East Timor and the results of the job interview

We have finally walked away from the work in Lismore.  Of Course Samuel worked right up to the last moment before hopping in the car to go to Brisbane.  One of the more notable accomplishments in the last week (in Samuel’s mind) was the construction of a composting toilet complete with solar powered exhaust fan.  I hope it works.  The most notable accomplishment was really Cynthia holding things together, organising final appointments and getting supplies ready to leave Australia for an indefinite period.  We are really going out on a limb here.  We do not have enough money to do any more than just arrive in Dili and hope we get this job.  And we certainly don’t have enough money to come back again if this fails.  Still Samuel is adamant that you only live once and every once in a while you should take a little risk.
Stephen from CRC Churches graciously picked us up in Darwin in the middle of the night so we could sleep in a bed for a few hours.  The kids loved their dogs.  Thanks for everything guys. 
We arrived in Dili Wednesday morning  and were very happy to see old friends and East Timor.  We were welcomed back to the little family cluster and are able to stay in the original shared house arrangement from last year.  We spent the day relaxing, swimming, sleeping and Samuel studying documents and acronyms for the job interview.  Serenity and Israel got a little sick with fever possibly due to all the changes in aeroplane aircon and tropical humidity but seem to be ok now.




We checked out the new mission base and its looking great.  The boys are doing a good job and laying the blocks for the upper floor.  It even comes with a jump ramp out the front (which the builders are using to barrow up concrete for now).




 
Thursday morning I sat for the interview with a panel of 4 men – 1 Australian from the University of Western Australia and 3 Timorese.  The Australian didn’t know much Tetun and the 2 key Timorese didn’t know much English so I answered a set of English questions briefly in English, then translated the questions into Tetun and then answered them extensively in Tetun.  Interesting way of doing things.  You might be happy to know I shaved, bought an opshop paisley tie and Cynthia even ironed my pants (quite a feat in Timor).

…

Dumb job, who wants a job like that anyway.  Grmbl *;;###’^^  grr, grmmf.

When Cynthia realised I was not succesful in getting the job she went inside and broke out in tears.  What a disaster.  Samuel is ever the optimist and figures God probably has some other plan in mind.  Cynthia is not sure if heaven exists.  It was probably the paisley tie that did it.
So now what? Go for a swim.  Its a nice beach here.

A Wing and a Prayer

It seems as though the time has come for us to return to East Timor.  It has been 4 months now since we came back to Australia - 4 grueling months.  I could possibly say that this has been one of the most difficult times in our life.  We have gone from one demanding struggle to another.  Samuel works stupidly long hours yet has not been in a full time paid job for over a year.  Our financial planning has gone unbelievably pear shaped and we are desperately poor.  We now have no car (since Samuel rolled it) and have not had our own house to live in (been bunking in with the in-laws.  Because of all this we feel we must get a job and try to get out of the hole we (or more appropriately - Samuel) have created.  So we plan to return with barely enough money on a credit card to buy 1 one way tickets to East Timor.  We are not really sure if we'll have enough money to get
through the next lot of bills coming our way but we do have something to look forward to  - a job interview!  I know its not much, but they say Samuel is on the short list and the interview is in East Timor.  To say we are going out on a limb is a bit of an understatement - the limb has already broken and we are plummeting into the abyss.  What we need is some wings and a prayer.  Its a nice image when you think of our little family rising out of the darkness in the safe hands of a God who catches us - if He does.  You know what He's like though, a little on the mysterious side and He is prone to teaching lessons.  So I don't know how its going to go but I do think we should go.  Its a destiny thing.

Please note that the above whining is definitely not intended to make anyone feel sorry for us and donate some money.  What it is about is telling a story so that if God rescues us in some incredible way you can go, "Wow, thats so cool!"  Alternatively, if God doesn't exist, doesn't care or is busy doing more important things and we go splat on the abyss floor then you can say, "The idiots, I hope Samuel will finally learn his lesson!"  So this is just for your entertainment, but feel free to pray for us.

What's this?  A bush you say?  No!  This was our home - an igloo made from straw bales.  We used to live here with our little 12V power system and bucket loo.  Now its overgrown with vines.  Sniff, sniff.