Friday, May 25, 2007

Ubatuba

It's funny what gets me excited the older I get. Just 10 years ago it was a trip to Six Flags or Whitewater or some other theme park that included nausea or ecoli. Nowadays it's home renovation projects.

Last week I had cabinets and countertops installed in my kitchen. If you read that closely you'll notice that I didn't say "new cabinets and countertops installed." The reason is that before last week, my kitchen had neither...an odd fact since the apartment is around 40 years old. When the building was made, the apartment was fitted with a kitchenette that had a bout 40 sq. ft. of usable space and the remainder of what is now the kitchen was used as a living room. Some time later a living room was added to the apartment and the old living room was left to fill in as the occupant saw fit.

Thankfully, funding was approved to make some renovations to the apartment two weeks ago. I had been told that things would get done as early as last summer, but somewhere along the way the prospect of having work done grew bleak, which was quite a discouragement to me. Some friends from Westminster prayed about the situation for me two weeks ago at bible study, and the next morning I had a knock on my door informing me that the funding had been approved and that work would start the next Monday. It's nice every now and then to have a lightning bolt from heaven like that.

Within five days time, I had a new tiled floor, fresh oak cabinets, a pretty cool greenish color for the countertops called "ubatuba granite" (pronounced "yooooouuuuuubatuba.' Go ahead and say it.) and a new range. The renovation plans called for a relocation of my kitchen sink area, leaving a new small cove for a washer/dryer combo, so yesterday I made an hour-long journey to the edge of the Smokey Mountains in Etowah, Tennessee (Everyone should visit Etowah at some point in life. I'll try to jot down some thoughts at another time.) to an appliance store and purchased a brand-spanking new Frigidaire laundry center for $700, around $400 less than retail. It was discounted because it was a "scratch and dent" sale, but it took me several minutes to find where it had been dented. By the evening I had already washed a load of clothes and was struck by the sudden power I had acquired. I could wash one sock at a time if I really wanted to do so...not that I would, but the point of the matter is that God is good, and I haven't been able to easily overlook that recently.

I'm taking my summer day by day, enjoying the nuisances of each day, the freedom to come and go as I like and the beauty of Appalachia. My original plans for beginning a graduate program at Geneva never materialized, because I never really received an understanding that I was supposed to pursue it at this time. I've also come to the understanding that, though I love student ministry and cherish the work that was done this last year, I need some time away from student work, meaning I don't see working with Summit Ministries or any other student ministry this summer. I want to be refreshed in August. This leaves me in a bit of a predicament, because I've always been the type of person that enjoys knowing that I will be doing this or that for this or that amount of time. But I'm beginning to believe that, given the right circumstances, there may be times when God wants us to simply live with him for a time, listening in the silence to learn about himself, ourselves, love, sin, life, etc. That's where I am right now.