who needs running water

exciting things are happening!  items are being moved in to my little green house tomorrow!

yesterday they completed some electrical work to add some lighting (very important, particularly since there were no lights in the shower or toilet room before.  lots of dust and scrap pieces were everywhere, so we needed to sweep and mop.  it was quite the job, so my oldest student came with me to do a deep clean before furniture arrives.  she is such a good helper, teaching me all things indian this week.  how to eat properly and not spill rice everywhere, how to clean and not use the wrong rag for the wrong purpose, how to use…everything.  it was so nice to have her with me.

it was monsooning this morning and again this afternoon, so everything is very wet.  as i gathered soaps, rags, buckets, brooms and everything else we needed to clean, i realized that we would need something i had not yet planned for…water.  i may have mentioned this previously, but my cute little green house does not have running water.  this makes it hard to clean right now with an empty reservoir, so we packed everything else in a bag, unstacked our buckets and filled them up at my friend’s house to carry with us.

as we were making our way down the path muddy with rainwater, i had a thought.  in this neighborhood most people have running water, so it is somewhat unusual to not.  however, not even 1/2 a kilometer away is a gypsy tent community that has no running water, and plenty of people living in villages all over the country that have to go to a common well or stream to get their water every day.  to have more than a bucket or two at a time is a luxury.

the reservoir of water in the shower room has not bothered me.  i think my hosts have been more concerned about it than i have.  i’m doing exactly what i’m supposed to be doing and to this point, my expectations have been more than exceeded on every front.  when i accepted their invitation to come, i thought i would be getting one room with a toilet room outside of the room where i was sleeping.  it never occurred to me that i would have more than that. i didn’t expect this spare room to have running water, so it was never a part of my thought process.  i’m so very grateful to have two full rooms and a bathroom (that actually has two separate rooms for the shower room and the toilet room…we’ll call it my en-suite).

it’s all about your perspective, you know?  i’ll be able to host not only my students for school, but friends for chai, perhaps one of the weekly meetings…and other guests that come.  i am now in a position to be able to shoulder a significant amount of the weight of responsibility when guests arrive during the next 6 months.  what a blessing.

it is an answer for me.  i so desire to be an agent of restoration and encouragement for my friends during these months and now, in a way i never imagined, i can.  i want my presence to be a fresh wind for the work they have been put here to do. that though this is a busy time, they will not feel quite the hectic chaos that so many different people in and out can potentially cause.  so that is my request, that my home would be a place of peace and restoration for those who grace it.

it really is such a cute house….see?

my land lady is a super sweet woman and she came to check on us and help out.  i love that.  even though we do not speak the same language, we are able to work side by side to get things done.  she has such a beautiful spirit.  i had a few questions and my little helper was able to translate for me to make sure we understood each other.  we finished and headed back to my friend’s house.

i am very blessed and I hope to live my life here in such a way that others see His provision and my thankfulness.  after all…

who needs running water