A little trip to the grocery store...

So yesrerday Ashley and I made a trip to our friendly neighborhood market here in Freeport, Bahamas.  There are several grocery stores to choose from here in the Bahamas, but it's almost as though you have to hop from one to the other to get everything you need.  You're just not gonna find it in one place, and sometimes you might not find it all that week.  It has been an adjustment for sure (I actually shopped at Solomon's on Monday this week and didn't find everything I needed).  Butler's has the better produce selection of the stores I've visited (and by stores I mean Butler's and Solomon's), so that's where I prefer to go.  Thursdays are the days to go because Wednesday is shipment day and Thursday is stocking day.  So you get a stab at the produce (and the other merchandise for that matter) before its rotten and/or picked over.  Which happens faster than you might think.

We had Angry Steve pick us up.  Angry Steve is a bus driver without much integrity, but he doesn't seem to be bothered by this fact.  He talks too fast, yells at people, hangs up on you, and shows up 45 minutes later than he said he would.  Yep...45 minutes...  So why do we keep calling him?  Because the only thing he IS consistent about is answering his cell phone (which most bus drivers aren't) and our beloved Tyrone is just plain too expensive to use multiple times in a week.  Today before dropping us each off at our apartments after our grocery foray, he made a shady stop at a little strip center, went inside for 3 minutes, and came out smiling...nothing in his hands....  You draw your own conclusions...

Since I didn't have much I needed to buy I decided to take pictures for my loyal blog readers.  I'm always amused at what I find there.  I am equally NOT so amused by some of the prices.  So enjoy my picture homage to Butler's International Grocery...

One of these things is not like the other.  Or is it?  On the right...you guessed it...a papaya.  On the left? An avocado.  Yes...an avocado.  You can see how one might get the two confused and buy one thinking it was the other and be unpleasantly surprised.  I'm not speaking from experience or anything...

 Pig Tails are not just a fun hair style anymore...

 Wow...haven't seen this stuff since 1991...  Oh memories...

 Yep folks, that's right.  Ramen Noodles.  A 24 pack for the low low price of $11.59 (written on a hard to find price tag in Butler's...stuff is rarely marked).  And read the sarcasm in that last sentence.  Especially since that same 24 pack at home would run me a very expensive $2 . 85...

 No green onions, no Italian seasoning, but they've got these!  Cuz who doesn't need snail shells...

 I am so confused...

 Everything else might be outrageously priced, but this sweet little .5 oz bag of star anise is only $1.19! I saw this stuff at Williams Sonoma in the same size package for $20!  So apparently I need to find something to cook with Star Anise...

 The priciest mushrooms you've ever seen.  And they look like they've already been eaten a little...

Seems a but redundant don't you think?

 Ball Sacks.  No seriously.  Sacks of Tamarind Balls.  These are the hot commodity around here.  MERP students clamor to buy these when they see them.  Yummy!

The biggest no no in the store.  By 25% off they really mean that only 25% of this milk is still liquid...

 And this is why Matilda gets home cooked meals...

She doesn't seem too much worse for the wear because of it does she??  The queen upon her throne...

 Black Salt Powder??  Lies!!!  It's pink!

 Perfect for your standard MLT (mutton, lettuce, and tomato) sammy.  Except this mutton isn't sliced real thin...

 Or how about a standard can of corn.  With a side of OH DEAR LORD I COULD BUY 7 OF THESE AT HOME FOR THAT PRICE!!

Or maybe save a little cash and combine the two.  You never knew what you were eating when you ate Salisbury steak.  And now you do...

 My favorite cereal.  Which will NEVER make it into my basket at Butler's...

So what you're telling me is that you guys have a real hard time finding a banana vendor, right? 

P.O.W.

Yes...P.O.W.  Were you thinking Prisoner of War?  Yeah...I could see that.  But it's not what THAT means. ;)  When I was in junior high, our church's youth group really started taking off.  One of the big things that our leaders were pushing to teach us was prayer.  Our music minister's wife, Trudy, had this idea to make these little bracelets to remind us that Prayer Works.  So where does the POW thing come in?  Well...the bracelets were these simple little black elastic things that had a plastic letter P and a plastic letter W separated with a plastic bead with a heart painted on it.  We all wore them to school and stuff, and without fail there was at least a handful of kids wearing them that were asked "Why are you wearing a Prisoner Of War bracelet?"  Because that's what it looked like!  What was cool about them, though, was that people asking about them gave us all a chance to sort of share our faith in a "non-invasive, non-judgmental" way.  So Trudy and her team went into overdrive making these little bracelets so we could give them away to kids when they asked and we were able to share what "Prayer Works" really meant.  It went viral at my school!  It seemed like every kid had one.  That was a predecessor of the WWJD bracelets.  Not that we started the trend, but we definitely felt like those things were old news when they started getting popular.

So why am I sharing that story with you today??  Well, because even after all those years, I was reminded today about how TRUE the concept of Prayer Works really is.  Reminded maybe doesn't come close to describing it really.  Maybe bowled over is better!  I've mentioned my morning Bible reading and prayer time here before.  That's a "new thing" for me.  I read my Bible, yes, and of course I pray, but I don't know that I've ever really honestly set a "time" for it daily and held myself to it until now.  It's not as though I didn't think that was important, but I was a slave to the "busy-ness" in my life.   From my perspective, I just didn't have the time to sit down and spend time.  The truth is, I was really just robbing myself.  If you've ever been a part of a youth group or church group in your "growing up years", you probably heard the whole "quiet time" speech like a hundred times.  Like it was some sort of "expectation".  I don't know about you, but that mentality about spending time with God and in the Word just made it feel like a task.  Like running laps or taking vitamins.  So that residual mentality paired with an over scheduled life meant that my Bible reading was limited to Sunday mornings, the occasional Wednesday night, and the perforations in my day to day life when I felt like something was SO wrong I just NEEDED a quiet time.  Don't we always need that??  A few months ago, I might have argued to the contrary, but God has made me a believer (so to speak...)!

Last week, there was a little saying in one of my readings that said, "Meet Me in early morning splendor.  I eagerly await you here in the stillness of this holy time with me."  That little passage has returned to me several times over the week as I contemplate "starting my day" and returning to my "quiet time" later in the day.  God wants me FIRST THING.  Before the day and all of its drama can touch me.  Before I have a chance to be influenced by the world or by Satan himself, God wants to still my heart and my mind and help me focus on what is important.  Him!

So what happened today that has made me want to proclaim the power of prayer??  I have a dear friend, dare say a BEST friend, in Houston who is a teacher.  She works at an intermediate school in Pasadena in the Special Ed department.  She's been at that school for several years and has really worked to develop her reputation both there and in the district.  She had to sort of go to bat for a kid this past year in regards to some services that he wasn't receiving by way of Special Ed.  Unfortunately her principal was not supportive of her efforts, and as a result has taken it upon himself to make her job as difficult as possible.  He even went to the extreme of removing her from the department head position for no apparent reason and moved her completely out of her comfort zone into a position which entails working with "special needs" students.  They range from MR to severely Autistic to major behavioral issues.  I was so proud of her for keeping her head up through that whole process of changing and being humble and quiet about it.  She's a better woman than me!  She was informed last week that she was getting a student who has been being bounced around the district for various reasons.  She had been moved from her last "mainstream" school for kicking a pregnant woman in the stomach because she "hates pregnant women".  Sara is 7 1/2 months pregnant with her first baby.  Terrifying, no?  Sara has been very apprehensive about this girl.  Luckily the girl didn't show up yesterday for the first day of school.  However she spent her day dealing with a student who vomits when they're nervous and had to clean up 2 rounds of puke.  Again, what a trooper.  But when I've talked with her, I can just feel how beat down she's feeling.  It's heartbreaking really...  I've been praying for her and this situation for a while now.  And I hate when people say that they are praying for someone to bring them some sort of comfort but the really aren't praying.  So let me be the first to tell you that I ACTUALLY WAS praying...

This morning at 8:00 after Jonathan had left for the bus and I'd cleaned up from breakfast, I sat down to do my morning reading and prayer time.  I prayed for her and specifically asked God to help her find some peace about this situation and about her job in general.  I wanted really bad for her to receive some sort of joy from her job even if it was only for today.  She's so deserving of it!  So I texted her this morning at 8:30 (7:30 her time) to tell her what specifically I had prayer for her about.  Here's the text convo:

Oh my goodness, I was SO PUMPED!  What a blessing it was to see an answer to prayer so quickly and so vividly!  God reminded me that He's in control...of everything.  So even when I'm stressing about the things going on in MY life and I can't see His blessings, they are still there!  Sometimes it takes Him doing something for someone else for me to realize how powerful He is.  A prayer in Freeport, Bahamas reached Pasadena, Texas in enough time for my sweet Sara to receive that peace and joy and carry it with her throughout her day.  My goodness how that blessed my heart!

So my challenge for you tonight is to pray for something specific.  Pray VERY specifically.  Don't just pray for "forgiveness" or "your family".  Don't be generic!  Ask Him to be real for you in answering that prayer.  Ask him to show up!  He relishes in the opportunity to be that present for you.  He wants you to be overjoyed when you see how He works!

Ahem...and when that PRAYER WORKS for you, PLEASE share it with me and all of us!  You can post it here or email me or text me or Facebook me.  Whatever you're comfortable with.  But man, I would LOVE to have a giant chain of stories about the power of God through prayer!  It can be our little cyber version of those POW bracelets...maybe it'll go viral and touch more lives than we know!

Under the Bahamian Sun

Lately, as Jonathan has been studying at the kitchen table, I've been simultaneously working on our websites and watching movies on my computer with my headphones on so he can study in peace.  We brought a big CD case full of DVD's (I'm still unable to access our Netflix here, so if any of my loyal readers have suggestions on how to do this, I would be immensely grateful!).  Last night I watched Under the Tuscan Sun.  It's one of my favorite "feel good" movies.  You know the kind.  One of those movies that you can watch over and over again (I watched it 2 times in a row last night!) and it still makes you smile and laugh and get a little choked up.  It makes you feel good!  Under the Tuscan Sun has so many great quotes, and last night while I was watching it, I just couldn't pass up some of the parallels to our situation here in the Bahamas.  So I thought I'd share a few of those parallels here!  Let me give you a little background on the movie for those of you who haven't been lucky enough to watch it yourself (I highly recommend it!).

Francis is a middle aged author in San Francisco who is financially supporting her husband (also an author) while he "works on his book".  She finds out he's having an affair and her world comes crashing down.  Everything she thought was normal and good and right is all out of whack and bad and wrong.  So her friends push her to take a tour of Tuscany as a vacation from the hell that has been her life and she ends up stumbling upon a villa named Bramasole which she buys somewhat on a whim.  So the movie is about her life in Tuscany trying to fix up a huge run down heirloom house, trying to find love, and trying to sort out her life in an unfamiliar place with a life she swears is not her own.  She has experiences that make her resentful of her situation and experiences that make her wonder how she has come to be so blessed.  In the end she realizes that all the things she has hoped for and dreamed of have already happened to her.  Just in a different way than she thought they would.  I cannot help but identify here!

Of course, I have not experienced a divorce!  Jonathan and I are happier than ever, so I can't draw that parallel in any way.  However, this idea of needing a life change and not really seeing that change coming until it hits you square between the eyes is DEFINITELY something both me AND Jonathan can identify with.  Many of you may have wondered how we arrived at this conclusion of starting medical school.  Jonathan taught school for 3 years before starting this seemingly "out in left field" career change.  He was so unhappy while he was teaching.  He spent many anxious and stressful months just trying to hear his calling...he knew teaching wasn't it.  So he came to me one night while we were in bed reading and basically said "I am supposed to go to medical school.  I keep going back and forth and then just coming back to this.  So I'm gonna do it."  How could I argue with that??  And so the journey began!  

As far as I'm concerned, about a year into the prerequisit process, I kept feeling like there was something else out there for me (of course we didn't know we were destined for the Caribbean at that point!).  In conjunction with that feeling, there was that still small voice that was clearly telling me "Rachel quit your job."  Which was outlandish to me.  Almost funny!  How could I do that?  That's our livelihood!  That's what I do!  Quitting is not an option.  And honestly it wouldn't have been...IF we had been lead anywhere but a Caribbean school.  God knew this!  So He made it so that His plan for me was played out just like His plan for Jonathan was!  God is blessing us both simultaneously!

I can't just write this blog and tell all my readers that being an "island housewife" is all perfect and wonderful and without challenges.  I would be lying!  There's a scene in Under the Tuscan Sun where Francis's friend Patty says "There comes a time in everyone's life where they're standing at a crossroads."  And we were standing at a crossroads a few months ago.  Took a leap of faith that brought us to Freeport.  All the signs pointed here, and we couldn't ignore it.  So here we are.  That leap of faith was not an easy choice.  I have to MAKE THAT CHOICE almost daily!  I have to choose joy...because some days that joy is hard to find.  Likewise some days that joy is overflowing out of me!

The onslaught of "the terrible idea": In the movie, Francis encourages a writing student of hers to take a "terrible idea", work on it, and make it something special.  Raise your hand (figuratively of course) if you heard me and/or Jonathan say "We're moving to the Caribbean!" and you thought..."Gee...that sounds like a terrible idea"?  I know you're out there!  The beach sounds fabulous, I know.  But I'm sure there are lot's of you out there who've thought "That's all well and good, but I couldn't do it".  Well let me be the first to tell you that you can!  Maybe moving to the Caribbean is not the "terrible idea" you've been contemplating.  But whatever it is, chances are that it's more possible than you think.  Maybe the idea is not as terrible as you think it is!  How often in our day to day lives to we limit ourselves because of what we feel we have to "lose".  Trust me when I tell you that what you have to lose is not something lost on a leap of faith!  I "lost" a beautiful house, a nice car, beautiful furniture, a comfortable church home, an income, a great job, the comforts of "home", etc. The things that are really important though (my husband, my friends, my family, my future, my faith) were never lost.  So take that chance!  From the other side of a "terrible idea" I can tell you it's worth it!  God's plan for you cannot be derailed, so it's gonna happen whether you resist it or not.  Learn to listen even if the suggestion seems impossible!

"There is a section of the Alps, that is a very steep, very high part of the mountain.  They built a train track over this area to connect Venice to Vienna.  They built these tracks before there was even a train in existence that could make the trip.  Because they knew one day the train would come..."

Do you sometimes feel like a dreamer?  Like maybe the things you're hoping and praying for are things that are a part of a life that is not yours to live?  I do!  So don't feel alone in that feeling.  I'm reminded often (and that quote from the movie last night was another reminder) that God WILL provide the desires of your heart!  He put those desires there Himself!  But it's the "waiting for the train to come" that we all have problems with.  However, it shouldn't keep us from building the track with the hope that one day it will come.  It will!  Think Noah.  He built the Ark before the flood because he knew it would come!  Think Moses.  He took the children of Egypt out of bondage before he even really knew where he was taking them!  Think Mary.  She accepted the challenges she was given knowing the "consequences" because she had faith in the outcome!  So find hope in the outcome!  Have faith in the finish!  Because train or no train, He's building a life for you way beyond where you can see and it's fabulous!  Be fearless in your pursuit of the plan...He will bless you're "blind faith"!  He asks us to come to Him with childlike faith.  That kind of faith that says "I'm gonna jump off the side of the pool without my floaties because I know you're gonna catch me!"...He's that Daddy out there treading water encouraging you to jump in because He knows that what you're "jumping into" is safe as long as He's there.  He wouldn't tell you to jump if it wasn't...would he?  

"Regrets are a waste of time.  They're the past crippling you in the present. How are you ever gonna be happy if you keep wallowing?? When I was a little girl I would spend hours looking for ladybugs.  Finally I would just give up and fall asleep in the grass.  When I woke up, they were crawling all over me."

Just quit trying to force it.  Quit thinking so much!  Quit letting your failures dictate your future.  Quit letting fear run your life!  Just let go and it'll happen.  Release that grip on whatever the heck it is that you've got clenched in your fists, relax, lay it down.  When you "wake up", it will have been done for you...