For a brief moment I have good internet...

Lucy and I are taking advantage of an opportunity for decent internet access.  Alex and at Beth are babysitting for a Missionary Retreat at a hotel/beach resort.  It also happens to be next door to our house. 

It's funny that we forget this place is here.  Life in Africa can swallow a person up and sometimes the daily tasks of just living take so much focus that the old kind of enjoyment we used to experience is forgotten.

But today we had to walk Beth and Alex over here.  So we decided to stick around (you know, to be sure they were alright...hahaha). 

The view is beautiful.  And although the beach is just a few steps away from the beach we live close to, it seems as though at this beach it is easier to forget about the rest of this city when you look out across the waves.

Oh, and there's air conditioning.  That is dreamy. 

It reminds me of Jake's praise during house church on Sunday.  He said that Africa has made him realize what he took for granted in America.  He said he is so much more grateful now for the things he has in America.  We live with so little here, which is not to pat ourselves on the back, but to push us to the realization of what really are "needs" and what really are "wants."  Instead of living in the prideful flesh of saying "we live with so little here" we say thank you Jesus that you are teaching us here.

For instance, without a vehicle we haven't purchased beds.  The house we are renting was a guest house prior to us moving there.  We are renting the current furniture temporarily until we can get a few small furniture items.

Thus, our beds are 3" foam on plywood.  The first few nights I struggled to sleep. Although we were purely exhausted I still woke up throughout the night with restless discomfort.  For a couple of weeks my hip bones felt bruised during the day and my back ached. 

But now I sleep like a rock. 

Occasionally, when I first lay down, I remember what my bed at the farm feels like.  Even though it was a hand me down from somewhere I now have a romanticized feeling about it whenever I picture it.

But something so small like a bed...we've taken for granted.  When we are really put to the test we realize what our true needs are. 

Can a 3" foam really be called a bed and give rest to the weary?  Yes.  Especially when I look outside my window and see such deeper problems in this country than my bed.  It is a reminder of what we take for granted and how misconstrued our wants and needs had become.

It is a depth of thankfulness we've never experienced before. 

Especially for a place to rest our heads...and faster internet.