"No day is so bad it can't be fixed with a nap." ~Carrie P. Snow
You've had 'em. You know what I'm talking about. (Above Mainstreet Quin) From the get go you feel like you have two left feet, you're two steps behind and the odds are stacked against you. You dismounted on the wrong side of the bed, it is usually a Monday...well, today mine was a Tuesday. I woke up a 8:30 AM!!!! To 2 messages from my principal and 1 from my colleague..."Where are you?" was their inquisition and "Are you Okay?" was their concern..thankfully or not I was fine, more than fine really I had 3 extra hours of sleep under my belt and was already 1/2 hour late to school. Try to hurry, when you have a 1 mile walk... Strike One. When I got to school 1 hour late everyone was snickering...How ya feeling??? Did you get enough sleep? Little late aren't ya? Yah, yah, as I spilled coffee down my shirt missing my mouth, to my defense I am battling a sore throat but nothing to keep me in bed. Strike Two. Anyway later on that same day I lost Bob. That's right. One of my students that I'm supposed to keep 8 eyes on, evaded me. During recess he took off down the road headed for home. Where's Bob???? Everyone was asking??? "What? Where's Bob?" I freaked??? 
All eyes were on me and mine weren't on Bob. Strike Three. Enough said. Off we went in (Left the neighborhood)search of Bob. We found him happily bopping along 2 blocks from the school, jacket on upside down and merrily on his way home. Back to school we went. 
From there it seemed like the day was going to make a turn around, okay, aside from the mountains of paperwork and apparently(right the school) my sending too many mass emails asking everyone what I'm doing??? Canceled practice as we had a funeral in the village an elder had passed on. Came home for a bit with 1/2 dozen kids who played all over the house using my living room as a gymnastics mat.
In the mist of the three ring circus I had invited into my home... my sweet friend Niki visited bless her heart, our conversation lead to how we ended up here in Quin. It was then that she told me about her experience of arriving to the tundra. (left the playground outside the school and our trusty school suburban)She said it was okay to share her story with you on this blog.Apparently on her connecting flight from Bethel to Quin the part where it starts to sink in as to where your are headed, when they walk you out onto the tarmac amidst the 'plane parking lot' much like a rental car lot, and lead you to your chariot where you have to mount up helping each other climb and struggle to get situated in the aircraft not much bigger than a Honda Civic. It was then as Niki sat stuffed in the back of a little 6 seater puddle jumper with her 3 year old daughter stashed up in the front by her 10 year old son and husband, when the pilot hollered back, "Buckle Up". Niki, after sometime searching for her safety harness gave up and hollered back that she couldn't find hers. To which he answered nonchalantly, "You have to use the rope." Rope? Oh Dear Lord Help Me she thought, she had wondered what the baling twine tied to her seat was for... welcome to the bush.
So anyway at about a quarter to 7 we ended our reminiscing and I herded the kiddos out the door and headed for church where we (Mac and I) sang "I'll Fly Away" bluegrass style complete with guitar (Mac),
electric banjo(John Teddy one of our great Paras) and mandolin(Jim). We were beckoned to the front of the church just after a small black and white village dog zinged in and streaked down the aisles and around the pews trying to out run the young man who wrangled (above Mac, Jim, John practicing in our room)him out the door (reminded me of that Ray Stevens song "When the Squirrel Went Berserk in the 1st Self Righteous Church..." etc...) and a mere 2 hours after various people had been sharing in Yupik about the gentleman who passed away. We were a little concerned as we hadn't realized it was kind of like a memorial service. But John Teddy was related to him and he had arranged the whole thing so we went on with it. I
t turned out very nice and uplifting I think. The church here reminds me of the old Bethesda Lutheran Church that all my cousins grew up in and I tagged along with them in the summers when we'd get to spend (right the beach high tide)a week tearing
around on Gram and Gramp's farm. Also it is like the Off Lake Church up at the lake, which on summer days spent with Gram and Grampa we'd visit if the weather for the boat ride across was fair. And finally it reminds me of The River Church which is the daughter church of Hayward Wesleyan. It amazes me how you can not even know people and places ever existed then suddenly if they know the Lord and you know the Lord you can feel as though you've known them forever. That's how it feels here. Anyway, the day is ending with a walk past the fish plant with Ani and watching the sun set on the Bering Sea. It just seemed like quite the spectrum of experiences in the short time I've been awake and alert, all things considered. Hope you are having an adventurous but not 'One Of Those Days' yourself!
"Now that we know what we have—Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God—let's not let it slip through our fingers. We don't have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He's been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let's walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help." Hebrews 4:14-16
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