It’s April 10, and we’re home! It’s great to be back despite the waves of jet lag fatigue that roll over me as I unpack, do laundry, sort the mail, answer emails, and run errands.
I’ll jump into the devotional blogging again on Easter Monday morning. In the meantime, enjoy the weekend – celebrate Jesus, the risen Savior who gives hope and meaning to life!
Sometimes I feel like pinching myself to see if I’m living a dream. The women at the retreat are from countries including Mongolia, Mexico, Cuba, the States, Russia, England, Indonesia, and Brazil. I consider myself privileged to mingle with them, learn about their lives, encourage them, pray with them, and laugh with them. They’re a special bunch – many have lived in several cultures, raised their children in foreign countries, and endured multiple moves which have meant saying frequent goodbyes and then having to become re-established again. Courageous women, all!
We did one teaching session in the morning, and then dispersed for lunch in town. We took a beautiful, albeit cold, walk along a promenade to reach this town. Four of us found a little restaurant called “The Hairdressers.” I half expected to smell the odor of perm solution, but that wasn’t the case. Nope, no perm solution, but plenty of cigarette smoke.
Wahoo! The ladies have arrived!
Small group discussion time
The view as we walked towards the village from the hotel.
We returned to the hotel by 4:30 for the second session and a lovely banquet-type meal. Afterwards, I had the privilege of speaking one-on-one with a couple of women until nearly midnight, listening and praying with them as they asked questions and shared from their hearts.
Midnight came, but sleep didn’t. My oh my. Jet lag hit big time, and the night was a long one.
Flexibility is the keyword, I believe. Within minutes of reaching our destination, we were ushered into a dining room where we were served a meal of rice and lentils – the first of many on this trip. That’s when I learned that I was scheduled to speak at a women’s conference the next day and for 10 minutes in the Sunday church service. Surprise!! By now we’d been awake for nearly 48 hours and our bodies were ready to collapse, but there was no time to rest. A wedding celebration was planned for that evening and we were invited to attend. We had a few minutes to shower (no hot showers here, but then, who’d want a hot shower in this heat??) and don fresh clothes.
The wedding bulletin said the groom was scheduled to arrive at 4:30. Some folks told us the ceremony would begin at 5:00; others told us we could show up at 5:30. When the ceremony actually began, there were about 20 people present. Within a half hour, another 40 or 50 had wandered in. The bride, a converted Hindu, wore a white satin sari with gold embroidery and the groom looked handsome in his black suit. They celebrated their marriage with a western ceremony, complete with signing the register. Midway through the service, however, Gene and I began nodding off.
Rather than embarrass ourselves by snoring through the reception, we excused ourselves and stumbled to our room that was, thankfully, air-conditioned. We bid each other goodnight and collapsed in bed, stared at by a curious five-inch gecko on the wall. If I was to be bright-eyed, or at least coherent, for the next day’s conference, I’d need a good night’s sleep.
Guess what? Even with the help of a sleeping pill, I slept only three or four hours. Jet lag was doing its thing on my body and my brain. Wide awake in the middle of the night, my thoughts flitted from one thing to another. And I began to worry about having enough energy to last the day. Only by God’s strength would I be able to speak for three sessions on Saturday morning.
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