driving

Today I let Edward (age 4) steer my car while I was driving.  I think it made his day.  And I’m sure the look on his face made mine :)

Sometimes culture shock looks like…

wanting to break your door down.

Have you ever read the book “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day”?  This poor kid is having one of those days and at the end of every page he says, “This is a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day… I think I’ll move to Australia”.  At the end of the book he mom says to him, “Some days are just like that… even in Australia”.

This book may just sum up my feelings towards life the last week or so.  In general life is good.  But all the little situations that I don’t know how to handle here just about to put me over the edge.

I had car trouble.  I paid someone to fix it.  I had car trouble again.  I ended up stranded and didn’t know how to find a tow truck.  Our house doesn’t have water after 9 at night and I have to leave dishes overnight, which I hate.  I’m sweaty, but church lasted 3 hours and I didn’t get home before 9 to take a shower.  We never have water in one of our bathrooms and now the kitchen sink won’t drain.  I don’t know how to find a plumber.  Our landlord isn’t timely, neither is the fix-it man.  The list goes on…

And then the door broke.  After all the other things we got home last night and the door from the kitchen to the back patio won’t open.  This is where the washer is, our clothes are, the fan for the kitchen plugs in, Jeremy has to walk through there to get to his room… I mean we just keep this door open all the time.  But the lock is broken and it is stuck.  We try a screwdriver, knife, fork, brute force, nothing.  Ugh. 

My normal personality (the one where I have perspective):
”No problem.  We can walk around to get to the back of the house.  It will probably only be for 24 hours.  We can get someone to help us fix it.  Its not a big deal.  No worries.”

My culture-shock personality (total frustration):
”I see no way that we will EVER be able to get this door fixed and I’m frustrated.  Jeremy, can you just break the door down?”

Honestly, I was willing to pay to have an entire new door and doorframe and sleep without a door on the house that night just to have the stupid door opened.  Thankfully, my roommates are less frazzled than I and didn’t think that was a good idea.

John came today and fixed it.  Not a big deal.  But we still don’t have water and I think my nerves are still shot.

Culture shock is real.  It happens people.

But some days are just like this.  It could happen anywhere.  Even in Australia :)

Surprise singing

Last night I went out to Armenia with the team for church.  As I walked into the church the pastor greeted me by saying… “Ahh, buenas, la amiga que canta!”  In other words… “oh, good evening, the friend who sings!”  Hmm, where is this going.

“Did you bring your guitar?”
"Actually, its in the car b/c I was taking it home”
”Oh!  You are going to sing.  You can plug it in up front.”
”Oh… okay”

So with Honduran style reverb and all, we got to sing a couple of praise songs in Spanish.  It was actually great b/c we were able to sing some things that our 17 person team from the states knew in English so they could sing along.  We also sang lots of their traditional songs as well.

I made a crucial error.   I stood on stage from the beginning of the service waiting my turn to play, b/c no one tells you these things.  This meant every time they started singing one of their songs (which I don’t know), they would look at me as if to say, “why aren’t you playing along?”  “Umm… b/c I have never in my life heard this song before…”  One lady asked me afterwards, “why didn’t you play to my song, I wanted to sing to the guitar?”  Well… sorry… I think I need an Armenia church music lesson before this happens again…

Car Wash

I’ve mentioned before that we have kids come to our door all the time for food.  Recently I found out that they collect plastic bottles to sell at the recycle.  Well, that’s easy.  So now we’re collecting plastic bottles to save for them.  The workers at the project drink lots of water and soda, so I’m going to start asking teams to gather up all the bottles and save them for me.  I love things like this.  Its such an easy way to be helpful in such a tangible way.

One of the groups that comes has started coming by almost every day and we’ve had to tell them we will only feed them once a day.  Other than that, they get water or sometimes popsicles :)

Anyway… today it was raining, pouring actually.

They came by today in the rain carrying two umbrellas and saw my car sitting in the rain.  They really wanted to wash it, even though it was pouring.  So… alright.  For $1.50 they actually did a great job.  It made me laugh that they took off their shoes and shirts to keep them dry while they worked… even though they walk all over town.

So, introducing Jeffrey, Ever, and Kevin. :)  Kevin is the youngest and was given the job of holding the umbrella so Jeffrey didn’t get wet.

After they were done they each got 10 lempira (about 50 cents) and a sandwich and popsicle.  Except Jeffrey because he was already here this morning.  But I love that Ever ate half of his and shared it. 

When I asked them what they would do with it they said they were going to buy Baleadas down the street, except Ever, he wanted rice and chicken… of course :)

While they ate we read a Bible story and they said they wanted to read another next time they came.  These kids are so patient with my poor pronunciation!

Anyways… hopefully the first picture of many.  We love these kiddos.

The make-up day

Complaint: It is impossible to keep clocks in this house on the right time because the power is constantly going out and resetting them!

Due to the clock problem I woke up at 5:11 this morning and my alarm was off so I was afraid I was going to oversleep.  So I got up to find a battery operated clock, reset it, and then couldn’t go back to sleep.

BUT… that means I had done almost my whole to-do list for around the house before 9:00.  Then I had a meeting this morning with someone about the girls’ home, met with Kiyomi, went and saw another house, and got two new tires all before 1:00.

This day is so productive that it may make up for the fact that Thursday I did nothing.  I went to see a house, got stranded on the side of the road for over two hours, and bought my third fan belt of the week for my car.   So frustrating.

Now everything is running correctly, I’m home with time to rest, and the power is even on so its cool sitting in front of a fan.  What a great day!

EEEEEzza

Yesterday was Evan’s birthday and got to spend almost the whole day with the Clow kids!  We had a blast.  In the morning we made homemade pizzas and Evan decorated his with pepperoni in the shape of an E.  So the kids declared the day EEEzza day!  Then we went and hung out at the pool and played football and just enjoyed each other.  So fun.  Here’s some pictures!

Definitely easier than making tortillas!

The process…

Before cooking…

End result = delicious

A people belonging to God

Ephesians 2:14-20

“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.”

1 Peter 2:9

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

These verses tell a story of redemption, my story.  It’s the story of the rescue of someone too foolish to even know that they needed a way out.  But it’s the story of a rescuer who didn’t wait to be asked, but who came and sought me out and turned my heart towards Him and gave me a new identity and hope for the future. 

This morning I was being judgmental.  Sitting in my bed, I was thinking about how frustrated it makes me when people are too prideful to ask for help or even too prideful to admit that they are in a season of life where they are needy.  It infuriates me when people try to blame their situations on everyone else and don’t take responsibility for their own actions.

And yet, isn’t that what the Lord saved me from… and isn’t it what He has to keep saving me from?  Many our the days when I think I’ve got it right.  When I think I’m not needy and when I make all kinds of excuses for myself.  Sometimes I even make myself believe that my sin is better than God’s plan for my life and I’m too prideful to see anything else.  Too many times I think that I’m right.

So I’m thankful for a God who doesn’t give up on me.  He just reminds me every time that He is GOOD, and that He LOVES me.  And He reminds me that I am His.  I am part of His family, I have a new identity. 

“A people belonging to God that you may declare His praises………”