Facing Outhouses

I was reading a book today given to me by Malachi's birth family as a birthday gift.  The Outhouse at the End of the Earth, by Sherry Day, is the story of a missionary family who served for many years in a little village in Papua New Guinea.  The story is written by a woman who was somewhat reluctant to go in to missions and found herself building mud ovens in the jungle.  The story has definitely resonated with my heart (and also made me thankful that we are moving to a pretty modern city in Ecuador!)

A chapter that I read today told the story of this outhouse that was located on a steep hill that Sherry and her family had to use as their restroom.  Sherry started to loath this bathroom as she would find new bugs, snakes, and lizards in it every time she visited.  As she was trying to become acclimated to this new village and culture she became so focused on how much she despised this outhouse that she wasn’t able to appreciate the beauty all around her in this village and the wonderful people.  

She remembered reading a story about Corrie Ten Boom's time in a concentration camp and how she and her sister stayed in barracks that were horribly infested with fleas.  Instead of letting the fleas overwhelm her, Corrie's sister started thanking God for the fleas. When Corrie asked her how she could be thankful for the fleas, her sister reminded her of 1st Thessalonians 5:16-17 

"Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

So, they chose to thank Him.  Corrie and her sister cautiously held Bible studies in their barracks and had so many people attend they had to start another Bible study!  The amazing part was that the guards never bothered them or tried to stop the meetings.  Corrie later found out that no guards were willing to go near their barracks because the fleas were so bad!  Something that seemed so miserable was actually grace from a very loving Father.

As Sherry thought on this, she started to thank God for the outhouse and asked Him to show her some blessing in it.  As soon as she was able to pray that, her perspective changed.  She was able to take the focus off of herself and put it back where it belonged; on her gracious Savior and on the beautiful people He had placed around her.  

He even brought blessing through it.  One day she made a trip to the outhouse and found a hen had just laid a fresh egg.  She was so excited about this little gift from God, as she was really missing familiar food.  The people in the village noticed her change of attitude and excitement and the children started to bring her about 4 fresh eggs every week.  Suddenly, she had a whole new menu of things she could prepare and enjoy because of this little egg found in the dreaded outhouse.

This really convicted me today.  Am I praising God for my outhouses?  Not nearly enough!   I know that our family will face many difficult times in the future.  The transition to a new culture and a new way of life will not be easy. 

No matter where we live, we are all facing some pretty rough outhouses that are blurring our vision of a faithful God who uses all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. (Romans 8:28)

My prayer is that I will be a person who can praise God for the difficulties in life, realizing that He has allowed them for a reason.  He’s got a lot of work to do on me!