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| New BlogI did it, I finally switched
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Jonathan crawled up on my lap during devotions this morning, and even though he’s not yet two, and though I’m sure he understands more Creole than English anyways, I began to read aloud. He sat there quietly and listened, possibly amused and enjoying the game, or maybe just wanting to sit on my lap. He would look at the bible and laugh as I turned the pages, and I couldn’t help but be moved by the idea, that the teachings of Jesus have already affected Jonathans life in a real and physical way. If no body valued the teachings of Jesus enough to obey them, Jonathan would probably died before he was 8 months old. This seems hard to imagine, for he is SO bright and alive, it’s hard to imagine him any other way.
I wonder if it would be more difficult for people to reject what is true about Jesus, if their lives where literally affected by him. I suspect there are many ways that we are affected by Christ in “real time” and still choose to reject him.
But still I love the idea that even now, before he is old enough to understand, the word of God is the foundation of Jonathans existence, he lives because people have believed that Jesus lives.
Because If Jesus did not live, if there was no hope of ever reaching the things we so desperately long for, I wouldn’t see the point.
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| Garbage PickingJuly 17th
The dogs have ripped apart all my garbage. Along with “keeping me from sleep with relentless barking”, I can add “covering my yard with refuse” to the list of heinous crimes committed by street dogs.
The half eaten dirty diapers are the killer; perfectly disgusting, and as I slipped on my rubber gloves and tossed pieces of trash in a bag my mind drifted back to a few weeks earlier when I had taken Gid to the Sosua dump.
Men and Women sift through heaps of garbage “sans” gloves all day, and even eat their meals in there. We had talked about finding ways to include these people in the “La Tienda” project (and now that I have the truck this is ENTIRELY POSSIBLE, yippee!! Speaking of which… pictures to come…..).
One thing I’m not a big fan of is making comments on how other people feel. I may do it from time to time but it is rather foolish of me. To look at the people working in the dump and say “they feel great”, or “they must be super depressed”, would be just a guess and be based on what I saw in a small span of time, on a random day. But one thing I can comment on, is the fact that I saw them DOING IT.
I mean, these people where actually opening up bags of garbage of their own free will and sorting through them. That means something. It means that there are people out there willing to sort through anything I throw away in order to sustain their lives.
What to make of it all is so way beyond me I don’t know if I can even bother trying. I know I need Jesus, and I need him to teach me how to live and how to be. I know the world needs Jesus, and we need him to teach us how to share him in a way that is really HIM, and not just some version of him we feel comfortable with.
I feel very uncomfortable with the idea that my garbage isn’t buried away and forgotten. All my waste is just passed onto someone else to deal with. It’s motivation to keep finding ways to restore the trash.
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| Motor vehicle related tales and incidentsMotor vehicle related tales and incidents
I’ve actually PAID for the truck in full. The truck that a whole bunch of people got together and sent me money for should be parked behind my little concrete casita, but the thing is still in Santiago due to some unfortunate glitches. Tomorrow may be the big day, or, you know, maybe not.
We had a nice little moto concho crash in Puerto Plata. Smacked right into a truck. No injuries though, and that was after the Taxi driver had fallen asleep at the wheel of the car I had been in earlier.
Here’s to three an a half years of surviving public transportation.
Now on a completely unrelated topic,
a Pic of Jonathan hugging my legs,
because it's just so dang cute.
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