Of Business and Bells

As I sit here and contemplate this past week I realize that I was on the go a considerable amount, so much so that I fear that I may have overlooked or ignored certain aspects of regular communication.  On Monday we were picked up from school and taken to meet for prayer over the Bible translation project as we do every week.  And as usual we went out to eat afterwards and then were taken back to the Dean's house.  Shortly after arriving there I made my way back to our apartment to see if I could get some work (if you want to call it that) done and maybe try and find some time to sleep; I had only gotten 6 or 7 hours of sleep the night before.  I also received a box from home that day.  After opening it and oohing and aahing over the goodies I had gotten I opened a pack of gum and started enjoying a piece.  It wasn't long before I decided to hit the sack but first I needed to get a bit of invigorating reading done out of Darwin's Black Box.  Soon I was tired enough to fall asleep and I did so, with gum in my mouth.  An hour and a half or so later Kevin woke me up cause we were about to go to the Dean's for dinner.  After having been sleeping for an hour and a half I remembered having gum in my mouth and began to chew it again.  It was still good.  So if your chewing gum looses its flavor on the bedpost overnight try sleeping with it in your mouth.  Tuesday rolled around and I had again not gotten much sleep.  I guess nothing much happened on Tuesday since it's not coming to mind right now.  We did however stay up late playing a game called Serenissima which I won for the first time.  Wednesday came and brought with it not much more sleep.  Kevin and I were pleasantly surprised when we were leaving school because Mr. Patterson was there to pick us up.  Mrs. Dean as well as half of her children weren't feeling well so to help out Mr. Patterson took us for the whole rest of the day with him and his family.  I didn't make it back to our apartment until late that evening.  On Thursday we were abducted again.  Upon leaving school we were again picked up my Mr. Patterson.  First on our agenda that day was lunch at BBQ Chicken, which stand for Best Believable Quality.  After that we went over to the church rooms and sat in on a planning meeting for the upcoming Bible Institute.  Again on Thursday I didn't make it home until late.  I got a little more sleep on Thursday night which I was grateful for since I had a test the following day.  On Friday I was not abducted and I got out of school early since we finished our tests early.  I returned to my apartment and talked with my family and Kevin went on various and sundry adventures in my absence.  Yesterday evening we had a gathering at the church to play ping-pong and other games.  I played a little ping-pong but it's not really my game, I much preferred the Dutch Blitz that I played later.  I even was limiting myself and Charissa was very close when I did end up winning.  I got to bed at a much more reasonable hour and then this morning I woke up and went to the Dean's and made a great coffee cake for breakfast.  This afternoon I had the chance to attend a memorial service put on by a Mongolian church in honor of Marty White, a fellow missionary who passed away recently after having a stroke.  Even having never met Mr. White I feel as if the world is a little darker after his passing.  John Donne wrote, "Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee."  I thought of that today as it means that it doesn't matter who the death bell rings for because human kind suffers together when a fellow man dies.

John