This has been an interesting week…

At this point feel free to replace the word “interesting” with “lame”, “grumpy”, “frustrating” and/or any other synonym you can come up with that signifies an annoyance with life.

First on the list…there’s no diesel. Or if there is, there’s also a ten block, three hour wait. I do not have the time or patience. Okay, to be truthful, I actually probably do have the time, but I definitely don’t have the patience. The lack of diesel also means no buses running. Which then results in Ken getting pre 8 AM in the morning phone calls (anyone who writes to tell me that’s not early gets a shot to the head when I get back to Canada) from the guys begging for rides to school.

Next…my new truck isn’t ready and probably won’t be ready anytime this decade. Ignore my previous claims of faith and good spirits in the last post. The problem is the guy who’s fixing the plastic bumper cover. He did a lame job the first time and he did a lame job the second time. Later today we’ll see how the third attempt turned out. I’ve driven across the city (see above point re: no diesel) every morning for the past week to deal with this. It’s a toss up as to who’s more tired of seeing the other person…

As a side note, the battery in my new truck isn’t holding a charge for some reason (it’s brand new) which means switching batteries from my other truck, every time we need to start the new truck. Also annoying.

I know that complaining about the weather is a bit silly. After all, it’s not minus forty. But still, it’s either been hot, windy and dusty…or cold, windy and rainy. And at this exact moment I can’t decide which makes me more grumpy. I’ll have to get back to you.

The rain knocked out power to parts of the city yesterday, which resulted in most of the traffic lights not working. I’m not sure if the resulting chaos falls into the annoying or entertaining categories. Probably a little bit of both. If the specific life-threatening situation didn’t involve me…it was mostly entertaining.

Okay, there’ve been a few other “interesting” moments this week, but I’m mostly feeling better after complaining, so I can probably just let that stuff go. =) There have also been some good things happening that I need to mention.

I had the chance to talk with a few of the guys in the past couple of days about some more serious “life” issues/questions. They were good conversations that I think challenged all of us. One of the boys in particular was feeling a lot of stress and, what I would consider, spiritual attack in his life. To the degree that he felt the problems and suffering his family has been struggling with, were all his fault. Basically a “punishment” from God for his sins. Of course, that sparked a few comments from me. In the end, we prayed together and from what he expressed, he felt a lot more peace afterwards. An encouraging side note to this is that he went home to see his family the next day (they live an hour or so out of the city) and found that the situation with them had greatly improved.

This is a guy who had a strong faith in the past, but is finding himself struggling a lot lately with doubt and questions. Which is not a big stress for me really. It’s been a good opportunity to see God at work. I went out on a limb a couple of times with him, about trusting what God wants to do in his life. Then we prayed about it, and low and behold…God came through every time. =)  I was reading an interesting debate online today, between a prominent Christian author and Chris Hitchings, the atheist. I just kept thinking, “Dude…you need to come down here…” Not that I never struggle with doubt or questions. But there’s something to be said for living daily in a situation where prayer becomes a necessity. And then praying and seeing your prayers answered in a very specific and timely manner. And before anyone goes down the road of “Ken, Supermissionary”, let me just state that I wish I turned to prayer a lot more quickly than I do sometimes. You’d think I’d know better by now…

Please continue to pray for the guys. I see them have a lot of ups and downs…and like I said earlier, some days it feels like a lot of plate spinning. But at the same time I can see God working in very deliberate ways in their lives. I can see steps being taken, however hesitantly. That’s encouraging! But for sure there’s a lot of spiritual warfare that’s never easy. The guys don’t always talk much about that part of their lives unless there’s an opportunity for me to bring it up. They often don’t even recognize what’s happening. Like the fellow I was talking about, they just accept lies as truth and struggle to live their lives.

As well, please continue to pray for Bolivia. We took some good steps forward last week in the political arena, only to see that progress tossed aside and the situation worsen. My life continues normally (it’s funny what can become “normal”…), and for the most part I don’t even notice that anything is wrong. But certainly there’s a sense now that more trouble might be on the horizon.

On a final note, I have to give kudos to my girlfriend Isabel (I’m laughing to myself a bit, ‘cause I know she’ll have to look that word up).  For sure she’s been the highlight to this week. She’s stood up to belligerent autobody workers on my behalf (and convinced them sweetly that she wouldn’t want to have to call the police to retrieve the money we paid for shoddy work. She can say that…her brother-in-law is a cop. And the autobody guy believed her so…). She’s sat patiently, keeping me company, as we waited long periods of time for various people to help us resolve this bumper problem. She’s currently calling around to her “contacts” searching for diesel for me.  In general she’s just been there every time I’ve needed help…which is a lot. And she’s been very sympathetic which makes me feel better. I’m such a guy.  So a big thanks to her!

So anyhow, the week hasn’t been a total loss or anything. In fact, it’s been mostly okay. Once I get the new truck on the road and sell the old truck (so I’m not paying for owning two trucks!)…things will feel better and a bit less stressful.

Thanks for coming to the blog and reading and praying for us. I (and the guys) appreciate it! Check back soon…I’m going to write more about what’s happening politically for us. I’m also going to tell the story of how I met Isabel sometime soon. I might even throw in a picture or two. Some people have been asking and I think my brothers want to know for sure that she actually exists. Yes, yes…it’s a surprise for all of us.

Anyhow, if that doesn’t stir up some blog traffic, nothing will… =)

Have a great day!