With Christ In the Vessel We Can Smile At The Storm

It has been a rather hit and miss week, quite literally as well as metaphorically. The week started with me being so sick that I was out of action in Sunday after church and on Monday, where I did not make it to work but instead slept most of the day away. I made it to work on Tuesday but got sent home after half a day due to my constant coughing and sneezing. Made it to work yesterday and gained back a bit of my appetite. I can say with glee that my clothes are now a bit looser and that the pair of shorts that I wore yesterday can be pulled down without being unbuttoned or unzipped. Though I would ask that nobody try to do that please, I prefer to be walking around with clothes ON thank you.

I was still feeling rather sick yesterday, my sore throat and sore nose from tissue burn didn’t help either. There was Found on last night and I was on the border of not going cause I thought I should be resting a bit more so I can recover quicker but I still pushed on and went, it was the first worship experience night we had and I felt like going. So I got there, I parked at my usual spot outside Amanda’s house on the sandy verge and went in. It was a great night last night, I admit I wasn’t really into it at first but it was after that I started doing a lot of thinking, about what each person had said last night. I could relate to what Sam was saying, there are many times where I try and grasp the concept that God is by faith and although I cannot physically see Him, He definitely exists and plays a huge part of my life. Sometimes I feel like God can’t hear me but when that happens, I see this chain of events that prove me wrong. Yesterday was just one concrete example of that.

As I said just now, I just wasn’t feeling up to going, but I thought I should go for support of the women’s ministry. So I went and I parked at my usual place, even though previously I’ve scraped the bottom my front bumper slightly while reversing I though it would be the same thing again. Not. As I left to go home after Found, I scraped my bumper, quite badly this time. As I reversed, I heard a snap and my heart dropped when I did. So I pulled over and saw that the left side of my front bumper had come out and was jutting out about 1 cm. Which is still 1 cm too much for comfort. So I drove home, contemplating my options, wondering why had I even parked at that spot, wondering where I could get it fixed for cheap.

I had a fitful sleep last night, I wasn’t too happy with myself, with what I had done to my beloved car, so disappointed that I ignored my own advice of not parking there anymore. So I got up extra early this morning and because I couldn’t find masking tape anywhere, I resorted to cutting up pieces of contact into strips and stuck it on my bumper to keep it in place for the trip to work. Unfortunately, I didn’t take a picture of it just cause I was so distraught that I had damaged my Blue Lightning once again. I rushed out of the house, trying to beat the traffic and create less stress on my car and me and managed to forget my cough syrup and honey and lemon drink in the morning. I made it to work in one piece and managed to drive to my final evaluation appointment which was over at the other AAWA site. Had my final evaluation with Sue and I passed with flying colours! The team were very impressed with my work on the life history book sample I created as well as the sensory boxes and cataloguing of the resources and creating how to sheets for them. They even got Joel to take a picture of me with the stuff I had put together there on my placement and that will go in the November staff newsletter Jess said she will send me a copy when they get it, so it will be rather odd seeing my face with all the things I did over the past 7 weeks there.

Louise and Deb took me out to Floreat Forum and we went crazy at the Bali Beach shop over there, with me looking for items for the sensory rummage boxes that were seriously cheap, and Deb and Louise shopping for house decorations. Louise treated me to lunch at Gloria Jean’s, which was really kind of her. I’ve got some goodies for them at the office that I’ll be giving them tomorrow. As we sat eating lunch, Louise and Deb offered me a paid job over the summer as a research assistant for a research project they are interested in. I was stoked! I think I froze and they gave me the details of it and it was great! It fit in perfectly with my summer plans and I get paid and I have the flexibility to do things. It was a dream come true! Little need to say, I accepted it right away, I wasn’t going to let this get out of my reach. As I’m goins to be applying for PR and need something to keep me occupied before I get a real job and it looks great on my CV. I couldn’t have asked for a better job! All this while, I still had the thought of fixing my car, nagging at the back of my mind. I couldn’t exactly drive around on my next prac with a lose bumper.

I rang the Proton smash repairers early in the morning and they said that they could try fixing it, or if it is bad they have to replace the bumper, which will cost 500-600 bucks, but will be covered by insurance. So I wrapped up things at prac earlier and got off at 3pm and raced to Proton to get the bumper fixed. Got there at about 3.20pm and had a discussion with the mechanic (he’s brilliant! I would highly recommend him) about my options and even though he had a full workshop, he fit me in and got my car fixed in 15 minutes. While he took my car off me to bring round to the workshop and I was waiting in the waiting room, contemplating how much I would have to pay for all that, he walks in 5 minutes later telling me that I was lucky that I brought it in today. They found a nail in my rear right tyre and by the looks of it, it had been there for a while. He said it was lucky they caught it now, cause it would have meant that any day now my tyre would have gone kaput if it wasn’t fixed. He even recommended me a place down the road that could do it for cheap. So off to Richard’s Tyrepower on Scarborough Beach Road I went, in search of a puncture fixer. No wonder for the past week or so I have heard a tick tick sound everytime I drive, turned out to be the blooming nail in the tyre.

I got there and managed to get them to squeeze me in, even though that meant I had to wait an hour, I would wait. I think today was just great, I managed to get my car fixed at 2 places where both workshops were full and I got it down for cheap and quite fast as well. I got the bumper fixed for $25 and the tyre fixed for $30. I drove home in good spirits and was just thinking about the day. Then I looked at the bigger picture of things, that if I had never rocked up to Found yesterday, I wouldn’t have snapped my bumper, then the mechanic wouldn’t have found the nail in my tyre and I would have had a punctured tyre at a later date and a lot more expensive repair as well as a lot more hassles. God definitely had my back and always had my back all this time however stupid I might have felt or however useless I feel. This might probably sound stupid but I’m not ashamed of it, I prayed while driving back today, thanked Him for all His blessings and everything He has given me so unconditionally. That I now can see it is His hands in every facet of my life, even without me knowing, carrying me all the way, consoling me and egging me on the times I feel like giving up. So I was crying while I was driving and I must have looked like a downright idiot, but you know I don’t care anymore. What I do care about is what God means to me and I’m glad I have a God that is so loving and full of grace

So all in all it has been an awesome day! I got a job offer, I got my car fixed and my supervisors at prac were highly impressed with me. God is great Even when I thought this was such a horrible week, I’m glad that with Christ in the vessel, I can smile in the storm.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 16th, 2008 at 8:40 pm and is filed under Daily Adventures, Dear Diary, God, Kristine Moments. Find similar posts by selecting any of the following tags: . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.