La paciencia

Phew!  Today was crazy!  I'm thankful that God helped me through this one . . . theme of the day was patience.

The morning was beautiful (the sun is back) and things started off mellow--breakfast as usual.  (Bananas and Cheerios!  And a leftover cinnamon roll, yum.)  Morning devos and staff meeting were next.  Luke led them today.  He reminded everybody to hang in there because they are basically going to have nine days straight of groups being here (one this weekend, one during the week, and one next weekend).  I was going to take a walk after the meeting was over, but Janet was starting to freak out because she still had a bunch of tidying up to do in her house and the windows were filthy from all the rain.  So I volunteered to help out by washing the window exteriors, which she gladly accepted.  Right at 10, as I finished them, the group came rolling up the main driveway!  Perfect timing.  Janet went to meet them--this group is from Newbury Park in the San Fernando Valley, where Howard and Janet are from--and I went to help Juanita prep the food.

There wasn't a lot for me to do in the kitchen today, and the morning was sort of awkward because my brain wouldn't work.  Josefina tried to tell me something in sign, but I just couldn't make sense of it and finally had to ask her to write it down on paper.  Then I kept saying things wrong and Juanita was super confused.  Like at breakfast, I was saying something about doves (the doves here make a cawing noise like a crow!) but she thought I was talking about dogs, and then later I meant to say "mi hermana" (my sister) and I said "mi hija" (my daughter) instead.  Poor Juanita!  Thankfully she was gracious and laughed about it with me.  But as the morning went on and we talked about the frustrations of having people around constantly (the group was already there milling around, and the vibe was getting sort of chaotic already), she sort of opened up about how much her patience gets tested sometimes and how hard it is for her to be kind and gracious.  Everybody at the Ranch, whether resident, student, or visitor, passes through that kitchen and dining hall, and a lot of them don't speak Spanish and can't/won't communicate with her.  Technically Juanita is an employee, not a volunteer, so it is her job to be here, but she's also a Christian and wants to reflect Christ as she does her work.  So she said a lot of times she just has to pray and plead for God to help her, because she is at the very end of her patience with all the people and she can't ever get any alone time.  I sort of felt bad at that point, because I realized how much I must contribute to that sometimes.  Granted, a lot of people have told me my Spanish is decent and I do a good job, but I'm still far from fluent and I say weird things like "hija" instead of "hermana."  So I realized just how much patience Juanita has, to put up with people like me and Janet (who try to communicate but still mess up a lot of the time) and with the kids (who are always coming in and sticking curious noses and fingers into everything) and with the people from groups who come and either ignore her or are rude (which I've heard happens too).  Wow.  As the day went on, I started to realize just how much patience the entire Ranch staff has.

The group that is here has about 20 people, including junior high and high school kids.  Any time youth are visiting it's automatically crazier (I remember, with not so much fondness, our high school trips with CCPC . . . there was more drama than work happening), and Howard and Janet and Doug have to manage the projects the group is doing and answer all the questions and be constantly monitoring what is going on.  Lunch was crazy.  Meals have been so mellow since I got here, and suddenly we had 20-plus extra people, who didn't know the meal protocol yet, coming up for food in addition to the kids and staff.  Juanita had to leave a little early, so right after we finished serving the first round of food, she collected her stuff and left, and suddenly I found that I was the only person in the kitchen, fully in charge of running second helpings for 50 people.  Then, just as lunch finished, an elderly couple--who lives in San Diego and wants to visit the Ranch once a week to help out--showed up with two giant bags (giant trash-size bags) of bagels and a big kitchen fryer and a bunch of other donations.  They didn't quite know protocol either, and suddenly the kitchen counter was covered in stuff and a hundred bagels were being removed from the bags and sorted by type (they got them free from some kind of co-op thing, and it was a huge assortment).  Janet was excited because they hardly ever get bagels down here, but there were so many that everything turned into chaos while the boys tried to clean the kitchen (stopping every five seconds to look at the bagels) and we tried to figure out what to do with them all.  Then the group was calling for me to make a pot of coffee because they had gotten up at the crack of dawn.  Absolute craziness.  It was all I could do not to yell at somebody--and all I could do to find a minute to cram down the last few scraps of mole, chicken, and tortilla on my plate.  I think I reheated the plate in the microwave twice before I finally got to eat it.  Praise the Lord, He helped me keep my cool, at least on the outside, and I didn't do or say anything rude to anyone, despite my frustration.

The kitchen counter after dinner. Bagel disaster. Photo basically sums up day.

When the boys had finally finished their cleanup, Janet assigned the elderly couple to sort the bagels into different categories--savory and sweet--for different meals, and then excused herself and me to drive into town and go shopping for a baby shower gift for Griselda.  I didn't actually need to get anything--I already have a present, which I won't disclose until after the shower because I don't want to post anything that might be read by someone and ruin a surprise--but I could tell Janet was also nearing the end of her patience and needed some breathing room from the visitors for a while, so I just hopped in the car with her and went.  We had a good little talk while we drove the five minutes down the road.  I told her I'm so glad I came here for three weeks, if only to get a better idea of what daily life here is really like and of the prayer needs for the staff.  They need major prayer for patience, I think!  Hosting groups every weekend is like hosting our home Bible study for a whole weekend, but a lot of the time with strangers who have never been here before and who have to be instructed on so much.  I have a new respect for this crew down here!  They're hardcore!

Griselda's gift.  I was so happy with how the wrapping paper turned out!

After we got back from the store, I was tired.  But there were donations from the group that needed to go into the paper room, and since I now know where everything goes, I went to put the stuff away.  Josefina was putting away all the food donations, so I helped her for a couple minutes too.  She was having kind of a hard day too--she said this is one of those days when she gets frustrated with her body not working completely right--and I wanted to love on her a little bit, so I helped her finish.  Then I went back to my room and finished wrapping Griselda's present.  I made homemade wrapping paper and bow (and a card, of course) since I didn't have any.  It looked great, but I was worked after all that!  I had ten minutes before I had to help Janet serve dinner, which I used to take a cat-nap.  Dinner was crazy too, but less so.  The pig slop bucket overflowed though, due to having so many plates scraped into it, and we had to do extra mopping (and nobody would eat the savory bagels, so we had a zillion to put away.  Janet said she'll try to freeze them).  Phew!  Everybody played a soccer game out on the ball court after dinner though, which was fun.  I'm lame at soccer, but I joined in anyway.

It was with great relief that I came back to my room.  Did some more stargazing first though, at Trish's recommendation.  Beautiful!  The Milky Way was just as clear tonight.  God is so awesome.  I was glad to end my day standing under the stars, thanking and worshiping Him for being so good and wonderful.  Today was tough, but He showed me a lot about RSM and about myself through all the challenges of it.  (And I did get a bit of time to do some artwork for Griselda's gift wrap, which was super nice.)  So I'm thrashed, but still thankful.

Bedtime!  YAY.  Oh my bed, how I long for you right now . . . look out, pillow, I'm gonna crash hard on you tonight. . .