Cocooning versus Gogoing

  If you can’t find me in the photo below, just keep looking. I am in a dark blue dress, slightly right of center in the middle (and typically with my head leaning to one side). It was taken at the women’s camp of the Liberty Baptist Church of São Paulo last weekend. (Igreja Batista de Liberdade).

I had a great time at the camp. I accept very few speaking engagements so when I do, they are real highlights for me. I felt so loved and embraced by this great group of women. It was a rare encounter of making new friends. I had worked really hard on the four messages and I was excited to share God’s Word with them. The setting was lovely, the people were warm and caring and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

That being said, it is great to be back in my little cocoon. The older I get, the less I enjoy leaving my own little corner of the world. I used to go, go, go all the time, as my life was a life of travel and speaking. Since Canada, I have truly committed myself to being involved in the accountability of being only in my own church, which as been a really good thing for my spiritual life.

I also confess, it’s been a good thing for me emotionally. It’s not that I don’t love people, I really, really do. But at heart I am an introvert who has learned to act like an extrovert. What that means is that I get energized by being alone in silence. Being with people 24/7 like this past weekend it a good way to let my emotional “battery” run down. I have spent most of this week trying to get recharged. I used to recharge faster. It may be lack of practice, or like the battery on my laptop, it just may be wearing out.

Besides that, the physical journey home was very tiring. I was already tired from speaking (Spurgeon writes that preaching is the equivalent of eight hours of physical labor) and not sleeping well away from home, in addition to the other things. Then I rushed to the airport, with all that hassle of lugging luggage, standing in line, walking a mile to the gate and then standing in another line over an hour and everyone restless and all. The boarding time, the take off time came and went and no info from AVIANCA at all. That can get to be irritating with the staff is rude and condescending (telling us to just get back and line and wait to for the flight to be called). When we finally leave an hour late, the 45 minute flight turns into a two hour flight! How? The landing at the airport gets aborted because there is an injunction that no planes can land after 11PM and we are one minute late. So we circle in the air waiting to get permission to land at the other airport. We hit the ground, and my cell phone goes flying out of my hand! (Hard landing!) I had it ready to call João and let him know where I was. After everyone generously joined me in the search, we found it about 4 rows in the front. Then I could call João who was patiently waiting for me at the other airport, since AVIANCA had up on the arrivals that we were confirmed to land at midnight. (Without telling him it was at another airport.) All’s well that ends well, because I was able to call him, and being a Sunday night, there was no traffic, so by the time the luggage had arrived and I had walked around to get outside and down to the pick up zone, he was driving up. (By the way, did I mention I had on high heels, since I had left straight from the church to the airport, because I “had” to be there by 8PM?).  At least I had an adventure.  It was well worth it. By the way, the orchids were growing in a tree outside the dining hall. Aren’t they great?

As I’ve been working on this entry, my computer has shut down several times and I am distressed to learn that my battery has just about worn out. So when it gets to 40% usage the computer just turns off with no warning. It is two years old, so I actually got more life out of it, then they recommend, since they say the life of a laptop battery is about a year – although on João’s old computer it’s lasted 4 1/2 years.  Argh. Please don’t let me touch anything else. My cell phone died today, as it won’t recharge nor will it turn on anymore (it is 4 years old, though). Fortunately I have João’s old phone (which is actually only about a year old) to use – just insert chip and away we go. And of course I can use the the power for my computer. It works about 40 minutes on battery power. Then there’s my Kindle. No solution for it, since it took a slight jar/fall (really, just slid off the bed) and died. I have dropped it before and no problem, and this was such a slight fall, that I didn’t expect a problem. The screen is dead. So this week I am the kiss of death for all electronics. Sissy and João are hiding their cell phones and computers from me.

I think I’ll head out of my cocoon, publish this entry and head off for the day of prayer for missions in Brazil. And not turn anything on in the car!