The water jar guy

by josh and brin

The last couple of weeks have been restful as we have recuperated from travels and sickness, and slowly stepped back into our regular lives. We traveled to Porto de Moz, a little town a 12 hour boat ride north, to spend New Years eve with friends there. Included was a euchre tournament and a 4 day wii golf tournament and now we feel like we have had our quota of fun for the next few months. We even won one of the tournaments, that is if you consider Brin winning the last place pity prize winning. But we are R$10 richer now. Ava described our time there as "a party, and then another party, and then the next day another kind of party." It really wasn't entirely that way, but with our lack of fun in our regular life, I can see why she would say that.

The girls are on their break from Brazilian school and will be starting a new semester Feb. 1st. They have been enjoying extra time spent with friends and around the house.

Mia and Ava and their friends peering over the wall in our backyard. They find it an enjoyable playtime to trade clothes. They go from one game to another in-between switching outfits amongst each other.

An afternoon of play inevitably includes a picnic. Usually consisting of mangoes, apples, bananas, crackers and in this case pineapples.

The girls framed by an unfinished window in our garage.

I don't have a picture of Ella, but you will just have to imagine her sprawled on the sofa with her nose in a book about warrior cats. While they are on break from Brazilian school, Amanda continues to American school them, being the Canadian she is, so hilarious. Mia is making great progress beyond her age. Ava has good days and bad days and gives Amanda plenty of opportunity to use patience.

While reading in Mark the other day I was struck by a fairly insignificant detail that happened as Jesus and the disciples entered Jerusalem at the beginning of the Passion Week. Jesus sent a few of the disciples into town and told them they would see a guy carrying a jar of water and they should follow him to his house and tell him they were coming with their master to have a passover dinner. The following verse says the disciples "found things just as Jesus had told them."

I wondered, Why did Jesus do this? What impact did it have on the disciples. Did any of them remember that small display of power in the midst of the chaos, later in the week? My mind drifted to our own lives. We have had our own "water jar guy" moments. I thank God for those moments when He gives us just enough of a glimpse for us to be reminded that He is in control. And at this particular moment, we are looking to God again, asking that he give us a glimpse as to our future. Hoping that we'll see our "water jar guy" and have the faith to follow Him.