Propane

Before we arrived here and didn't know what to expect, living in the jungle sounded so primitive. Living in a bamboo hut, having to carry supplies in, fearing the hot climate, not knowing how we would cook, all these things were unknown. Then we got here and realized that living in a bamboo hut isn't much different from a house back home except we have the added benefit of slats in the floor. When something spills you can just nudge it and it falls to the ground where chickens are eager to gobble it up. We realized that there is plenty of food here and that we wouldn't shrivel away to nothing. The hot climate we feared turned out to be very pleasant and now we are fearing the cold winter back home. Cooking turned out to be easy because we have a propane stove. And we have gotten comfortable with it. We have to replace our propane tank about every three months. Six other houses here use propane and it is very unpopular to carry the tanks into the mountains. You can imagine a 50-pound metal tank would not be much fun to carry. All of this means that propane is not usually immediately available when we run out. When we don't have propane, we cook in a little cement fire ring called a "pugen." We fill it with charcoal and start it on fire with a sap called "selang." It's kind of fun to cook on when we want to be adventurous, but it is slow. One hour of cooking turns into three hours of cooking. The first time we had to cook on the pugen was challenging. We wouldn't plan ahead and would find ourselves hungry for lunch with the only option to wait for the food to cook. We learned to plan better, God gave us patience and endurance, and we didn't go hungry. After we got more propane we thought, "Phew, we're glad that's over. And just look how God grew us through that trial." Well, turns out that God still wanted to grow us more. We ran out of propane last week and for a few days it was fine. Chris is quite good at cooking on the pugen, but after a while my patience was wearing thin. On Friday a lot of men were going to carry supplies in and we asked many of them to carry the propane for us, so I was certain that we would have it by the evening. When it didn't come, I was frustrated to the point of tears. It wasn't that I couldn't cook on the pugen, I just plain didn't want to. Earlier Chris had prayed, "God, if you want us to have propane, work it out so someone will carry it." I didn't agree. I just wanted propane. After struggling with this for a while, I asked God for more patience and asked Him to take away my frustration. I had to repeat this prayer many times, but God answered me. I decided to not even think about when the propane might come. A few days later I was studying in James and read, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." (James 1:2-4) So I rejoiced for this trial I was going through. Funny enough, someone carried the propane in that evening. God continues to provide for us and grow our faith in Him. What a loving God that He is willing to use us and be patient when we don't trust Him.