If there was ever a day when smoking a joint would’ve even been a possibility, it would’ve been yesterday. Come on... Don't go gettin' all religious on me, I’m only joking, don’t worry. It was just a joke: )
At our weekly discipleship meeting last night, this little kid came in with a shirt on that made me bust out laughing. Look at it up top. That’s hilarious, huh? I’m sure he didn’t even know what it meant either. It was just so surreal. Here we were getting ready to begin service (in the jungles of Brazil) and you look down on the front row, only to see a little smiling brazilian kid with a marijuana shirt (in english) on the front row. It was funny. Question... “is there such thing as Columbian black?” I’ve heard of Columbian gold, or Panama red, or Hawaiian blue... but Columbian black? Just curious. And another question... how does a 10 year old Brazilian kid end up with a shirt like that in english? Oh well, I guess we’ll never know.
But yesterday really was "the day from hades", though. And I think God had that little boy wear that shirt because I needed some comic relief. Let me start from the beginning...
It hasn’t rained for a few weeks here on the mountain and it’s been an abnormally hot Summer. Since all of the roads are dirt, and with the lack of rain, it’s been really dusty and the amount of potholes in the road has been ridiculous. It’s been like driving on the surface of the moon (because their’s so many holes in the road, that is.). Well, somebody on the mountain had the awesome idea to add a layer of dirt to the road with a big tractor, to the really bad spots, last week. It really made a difference and it really smoothed-out the road. The only problem is that the dirt they used was a loam-type soil that, when wet, is slicker than snot! And guess what? Yep, it rained yesterday! And getting up and down the mountain was next to impossible because all the hills were so slippery. I had a gut feeling that we should cancel the Thursday Night Meeting because of the treacherous conditions of the roads and I didn’t want to have to leave my car and all of our sound equipment at the bottom of the mountain until the roads dried-out if we got stuck. But we made the decision to go ahead and hold the meeting anyway. So, I went down the mountain, to set-up, about an hour and a half early. It was really slippery and I was really nervous about having to try and come back-up later, twice. (The first time, to pick-up MJ and the kids and the second after service with the kids and sound equipment.)
I set everything up at the school and waited for Brad and Carolyn to arrive so they could watch all our sound and computer stuff. They didn’t arrive until 7:05 (5 minutes after service was suppose to start). As they pulled-up, I was hoping that they had MJ and the kids were in the van with them, but nope... no dice. So I jumped in my car to go get them. I had to back out (in the dark, with no back-up lights, windows all fogged up) because Brad had blocked me in and I couldn’t go forward. As I was backing-up, all of the sudden, I was stopped (after a loud bang). I had just backed into the 20’ cement pole that holds up the structure where we were at. And my prize for backing into the pole was... drum roll please.... “a brand new crease in the back of my car” (said with my announcer voice)! Yep, I have a big ole dent about 3’ long that starts at the bottom of my bumper to the bottom of the rear window. (I’m just glad it didn’t bust the window out too) So, to say the least, I wasn’t happy at this point. But I barreled up the mountain, well, actually I barely made it up at all, because it was so slick on the hills. But I did arrive home and loaded all 9 of us in our little car. But as we were making our way up our long driveway we started slipping and sliding and then we stopped. The wheels were just spinning and spinning. We weren’t moving at all. After numerous attempts I had to kick MJ and the kids out of the car (because they were too heavy) and they had to walk home in the dark while I took Matthew and Marlon with me back down the mountain to get all of our sound stuff. I say, “kick out of the car” because MJ informed me later that’s exactly what I made her feel like... like I had kicked her and the kids out. Ooops. That’s a whole other blog though. ( Bottom line on that is that sometimes I can be an inconsiderate jerk. Sorry, MJ. And thanks for putting up with me. I’m sure I’ll be paying for that one for a while, haha!) Anyway, I took Matthew and Marlon so that they could push our car if we got stuck (smart, huh?). We made it back to the meeting and there were quite a few people there considering the weather. So, we stayed and ministered... business as usual. Actually the Spirit of God really moved. We’ve been speaking on being an authentic follower of Jesus and have really been pressing hard on what that looks like. There’ve been people in the altar each week too. That part has been awesome. To see students coming forward each week to commit their lives to Jesus makes all the garbage we wade through, to make it happen, worth it all.
So after service (about 9:00pm) we load all the equipment in our car and started to drive home. We got to the first hill and you guessed it... we ain’t movin’. Man! That’s exactly what I was worried about... my car, full of sound equipment, being stuck at the bottom of the mountain. But then all my nephews ran up and we ( I say we, it was actually they) literally pushed my car up the steep muddy hill. Yesss! I was so happy. That is, until I got home and had to face MJ and be confronted with the whole “kicking her and the kids out of the car” thing. Man, that was a mistake: ( After 23 years of marriage you’d think I’d be better at this. But I love my wife and I’m still learning: )
Please pray for us as we’re stuck on the mountain right now. Pray that the roads will dry up. Brad’s mom arrives from the States today. She’s in a wheelchair and Brad and Carolyn’s van is stuck at the bottom of the mountain and they're gonna need to get her up here. Also, I’m suppose to speak at the International Church in Curitiba Sunday Morning and we need to be able to get down the mountain for that... so please pray for us: )
Slip Slidin’ Away,
Jim
PS - Thanks to everyone who’s been praying for us and our discipleship meetings. We’ve really been experiencing the presence of God and it’s amazing to see how the students have been participating during worship, listening intently to the Word and responding at the end of services.
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