Sunday's Story

Instead of retelling a very long story, I will quickly tell you why Sunday's ministry event was a bust:

Another missionary returned our tent to us on Sunday, an hour before the event, without the instructions. You can't set it up without the instructions and it is a ministry tent. Thus, it is no good and we couldn't use it.

John got a migraine as soon as he found out about the tent. I had to rush to where he was to give him an injection in his rear-end. That is not my favorite thing to do.

The people who were hosting the event at their "house" were tearing it down. And they continued to tear it down while we were all there. It was so digusting. Think bugs, spiders, tons of dust, dirt, mold, broken wood, nails, etc...

And there was a lady cooking in the house while they were doing this. Everything was flying over to where she was cooking.

The food was suppose to be READY TO EAT at 1 p.m. and then the service at 2:30 p.m. By 2:30 p.m. the food still had at least an hour left to be cooked. We had talked about the plan with them at least 3 times before the day of the event. My kids were breaking down from hunger and lack of naps and the filth of the walls they were breaking down. They did not stick to the plan we made and made their own plan.

The men were suppose to be enjoying the day, not tearing down walls.

If they invited any neighbors, they certainly didn't show up before we left. We never saw the first person besides the regular church people. And several people were VERY sick from that house being torn down. Now Ally is sick and I do believe it was from that house.

We finally had to leave because John was so sick with the migraine, the kids were starving and the event was just a bust. We were just sitting around waiting and waiting. John had to preach that night at a local church so he really needed to get home and get better because he could NOT cancel his commitment.

The entire day was very disappointing. We have never left an event before, but if you saw the conditions we were in, you would've left as well. It was not safe or sanitary to have children in or around that. I don't understand why they couldn't wait until after the event to do this. Anyway, not sure if anyone ever showed up or not. So that was our day in a very, very brief nutshell. It could not have been any less successful! We both were struggling culturally with all that was going on around us. I was sitting in the sun with the baby and John came over and asked if I was okay. I said to him, "John, I am just really struggling right now." And he sweetly said, "Me, too! Me, too!" If John is struggling as well, then I know it's a difficult situation.

We still have a lot to learn and a lot to adjust too!

Oh That's How That Works

John wrote:
When Jessica and I were here two years ago, we visited a human settlement in one of the fringe areas in the south cone. As we have said, these areas have no water or sewer. In the human settlement I visited Friday (see Friday's post), the government is just now installing water and sewer piping to each house - after 10 years, according to a resident. But like I have described in the past, without running water, the residents keep their water in a big “garbage can” in front of their house. But my question for two years has been, “How do they get water?” I got to see today. A big truck comes and fills the barrels and the residents pay the truck. From what I hear, the truck comes out to the community twice a week. In some of the south cone areas, the streets are not wide enough or too sandy and unstable for the trucks, so there is just a big barrel at the end of each block that the residents share and pitch in money. This is so amazing to me. If you remember, we were without water for two days in Costa Rica, though we were able to collect rainwater everyday, and we still totally felt as if we were suffering.