Spent the past couple of days building houses with the group that arrived over the weekend. Yesterday was a pretty typical "Welcome to Honduras" day. We had everything set for the construction of four houses out in Nuevo Oriental. The first truck of lumber arrived around 8:30 AM with 2 more set to arrive around 9:00 and the last to come shortly thereafter. The crews arrived around 9:30 and we still only had the lumber for one house. I called Tim to double check the situation and he had been told that the other three would arrive all together on a flatbed semi in 45 minutes. It was 10:00 when that we got that message. Meanwhile the crews were diggging holes for their corner posts whils they waited. I went to check on the one house that was under construction and they seemed to have it under control so I returned to the top of the mountain to wait for wood. Around 11:00, I called Madequip (the lumber yard) to see if the wood was coming and they assured me that it would leave within ten minutes...they told Tim the same thing. Well, at a little after noon we still had no wood....welcome to Honduras! There are many days when things just don't work out. As I was talking with Mark Tindall, the group leader, he was telling me how a couple years ago, he had a similar day and he had become very frustrated, even angry. He said he learned that day that God was trying to teach him that He was in control, not Mark Tindall. Since that day he has had very few occasions when he feels that sense of frustration anymore. Anyway, around 12:30 Tim calls and tells us that the lumber company had sent the wood to Santa Ana instead of Oriental and that they now had no wood to send to us in Oriental. They would have no more ready until morning. Oh well. As aresult of the mix up yesterday we ended up doing 7 houses today, 3 in Oriental and the 4 in Santa Ana. I rarely get to bothered by things now going as I thought they would anymore either. Time in a third world environment is just way different and much more laid back. I really wish our American culture could discover that we take way to many things way to seriously which only leads to our own impatience and difficulty in managing our lives. We all need to just relax and remember whose in control anyway. It certainly isn't me!
posted by Mark at 9:35 PM
1 Comments:
Yea, I was there that day waiting for wood. I was going to go play with the kids where they were having the VBS, but there were as many Torchers as kids so I waited. Later I went over and met Oleida, a young lady who had her baby with her. I met Oleida's mom, too. The next time I went to Nuevo Oriental, she was sitting up by the road at the bus stop. We talked a few minutes and I went to help build a house. Then, one of the last days we were there, I was helping Clyde find Franklin, a young man he had met the first day he was working at Nuevo Oriental. As we were returning to our site (where we were again waiting for wood) I noticed the young lady on the path in front of me was Oleida. She had been to the manicure class. She showed me her beautiful fingernails. It was probably the first time they had ever looked like that. I asked her if she could do mine and she said yes. We both laughed. That was the last I saw of her although I'm sure she was one of the ladies who did the nails of the Torchers the next day. I hope she becomes a Christian if she isn't already. Franklin became a Christian toward the end of the week. God has a way of working things out for the best. Sometimes by not allowing us to do what was in our plan. Mark, I appreciate your hard work and your good heart. May God continue to bless. - Lowell of Charlotte
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