last year, my birthday was very unique. i spent it in Antsirabe, Madagascar. a town about 9 hours (or so) northwest of Manakara. after being in Manakara for roughly 2 months by that point, this was a BIG city! they had a grocery store and a pizza restaurant! its the little things my friends. we (Paige and i) had traveled with the Newtons to help watch the children while new missionaries to the island had orientation.
the day of my birthday (october 11), we woke up and had breakfast...which consisted of APPLES. these were very rare...and by very rare...you couldn't find them in Manakara. they were green apples, sour and juicy deliciousness. a little piece of home to start our day.
during our training in Botswana, i was able to see my bestest friend, Emily. she gave me a package of letters to open each week i was in Manakara, and a special gift bag with a birthday present inside! i had brought that with me to Antsirabe, so of course, i opened it right after eating my apple! a beautiful picture frame with a picture of me and Emily and a journal. a treasured gift for sure.
i was treated to lunch at the Pousse Pousse Cafe and ate a delicious hamburger...another luxury of being in a big(er) city! just so you know, a pousse pousse is a cart type vehicle that is pulled by humans. you would ride one to the store or where ever you needed to go. i don't really know how those tiny men pulled people all day every day...but they did. anyways, the burger was delicious and i loved every minute of it!
that night it was raining and storming out, so we decided to huddle in the Newton's room for a movie. that was a very short lived idea...since the power went out. end to that day was so fun! :)
the next day Angela and Paige took me to the pizza restaurant where they had awesome desserts! Angela had bought some party hats and plates and cups...it was awesome! little did i know that Paige had smuggled birthday cards from my family in her suitcase! she piled them onto the table and i burst into tears instantly (just recalling this memory is making me tear up). i didn't realize how much i missed them until reading those cards. each word i read was just like the proverb says:
Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body. Prov. 16:24
being in another country, away from everything familiar, makes you re-think things. makes you long for things that aren't that important, like apples. but God showed me that deep relationships are essential to daily living. you don't have to go across the world to figure that out. that may mean you go across the living room, or down the street, or across town. wherever you have to travel to foster those relationships, go there. Jesus came to you to develop a deep relationship, why can't you do the same for someone else?
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