Month: October 2016

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Unexpected Gifts

 Nothing is better than an unexpected gift. It can be anything, an actual item, a service, or just a listening ear at an appropriate moment.

This has been a week that was full of them.

Like most guys, there is usually a local “dive” restaurant that serves good food…at even better prices that men love to frequent for lunch or for a snack during the day. We stopped at such a place. He says that “one day” I come to love the place because they serve great food…but as I looked around at the open-air cooking stall, the thousands of flies that seemed to love the place as well and the…well you get the idea… Anyway, we stopped for a quick bite (I just had a coke…in the bottle) and we were off.

We went to a warehouse where several local ministries receive all sorts of goods from the States and sometimes they share their excess (whatever that may be) among themselves. So today, we were given several huge bags of dried red beans and dried black beans. We loaded them in the back of the truck and off we went on our errands for the day.

We stopped back by the restaurant that we had just left and Oscar filled about a dozen plastic buckets full of beans and gave them to the women that ran the restaurant. It was the most “natural” thing that I have ever seen. The look on their faces was so joyful…and once the buckets were full, we simply climbed back into the truck and went on our way. Not another word was spoken about it…it was a “natural” thing to do.

Yesterday, Amy brought about 11 women from the village over to their house and she was going to teach them how to make quiche! Not something you might expect…but evidently it’s a big deal…40Q for a small slice in restaurants = $5.21. So around lunchtime, here come the women and I got to sit back and observe Amy work with these women and teach them new cooking skills that they could have never imagined. I watched their faces and they were so joyful… Then…just like Amy…while the quiches were in the oven, Amy and her Sister-in-law taught the women how to make baby blankets. It was amazing! When it was all over one of the pregnant women when home with the blanket and the women all took quiche home to their families.

In the middle of all this, Oscar and I jumped in the truck and went to visit Jose Angel (the man with one leg) that we built a stove for in April as well as installed several solar lights. It was an impromptu visit that allowed us to see how he was “really” doing. I was disappointed to see that his living condition was not good. The place was dirty and unkempt. There were empty bins of food all over the place. He had not used the stove and his roof had leaked in several places around the lights we had installed. No Bueno.

We learned that Jose Angel was having problems figuring out how to keep a fire going in the stove and ultimately gave up. He was also out of wood. The leaks were not in the lights themselves, but in the surrounding tin roofing where they had been installed. The rains had also come in where he was sleeping and he had to move his bed to another area of his small home.

I guess what hit me was how difficult it must be for an elderly man, living alone in a wheelchair, dirt floor, and no job or income to get by on a day-to-day basis. When we were last in his home, it was clean and we had all left feeling pretty good about the work we had done by building him a stove and new lighting and how it would change his life…but that is not reality….this was reality. It was a good lesson for me and one that I need to remember. This work is not a “one and done” effort…it is an ongoing effort…

We left Jose Angel with several bags of beans, rice, and flour and Oscar said he would send some workers to his home today to repair the roof. We are also going to stock him with firewood and work with him to teach him how to use the stove. Oscar said he would also have one of his workers regularly visit Jose Angel to clean and to just provide him some help as he needs it.

Unexpected gifts…that is what today was all about. Nobody made a big deal about anything…it was just “natural”…it was just being human and taking care of people…just because we could. It was the Gospel lived out and I am so grateful that I got to experience it.

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The Paradox of Our Time

I recently was going through some old notes I have taken along the way and found this little nugget. Many people have laid claim to its wisdom, from the Dalai Lama to George Carlin and others. Regardless…I believe wisdom is wisdom…and whoever created it is irrelevant…

Our responsibility is simply to share it…so here ya go…

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints.

We spend more,but have less; we buy more, but enjoy less.

We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time.

We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little,drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life. We’ve added years to life, not life to years.

We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space, but not inner space.

We’ve done larger things, but not better things. We’ve cleaned up the air,but polluted the soul. We’ve conquered the atom, but not our prejudice.

We write more but learn less. We plan more but accomplish less.

We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes.

These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one-night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.

It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom.

A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight …or to just hit delete.

Remember, spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember to give a warm hug to the one next to you because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn’t cost a cent.

Remember to say, “I love you” to your partner as well as your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment, for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak, and give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

…and another thing… why not try to smile more while you’re at it! 🙂

-blessings,

Bob