OK. Just when I thought I had pretty much experienced all the discomforts of being a missionary, I’ve got another thing to add to the list. And it will rank up there with all the bugs, snakes, the lack of A/C, slow (or no) internet, living in the jungle, having worms and all the other things that we’ve experienced here. And the thing I need to add to the list is... drumroll please...” Wintertime.” That’s right Wintertime. While all of you in the U.S. are posting all your beach pics on facebook and talking about the beautiful weather you’re experiencing, we’re here in the mountains of Campina Grande do Sul freezing our butts off! It’s late Fall/early Winter here right now. It was 32 degrees the other day and when we woke up it was 40 degrees inside the house. Now, I can hear everyone saying, “that’s not that cold” and you’re right it isn’t... when you live in the US and you have heat in your house! But as of right now we have no wood burning stove, no fireplace, and definitely no central heat! It’s cold! I thought Brazil was suppose to have a tropical climate, so what’s up? Maryssa was actually microwaving 2 liter Coke bottles full of water so that she can have something warm in bed with her. Talk about ghetto... now that’s ghetto.
But here’s the thing... as I sit here complaining about how cold our house is, there are literally hundreds of people (who are my neighbors) who don’t have heat, who don’t have nice blankets like us and some of them don’t even have windows! Now that’s just wrong. So how can I complain about being cold when our house is probably warmer than my neighbor’s? Lord, forgive me.
That’s par for the course though isn’t it. It’s so easy to be focused on my own lack of comfort that I don’t see that there are people all around me that would love to switch places with me. Lord, help me to be more thankful.
Now don’t go gettin’ all self-righteous on me. You do the same thing, admit it. Why is that though? Because I guarantee that if the next time we have an opportunity to complain that ( if we open our eyes) we can find somebody in our own community that has it worse than we do and that would love to change places with us. So, rather than complaining about our own situation all the time, maybe we should find someone around us who’s situation is worse and help them? Maybe that would help us be more thankful for what God has blessed us with? I don’t know, just something to think about: )
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Freezing for Jesus,
Jim
PS- Please pray for us. Seriously. We don’t want to just “survive” through the Winter months. We want to continue to minister and continue with all the construction we’ve got going on. But if it’s cold and wet (which it’s been raining quite a bit) we’re kinda stuck inside. So, pray that we’ll “figure it out”... whatever that means and whatever that looks like: )
PSS- The pics up top are of Bella (our boxer) who just won't learn. This was the 100th time she's gotten bit by a bee. That's why her face is swollen... all because she tried to eat another one. And the other pic is of Robert. He doesn't have mange, he just decided to give himself a haircut. Awesome, huh?
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