Last night the guys cooked an extra plate of food because they thought Jesus was going to be there. But he couldn’t make it (Jesus the kid who lives with us….not Jesus God. Just to be clear. It was starting to sound a bit weird to my ears…like a plate of cookies for Santa Claus…). Anyhow, Juan was begging for the extra pork chop (and the way he was acting, you’d think I don’t feed these guys. I do. Again…just to be clear), so I told him that if he put all my wet clothes from the washing machine out on the clothes line, he could have it. In his desperation…he agreed.

In hind sight it seems, perhaps, this my not have been an appropriate response on my part. Bribing one of the guys with food to do a job that I’m too lazy to do. It felt sort of Old Testament-ish (sell your birthright for a bowl of soup because you’re hungry kind of a deal). I probably need to come up with a new tag for some of my posts, a “Worst Missionary Ever” category. I wish I could say that I felt bad afterwards…but I didn’t really. It sort of makes me smirk. Like I said…worst missionary ever.

Things have calmed down considerable here. It seems that the violence shocked enough people that now everyone is willing to talk more. So that’s encouraging. Most of the blockades to the city have come down and for the most part, life is returning to normal. I wouldn’t say that everything has been resolved, but…it’s better anyhow.

One interesting side note though. One of the remaining blockades is out in Tikipya, the town right next to the Boy’s Home. Last Friday they actually had a terrible fight there, one of the worst in the area. El Torno (where I used to live) is virtually shut down. All of the stores and restaurants are closed, for fear that there will be more violence. They showed video of the blockade on the news last night, and the trucks were backed up for miles. This is the highway were most of our fruits and vegetables enter the city. I talked to one of the guys from the home yesterday (he goes to university and we grabbed a coffee) and he said that he has to walk more than three kilometres to cross the blockade. That’s crazy! There’s no word when that blockade will come down, and I have a feeling that it might be awhile. Emotions are definitely high there right now.

My truck is still at the body shop. And probably will be…forever. I’m trying to stay positive and whatnot. But come one… Some work was done on the body and now it’s getting a new bumper cover made. That part is actually kind of cool to watch. They can make everything here! I watched a guy make a plastic tale light cover once….you couldn’t tell the difference between it and the original. But…it’s ssooooo ssslllooowwwww. I’m not a slow kind of guy mostly.

My last piece of news is that it seems we might be getting a new recruit for the house. A fellow from the home who I’ve known for a long time and worked with a lot, has decided he would like to move into the city and live with us. Please pray for him as he packs up his things and makes the move. He (and I) are excited about this, but I’m sure it’s not going to be an easy transition for him. He’s been a the home for a long time.

Thanks for reading and praying everyone!

PS Oh yea…my other funny moment. I shared at youth group last Friday…in Spanish I’ll have you know…which was kind of fun. I have no problem speaking Spanish with the guys or with people I know well…but this was a little bit more intimidating. It seemed to go okay though. We watched a video and then I talked about how, in Jesus’ day, disciples wanted to not just know what their rabbi’s knew….they wanted to be like their rabbis. That’s why Peter wanted to walk on the water as soon as he saw Jesus walking on the water…he wanted to be like his rabbi.

Anyhow, afterwards, I wanted to know if the guys understood what I was trying to say, so I asked Jimmy and Juan if they understood what I was trying to say. Jimmy quickly responded, “Yes! I understood everything! You’re my rabbi…”

Hmmm…not exactly what I was going for (especially in light of the porkchop incident…). But it made me laugh. =)

Oh, and the mime thing.  I mentioned before that there are lots of street performers right now.  Last night I saw my first mime, though.  I was kind of surprised.  I felt obligated to pay him as I ended up being the centre of his act.  Yea…that was fun.  But he did make me smile, and my standard is that if any of the street performer guys actually do entertain me…I pay them for their services.  It seems the least I can do. 

But I really didn’t expect to ever pay a mime for anything….