Sunday 22 July 2012

All in a 24 hour clock

Ok so it started when visiting my sister and Andrew was attempting to use their bathroom. Once inside when he touched the electrical switch it instantly gave him a shock and then blew right off the wall. It also shut down the power bathroom in the bathroom until later when a electrician could be brought in.

First thing the following morning while waiting for my sister to make breakfast. Only she had two young helpers in her kitchen and one of hem accidentally turned the gas on in the oven. Side note here all our stoves are gas and require your special attention. So it was about 12 minutes into the prep of the morning where we heard and felt a loud BOOM! We actually saw a orange cloud travel from the kitchen to the living room and blow the curtains. The next thing that happened when Sandra my sister walk towards us or rather stumbled towards us with
her eyes as wide as saucers and shaking. Apparently she bore the brunt of the small gas blast. It actually blew the bottom wood panel on her stove at her legs. We evacuated the kids to the front of the apartment building and waiting for the men to descend and tell us when it was safe to return upstairs. This was great since in this culture it is offensive to leave your house and not look like you had showered, primped and prepped and put on something nice. And so the next 20 minutes was most uncomfortable as we sat barefoot, in PJs, hair unwashed, unbrushed and just plain looking awful. My sisters family lives on the 4th floor and the hirer up you live the more you feel earthquakes, and at one point the door man / guard came to ask us if we had felt a earthquake. We of course said no and then in all humility made our way back upstair to hide from our embarrassment.
Then once we left there we arrived to where we were living at the time, the Alliance Ministry Center. Only there were workers there painting and it made it hard for Sam and I to breath so we tried to stay out of the center as much as possible. So once we arrived that morning we realized that somehow our bedroom door was locked and here it comes there were NO KEY to unlock it! And we had everything of importance behind that door, $, clean underclothing and clothes in general as we just finished sleeping on a air mattress at my sisters and were returning home to get ready for the day. So after waiting around 2 hours and going through about 50 spare keys the ministry had we were given permission to hire el hombre de llaves. The man who works with keys that is always at the park. So after finding him and hiring him and watching him wrestling with the door for about 45 minutes we are able to get in and grab a change of clothes as it was then time to meet-up with a team member who graciously offered to take us to see 3 apartments that afternoon.
What did I learn from that day.... you never know what is going to happen next and you need to accept what comes at you with a clear head and just go with the flow. Oh ya and NEVER NEVER ALLOW CHILDREN TO HELP IN THE KITCHEN WHEN THERE IS A GAS STOVE INVOLVED.








Friday 20 July 2012

Remember the logical decision that God knows what He's doing

You know I love these chapters in Job where everyone shuts up, and God gets a chance to remind them who He is. So often we make God out to be who we can understand, who we can blame. Or we come up with really organized theories that help explain what God is up to. But then eventually the confusion is to much, or the pain too unbearable and we buckle under it. We start taking polls of public opinion of what God might be doing and try and pick the conclusion we prefer. But after that we finally stop, sit, cease from speaking and then He speaks. I find myself wishing that the Lord would always speak these reminders to us in such a obvious manner. But then I stop talking long enough to realize that this is the point of these chapters in the book of Job. If we dwell on creation long enough God's voice is loud and clear. I know for sure if we are listening He has something to say. Now....to be quiet enough to listen that is often my challenge.

Job 40
7 "Dress for action like a man;
I will question you, and you make it known to me.
8 Will you even put me in the wrong?
Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?
9 Have you an arm like God,
and can you thunder with a voice like his?

Chapter 41
11 Who has first given to me, that I should repay him?
Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.

Chapter 42
Then Job answered the LORD and said:
2 “I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3 'Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

Let's help each other remember that the Lord is for us not against us. He is for us! Although we can not always see the whole picture at time in our life.
His plans are to give us a hope and a future! Only sometime it may take walking through confusion, loss or pain first. For some reason these things help tune our ear towards the voice of God like nothing else can.

Sunday 8 July 2012

We are here

Well I think one word describes how I feel today.... Tired. The altitude here is very high and we have been told of the need to drink water and eat bananas to help our systems adjust. We were just informed via note on the gate that as of 11 pm tonight we will be electricity free until Wednesday and then Wednesday we will be water free for the day. So it is looking like we will be staying at my sisters until Wednesday some time. We have 3 appointments or citas to look at some apartments.