Monday is my Sabbath rest day. As a missionary, weekends are often a busy time. Monday nights, when we’re home, I make a fire and barbecue some meat or chicken. This week I put some bacon on the grill.

In 1997 a businessman in Canada phoned me. Calls were a dollar a minute back in those years. “How are you doing?” It was a big question. We had non-stop company. Four months of two tables always full of a rotating crowd of friends. Our third daughter was a newborn. Rats often ran through our living room while we were sitting there. Anni and Via, at two and four, were used to it. Someone went into our laundry room and counted nine rats running around. Then Deanna figured out why our clothes had holes in them. The rats would eat the food off the girl’s clothes. We started the first Vineyard church in that house. Clenildo and Nilton brought their small groups to meet in our garage. We worked up to 80 people each Sunday before we rented a dancehall on the river frontage as a next step. Plus the mission politics. And the challenges of living on volunteer support… It felt like non-stop chaos. I told my friend, “If only I had a place where once in a while I could sit and have a quiet cup of coffee and think ‘Yes. This is a good life.'” God gave that man a dream about buying us a house. I don’t know if it was before or after that conversation, but within a short time we were living in our own house, the one that turned into the mission hub for us and later for Steve and Elba.

This fire on Monday nights has become a time when my heart overflows to where words fail me. I start with, “Yes, this is a good life.”

Throughout the Bible, God wants his people to enjoy a Sabbath rest day. Stop working. Get refreshed. I’ll take care of you! Over and over, people keep working…

Thankfully a pastor came to Brazil, and after a few years, he got through to us. The Sabbath is now my favorite day of the week. No comparison.

When Deanna is traveling, I eat twice a day. Soup at lunch. Açai at night. Plus a few snacks.

This bougainvillea is growing over our gate. I used Photoshop’s oil painting generative fill for the cool effect.

We have amazing sunsets. I used the Photoshop pastel generative fill for the effect below.

“Oh no! Just a short distance past the last chasm and everything feels different. It looks redder. (?) And it feels like a much larger chasm is coming up. I cannot see across. Plus, my mentor is gone. And I cannot see any  friends…” Then I remember King David’s training, and I rally…

“Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me” (Psalm 23:4).

“The LORD who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine!” (1 Samuel 17:37b).

The more I ponder David and his confidence and how this worked out for him, the better I feel.

Soon I’m leaning into the challenge and reveling in the view from the heights over the unknown chasm…