Month: July 2016

Here is a blog that I wrote a few weeks back. It has recently come to mind as we have a foot in two different worlds.

This is a picture of my neighbor’s house. It is a humble house with a large mango tree in the back yard. The living spaces consist of a room about the size of our living room and dining room and another small living space out past the mango trees. Typically in Nicaragua yards are living spaces, too.

It appears that in the house there are at least 4 adults, one teenager, a 10 year old and a baby. They make furniture, and more than once I have been so frustrated with listening to the table saw while I am trying to Skype, that I have yelled out in anger.

But today I think I saw Jesus at their house.

Every few days in the afternoon, a woman who looks old beyond her years stops at the house with three kids with uncombed hair, dirty faces, and the appearance of not having bathed in weeks. The woman has the same disheveled appearance, but I admire her. She drives a one horse cart that is loaded down with gnarled, roughly cut wood, and she sells it presumably to make money for the family. Each morning our house is filled with the smell of a campfire, so I believe our neighbors cook over an open fire. This woman and her children stop to sell what is needed and what they have to offer.

Today though, I heard, in a small, little girl voice, “Hola…..Hola…….HOLA”. It was only the girls on the cart, with the overburdened horse and a pile of wood. Our neighbor came to the door- the patriarch who I have seen sitting in the doorway reading his Bible. The three young girls, maybe 12, 8, and 6, unloaded the wood, made the monetary exchange, and then the older one was asked to come further into the house.

Because of the world situation, I am afraid to say that there is a fear in me when I see a young girl lead out of view of other; we are all too familiar with the abuse that happens behind closed doors. But what happened next delighted me. The girl walked out with her arms loaded with mangoes. My neighbor with the large mango tree gave from what he had.

From the response of the girls, you would have thought it was Christmas! They were acknowledged for something other than just being wood suppliers. They were recognized for being real girls with real needs.

As the 12 year old steered the horse in the other direction, she caught me looking at her through my open door. She smiled and waved as I smiled and waved back. This usually timid and withdrawn girl had something to smile about today.

 

Those of you who have walked this journey with us over the past few years know that we arrived in Masatepe without a vehicle. We had a costly and challenging problem with our previous car, and we were glad to finally be rid of it before we returned to the U.S. in November.

Since we have been in Masatepe we have not been without the need for a car, so God’s provision during this time has been very interesting.

When we arrived we lived on a farm outside of town. A local pastor was kind enough to loan us his extra car (a Mitsubishi Montero), which was amazing to arrive on the scene and be provided a house and a quality vehicle- it rode great over the bumpy roads, the AC was wonderful, and until the alarm would not stop going off, everything was great!

Then when we got to the place of moving, we were able to borrow the team truck- this is your ultimate Nica driving experience. The steering was loose, the AC was the four windows, and you did not have to worry about scratches because it was one big scratch. The wonderful thing though is that it took us through moving and all of our trips back and forth to Immigration.

Another vehicle we were able to rent was a Taxi. It was low to the ground and sporty (not necessarily a good traits here), had great AC, hugged the road, and we always had people waving at us- probably hoping for a ride. Unfortunately the other car of the owner had a problem and now the taxi has become their main vehicle.

The next car in the line-up and probably the most impressive was a 1988 Mercedes full size sedan. There were a few things that made this amazing: It came out the year I graduated from high school, I think we were the only ones in Nicaragua who were driving a car like that that day (We seemed to get special attention like a presidential motorcade), and it took us the who trip into Managua in the middle of a hot summer day to figure out the air conditioning. We were beyond wilted when we arrived at our friends surprise party!

A wonderful pastor friend of ours has a car that he is not able to drive because he can’t afford the gas to drive it, so he has rented his car to us several times. We are glad to be able to help in out in this way, and it has helped us make some appointments that we never thought we would make it to. The air conditioning is the four windows that are all controlled on the driver side and it does not have working seat belts, but it got us where we needed to go. I pray for safety a lot when we rent that car!

Our most recent rental experience was a 1989 Toyota van. In 1989 I tried to talk my aunt and uncle out of buying one just like it because I thought it was ugly- now I was thankful for it because it allowed us to get to the graduation of a friend. It was a bit of a challenge because the door locks would randomly lock, the side door had no handle, making it not very useful as a van, but it got us where we wanted to go.

All of the above is very normal around here. This is a place where if you have a car, it is often like the “college car” of Americans.

It has become very clear that we need a car for our own work inside and outside Masatepe as well as for our team. More and more we are asked to do things that require a four wheel-drive, higher clearance vehicle.

We have had several generous donations toward a car, and we have been praying daily since April for this provision. In the mean time we wait, we listen, and we continue to see how God is going to provide!