I’m getting this post to you a little late because last week had a lot going on. As you know I was having some troubles with immigration and my plans to come back to the states and I was also trying to finish my construction training DVD. Things with immigration all worked out and I was able to catch my flight last Friday and make it to the first of three weddings I’m back for. As for the DVD, I thought I had it finished last Wednesday, but have been trouble-shooting with my DVD menu program ever since (pray that I can get that all sorted out soon).

Also though I was tying up a lot of loose ends in town before I left. One of those was visiting with Angela, a lady we poured a concrete roof for with one of our Iowan groups. She lives up the street from me and we see each other often. And she is content to keep a conversation going all by herself so I’ve had some of my longest Spanish conversations with her. For instance I went over to her house early last week to check out a complaint she had with how her roof and wall came together in one little section. We talked this over for about fifteen minutes and then we chatted for another fifteen minutes and I was just about to leave to go back to some video editing when she offered me some coke. It was still morning and I didn’t really want any coke, and in fact I really wanted to just get back to my other work now that I had checked off examining this roof from my list. But quickly the thought flashed into my head that perhaps talking to this grandma who lives by herself was to Christ (unlike to me) far more important than getting the video work done on my schedule.  So I agreed. About an hour and a half later I left.

During our conversation it came out that her birthday was coming up in a couple of days and she invited all of our staff to come. Everyone agreed to come (except Rodolfo who had business in Monterrey that day). I also made some chocolate chip cookies. Some of her children and grandkids had come and they had grilled out and made a great cake.  We all had a good time.

My last full day in Croc, John and I took Angela up to a nearby town to buy bus tickets for her to visit her family (all of her siblings live in another state). She had told the group who poured her roof about how she had become a Christian since moving to the Monterrey area and had never had the chance to share her experience with her siblings. The group had generously provided money for her tickets and travel expenses and I had agreed to buy her the tickets and then give her the remainder of the money. She was thrilled to get the tickets and is excited to visit her family later this month.

That evening she stopped by while the staff and I were about to go out to dinner. She gave me some sweet gorditas (small, thick tortillas that have cinnamon and sugar) and a present for my mom (two cloth covers that had hand stitched bird scenes on them). Amber commented, after Angela had left, she really loves you.

I was reminded of the grace of giving that Paul talks 2nd Corinthians 9:12-15. (The whole chapter has a lot to say about giving, as you may have heard me unpack if you have gone to my Christians in Affluence talk in Croc).

“This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!”

Here in Croc I get to be at the forefront of a lot of giving and people focus a lot of their gratitude on me for what the groups have actually done (I was only involved in the bucket brigade of concrete for the roof pour and didn’t pay for her tickets). But also I think Angela’s gratitude and love comes in response to a lot of small things like the warm hellos as we pass on the street, the cookies for her birthday, and maybe more than anything that decision to sit and take an offered coke. To be aware of and respond to the needs Christ puts in front of me, even if they get in the way of my schedule. I’m trying to put into practice that my goal each day should be to please Christ and so my work priority is free to flex to His priorities. I can rest assured that the video can wait because time with Angela is something Christ wants me to do. Still, I had to stay up late many nights trying to get the video done. And I also realize that in a place like Croc there is a necessity to say no at times. I can’t meet everyone’s needs.

And yet, each day, I want to be open to saying yes to the things Christ puts before me. And that will require hard no’s and wait’s to myself and others. But it can result into generous living in which I am so blessed as to have peoples’ hearts go out to me.

 

PS. Please be in prayer for me this Wednesday as I meet with my boss to talk over some of our summer plans and especially as we talk about the future of the ministry in Croc. It is likely that the home construction ministry will change drastically after this summer and we are in need of God’s guindance on where the whole ministry in Croc should go. Also my commitment is up in May 2010 and I am wondering about what the ministry will look like if I stay on after that time.