A beehive of activity

The French have an expression about a place being a "beehive" (une rûche) of activity if there is lots going on there, particularly when there are lots of people going in and coming out. Yesterday was definitely one of those beehive days.

My main project concerned working on a postal mailing for la fonderie's June 23-25 conference. Cyril was able to print the flyers on Wednesday night, which seemed like it would speed up the process. However, I accidentally sent him the wrong document to print, so my heart dropped when I opened up the package of flyers and didn't see what I expected to see. (At our Wednesday meeting, we already discussed that for any future printing, the one who designs the flyers should be the one who handles getting them printed. The error of yesterday showed prophetically the rightness of this policy of eliminating as many handoffs as possible in the process. To use a football metaphor, the more handoffs, the greater the chance of a fumble).

On the bright side, I was able to salvage some of the printed flyers and then print the translated text in English on them. These will be sent to our contacts whose don't necessarily speak French. At last June's conference with Colin Harbinson, we had a number of participants like this. The world of artists crosses linguistic borders. Like migrating birds, artists tend to travel. Many times, these journeys lead them to arts centers (like Paris) that are outside their native land. I hope that this upcoming conference draws people from all around the world, including the U.S., England, and a plethora of European countries.

Jim Beise hosted a lunch for those who have been working on renovating the new arts ministry center at Rue de Lille. This reward meal is apparently a tradition in France. The work is nearly completed and he'll have the keys as of May 1. I remember Jim mentioning last June the possibility of a contact with someone in the Baptist Federation about this site. It's been a miraculous process that has unfolded in the past year for this property to open up and be renovated. We're all expecting God to provide a very fruitful season of ministry in the coming years and this site is an important piece of the puzzle.

Getting back to our beehive, yesterday we had Brianna (code name Bri) helping with the kids and meals, Anne (our weekly Thursday helper) working with some balcony planting, laundry, and bedroom organizational projects, and my wife helping and coordinating everyone. Our two daughters were home and our son was in and out with school.

We also hosted Isaac for lunch and a drop-in visitor friend Carolyn for supper. God seemed to multiply the food at supper, as Carolyn had some food with her that she added to our leftover Mexican meal. Bri made rice pudding with lefover rice from lunch.

In our beehive, things rarely stay clean or static. "Where did those scissors go?" "Who moved my stamps?" "More milk...pleeeze." "Me do it self." "Swiper, stop swiping" (from Dora the Explorer). After about 5 minutes after vacuuming, there are new crumbs on the floor. Toys, books, and clothes scattered all around. While all is currently quiet, it won't be for long. Such is the nature of life with 3 young kids and our desire to have a home and lives that are open to others.

We're blessed to have friends that want to come into our beehive and help and spend time with us. We're blessed to have 3 little "mess makers," as my wife affectionately calls them. Before we know it, they'll be making order out of messes more often and creating them less. Or so we hope. But we'll probably look back nostalgically at this season of life and wish that they would plop down on our laps and want to play like they do now.

We accidentally forgot to pick up our son's favorite 2 stuffed animals after school yesterday. He brings them for afternoon nap time. He was disheartened by their absence last night (and at 5:30 this morning). All we could do was hold him in laps (we took turns) and tell him that he and they would be alright. For me, it was a good reminder of how God comforts me sometimes. (Of course, He is more powerful than me, as He holds the keys to the school, as well as to the entire universe). But often I think He wants us to find our peace in His proverbial lap and arms, rather than in getting an immediate solution to a problem. This is where hope and patience are developed.

I need to get our son a milk refill now and have him start waking up again and get ready for school. It should be a joyful reunion in an hour when he sees his friends Little Bear and Dog.