Plan B

Last week as a hurricane touted as the “storm of the century” threatened my passport country I enjoyed hearing all of the preparations. My beautiful sister-in-love had stocked up on water, flashlights, and junk food just in case the power went out. Whatever the outcome, they were sure to at least gain 5 pounds from food that didn’t require an oven. Being without power and water are so common here that no one even blinks an eye. Matter of fact, there’s a planned power outage again tomorrow (there was one last week ) and we are to be without electric from 9am to 5pm. It means that if I want to wash laundry I need to get it in early and make my phone calls and such quickly after dropping the kids at school. It will be quiet without music and I won’t be on the internet or do my Skype study with the Nashville ladies, but it’s quite bearable. Sometime even when they are announced, they don’t occur, and more often they just occur for an unknown period of time. Plan B is the norm here.

Last weekend as we drove home from a ladies’ retreat I was reminded again of the things that are really important. We dropped off two ladies at a grocery store where I grabbed a gallon of milk before heading up the mountain. On the way we stopped at another 2 places looking for a pharmacy with a particular medicine that another lady needed. Then we headed for that winding road that would bring us up the mountain. About halfway traffic came to a halt and we could see a crowd of onlookers. As we got closer I saw the body of a motorcyclist near his mangled machine. “He’s not from here, no one’s wailing,” one lady commented. And I wondered if he had a family whose lives would be forever changed this night as they waited for him to come home. Unfortunately, here in Central America it’s an all to familiar sight. Someone gets anxious to get around a slow vehicle and there’s an accident. “They’re wonderful people, but don’t put them behind a steering wheel,” my friend had commented. Why people get bent about waiting in traffic in a culture that seems to care so little about time is hard to understand. By now our return was much later than planned and our pastor’s wife readjusted her schedule to go right to the home meeting that was planned. Her husband called and she answered “I’m to be the nina linda (literally beautiful girl, but inferring favorite) they will drop me off at the meeting.” Fifteen minutes later, we dropped her off and as we navigated the washed out one-lane road back the way we had come, suddenly a truck came toward us. My friend dodged to avoid the truck, but we lost a tire in the ditch-no room for two cars here. A gentleman across the road had seen it happen and came out to offer his truck and a rope, but without success. It was finally decided that the best thing would be to push while someone stayed in the driver’s seat. A lot of rubber was burned off the tire in the process but we finally got out! We dropped two more ladies and just as we arrived at my gate it began to pour. A quick call brought hubby with an umbrella to help me carry my bags in.  A 40 minute trip became 3 and a half hours but I was home!

After the election, I was again reminded that with God there is no “Plan B” and my ultimate citizenship doesn’t require a passport. I’m trusting Him to continue teaching me how to live in that eternal timeframe.

Thank you Lord for- a weekend away, times of quiet reflection, singing praise songs in English with other ladies,chocolate, sharing life stories,reading in the hammock,moccachinos at Expresso Americano, walking to Valle, laughter and praise,all types of music, worship stations, hermanas,rice and beans and beans, and beans!