CAN YOU SAY HOT??

EVERY day is HOT and sunny. The last couple of days have been positively oppressive. It gets down to 83F at night. We aren't complaining, but it sure sucks the physical energy out of you. This is another reason many activites take place at night.

There is another type of heat here as well. It is amazing how glaringly obvious your own shortcomings (read sin) become in the light of a radically different culture. Isaiah 48:10 says, "Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction." As we continue to weave ourselves into the community here, the stark contrast between cultures brings attitudes and motives to the surface that were somehow camoflaged before. The Word has a newly sharpened edge. It is painful but, at the same time, awesome to realize that God already saw all of it and more and it is already covered. He is doing His purifying work.

One of the cultural grinding stones we've begun to adapt to is the apparent lack of committment keeping. Nothing in terms of appointments or schedules is ever set in stone here. More like Jello. Firm committments, although expressed, rarely exist. A person may call at or after the appointed time to cancel or may not show up at all. Times are very flexible. Thirty to forty-five minutes after the time is not late. We went to the 1st Baptist church for the 7PM Tuesday service. Arriving at a minute to 7, we found someone mopping the floor. The pastor showed up at 7:15. Service started at about 7:30 as people continued to arrive. This is the rule rather than the exception. No one seems to mind.


We are learning to make a plan then jump in the river and go with the flow. It's a little like whitewater rafting without a paddle sometimes. It really cuts across my grain, but we are learning to trust God and to be excited about what is around the next bend. I'm not sure how well this would work in the US, but it sure works here. Most of the connections we've made and opportunities we've had resulted from a richochet off of a derailed plan or unmet expectation.

We now have two taxi drivers coming to the house for English classes. We go weekly to three other houses to teach plus the childrens' class at one of the small churches. Including the numerous businessmen we visit regularly plus neighbors, everyone knows that we are Christians. We are planting seeds. The door opened with the young couple next door and with one of the taxi drivers to make a clear Gospel presentation. Please continue to pray that God would draw everyone we meet to Jesus.