Comfort Zone Stretch

Whooo hoooo a kitchen with a double gas burner and some cabinets!

Andrew making "French Bread" in our dining room.

Simple kitchen.  Note the water filter on right.....we must filter all our water here.

Living room with master bedroom off main area.

Upstairs, 2 bedrooms with sitting area.

Upper floor deck with incredible view.  Picture does no justice.

Funny that the only time I really reflect on my own personal comfort zones is when it being stretched.  Normally when I am comfortable with home, food, people, shopping, work, etc. I don't even think about how good it all feels.  However, when pushed out of that environment....wow whee.....then "comfort zone" becomes a hightened focus in my life.  I am sure you can think of situations to which you can relate feeling stretched.  So for the next few minutes I thought I would write about our first month of Indonesian comfort zone stretch.

Language:  We are thrilled with our language school.  The teachers have been incredibly kind to our family.  Daily our brains are "stretched" as we strain to remember, speak and learn new words.  Darron and I are quite brave to speak and plonder through, knowing we will learn from our mistakes and move on.  The boys are all staying very quiet.  Watching their silly parents make embarrasing mistakes, meanwhile they are learning and absorbing and will come out ahead in the long run!

People:  The Indonesian people have delighted us with their sincerity and kindness.  The stretch has come in that we go no where with out being stared at, talked about, giggled at, etc.  All this attention can give one a false sense of being important or the feeling of "will we ever fit in and be one?"  Just today I had the boys with me when I went to the local market to purchase fruit.  A group of girls began to talk with me and so I stopped knowing this was a great opportunity to practice language.  Within seconds they had brushed past me and were all flocked around Aubrey wanting his picture with them.  His comfort zone was pushed!
Space:  Personal space.  How much do you need to be comfortable?  As we bump down the road to school each morning with a small van filled with over 20 people or even a private taxi with 5 of us squished in the back seat (small car), I think hmmm.... not like this in America.  Jacob and Nathaniel would still be in booster seats.  Everyone buckled in their own space.  Here we don't buckle, kids are on our laps.....some are more comfortable than others! : )

Cleanliness:  One thing that pushes our comfort level is garbage.  Litter is everywhere.  Even in the beautiful villa's where we live, there is trash on the streets and in the gardens.  All the vegetables have to be soaked for 20 minutes in a bleach solution and then rinsed for 20 minutes to kill the germs.  Today I was cleaning the bathroom.  Mold in the shower area was bothering me, so I decided to pour some bleach on the already chemical treated area.....whatever chemicals I combined created some chemical reaction resulting in a burning like acid smell to the air....Woweeee.....any chemistry buffs out there who know what I might have combined?  The bathroom is now cleaned to my comfort level!  In order to flush the toilet we have to dump a bucket of water down the drain.  For some reason, filling a bucket of water and pouring it stretches me.  Not a hard core missionary girl, here! : )

Even though we feel stretched at times, we do feel so blessed.  Our home is comfortable and we can come home from language school each day and truly relax, study and just be.  I am loving being with my family so much.  Growing through this experience together.  The boys talk alot about Taco Bell....funny, that was the food that I missed the most when I was a student missionary 16 years ago.  They also miss their friends......but I continue to admire them as they stretch their world to comprehend poverty, a new world view, and a people who don't have much materially, but have much to offer in simplicity and life.  And so we grow knowing in time we will return to America and feel  our comfort zone stretched by what once seemed "normal".