Getting Information A Day Late

We have this rule in the morning: “Don’t talk to Dad first thing in the morning.” That means - just leave Dad alone until he can get at least 1 cup of coffee in him to wake himself up then you can let the barrage of questions start flowing. Not that big of a deal. Just 10 minutes or so. That’s it.

So, I’m sitting in the kitchen this morning, trying to wake-up, drinking a cup of coffee, minding my own business, when Robert comes in asking to go to the rope swing. (We have a rope swing out in the jungle that swings over a little pond we call “the snake pit”)Even though he was breaking the whole “don’t talk to Dad rule thing” I told him he could go (see how awesomely merciful I am?) but only if all his brothers and his sister went with him (that’s everyone from Ana down). He said everybody wanted to go but Ana. I told him to just tell her that, “she had to go.” But when he went back outside I could hear him and Ana arguing back and forth. “But Dad said, “you had to go.”... well I’m not going... but Dad said... but I’m not going. Back and forth it went for a few minutes then I got up (even though I still had 3/4 of a cup of coffee left to drink) and walked over to the window, opened it up and told Ana that I said, “she was going.” Then Diogo, who was standing there too, spoke up and said, “Dad, she doesn’t want to go because of the flying snake.” “The flying snake?” Yes, the flying snake. What’s the flying snake?

They went on to tell me about, how yesterday, they were on the rope swing taking turns swinging over the pond, when all of a sudden a big long green snake literally jumped out of the top of the tree, flying (or falling) down 20-30’ to the ground, and landed about 6’ in front of them. They said that then it lifted up off the ground, with it’s head back, and got in the “I want to strike you-inject my poison in you-kill you-then eat you” position. They then told me that they ran, except for Gabriel who they left on the swing dangling over the pond by himself-yelling for help.

For real? Why didn’t you tell me yesterday when it happened? That’s like the kind of thing that you’d read about in a book or something that you’d see in a movie... a flying snake attacking you in the middle of the jungle? Sweet! Next time you guys need to come get me so we could take pictures or shoot some video or something... man! Nothing like getting information a day late, huh? Oh well... maybe next time.

It rained pretty much all day Sunday. We were still able to have church at the pavilion though... it was good. Then last night we participated in the Monday night discipleship class halfway down the mountain. It was raining but we still had around 40 kids in attendance. Today we’re hanging out at the elementary school with the kids. I’ll explain more about that in the blog tomorrow. Please continue to pray for us. We have a lot going on right now and it’s gonna be a busy week, for sure. We desperately need God to keep moving on our behalf so that we can be effective for Him... good stuff: )

On the Lookout for More Flying Snakes,

Jim