Imagine for a moment, that you are spending the day without air conditioning. It's hot, and the sun beats down on you as you walk to the highway to catch a multi-cab to the market. In the multi-cab you sit on a bench squished between several other sweaty bodies, all on their way to and from different places. You sweat and think about how you need to drink more water. Then when you get the the market, you get out of the multi-cab. The traffic passing you on the street kicks up dust that surrounds you and clings to your sweaty legs. You walk through the market, checking fruits and veggies for ripeness before you buy them. With each thing you touch, your hands get a little more dirty. By the time you are done shopping, your bag is heavy with produce for the week, and the extra weight is enough to make you sweat a little more than you already were. On your way to catch a multi-cab home, you notice that the sun has been hidden behind dark clouds, and you feel the first drops of what will be a heavy rain shower. Thankfully, theres a multi-cab close by, because you forgot your umbrella at home. As the multi-cab makes it's way down the highway, the back of your head gets sprayed by the rain coming in through the windows, and you can feel it dripping through your hair, down your neck and soaking the back of your shirt. At your stop, you jump out of the multi-cab and catch a motor-tryk as quickly as your burden of vegetables will allow. In your haste, you walk through a muddy puddle that is twice as deep as it appeared, drenching your shoes. And then you finally make it home, hot, sweaty, wind-blown, and completely dirty. Nothing would feel better right at this moment, than going upstairs and taking a nice hot shower. So that's your plan. You go up stairs to the bathroom. As you are peeling off your wet clothes, you see a new trail of red biting ants crawling down one wall and across the floor. You don't know what they are after, but you know you want to avoid them at all cost. You stand in your giant plastic bucket that you use to catch shower water so that it can be recycled for flushing the toilet and turn the shower nozzle. Water barely trickles from the spout. It's not a pleasant realization. There is no water. And just like that, your perspective shifts. You know that your hope and joy should be found in Christ, but right at that moment you have to work extra hard to feel thankful.
In an alternate ending to the day, you go upstairs, stand in your bucket, turn the nozzle and cool clear water runs over your hair and body. And with a simple bar of soap you are able to wash away not only the dirt and sweat, but somehow even the heaviness of the day comes away. It all gets rinsed off, running down into the bucket of now dirty water at your feet. You come away from your shower feeling fresh and new and like you are ready to take on all of the other hard things that come along with living in the Philippines. You thank God for the opportunity to be here. You thank Him for the ability to learn the language enough to go the market and buy what you need without a translator. You thank Him for the transportation that got you home so that you didn't have to carry your giant bag of produce on your tired shoulders the whole way. And you thank God for the water and the soap, little blessings that might seem so mundane in another world.
