondage of personal expectations and realizing God has provided everything I need for my present happiness. It understands that if I am not satisfied with what I have, I will never be satisfied with what I want! I Timothy 6: 6-8
Was I content? What were my expectations?
Where was the fruit of my contentment??
Here I was again, finding Him in that secret place of my learning heart. God was waiting for me to enter into His presence with thanksgiving, acknowledge His authority and claim all that is mine, regardless of my personal failure and present circumstances. “God wants me to be present where I am. He invites me to see and to hear what is around me and, through it all, to discern the footprints of the Holy.” (Richard Foster)
Pressing toward the goal, like Paul in Philippians 4:11, “…I have learned (I continue to learn) to be content, whatever the circumstances...”
What is your level of contentment this morning?
“Blessed is the woman who listens to me, watching at my doors,
waiting in the doorway. For whoever finds me, finds life and
receives favor from the Lord." Proverbs 8:34,35
