Today, Brandon and I woke up at 8:00. After making sure the smaller children got breakfast, we showered, dressed, made sure everyone else was dressed, and then started church. I'm not sure what time it was, but it really didn't matter because there wasn't going to be anyone else showing up anyway. In fact, there won't be anyone else showing up at our house for church until January. So it's home-churching for the next seven months.
Our good friends left a few weeks ago, in a blaze of furious socialization, spending days together enjoying the summer delights of Tashkent and the long evenings together by the pool squeezing out the last drops of time spent together here in Uzbekistan. We will see each other again, but never again living together in the same city, as close as two families can be without actually being related to each other. I love that the foreign service forges such strong bonds out of often difficult circumstances, but I hate that there is always an end date. I am sometimes jealous of my parents who have lived in the same house that they bought when I was three.
So church has been much quieter for the past two weeks. Luckily, we've done this several times before, the longest being eight months during covid when we saw nobody but ourselves every Sunday morning.
But having done it before doesn't make it any better. I can't deny that there are some upsides, however. There's no Sunday rush to get everyone out the door or have the house ready for guests. I don't wear makeup or style my hair, although everyone still dresses in church clothes. Brandon always teaches the lessons, so I'm not responsible for any hurried lesson preparation on Saturday night. And we eat lunch much earlier which means longer Sunday afternoon naps for Brandon and me.
As nice as those things are, it doesn't make up for all the things that we miss. The children miss having friends at church, if only as a break from seeing each other all week long. Worshipping together with friends makes the worship that more sweet. Brandon and I also miss having friends at church and the sharing of experience and wisdom that comes from being together. Also, our children behave better when there is an audience. We all miss feeling like we're part of a unit, a very small part of the larger church of Jesus Christ, working together for the kingdom of God. It's harder to feel that when you're all alone in a country of 33 million people.
But we'll be fine until reinforcements show up next year. Thankfully we have enough people that Brandon and I aren't the only ones singing the songs or giving the testimonies. We even have enough older children that can play the piano, direct the music, pass the sacrament, and run singing time for the primary children. So it's not that bad. But it will be nice when new friends show up. Until then, we'll enjoy our long Sunday naps.
