We were in
Asuncion 9 days longer than expected waiting for a car part that was being sent
to the dealership from the US. The order
was placed on Thursday and we were told it would come in the following
Thursday. They’d fix the car Friday and
we could leave Saturday. We waited a
week. Jeff called Friday afternoon to
see when he could pick up the car. But
the part didn’t arrive. And on top of
that, when Jeff talked to the boss, he said that his staff knows that the parts
from the US take 2 weeks (not just one).
Jeff (strongly) explained that we cannot afford to be in the city a week
just waiting – it is costly for us and we waste ministry time. The boss replied, “So you want our yes to be
yes and our no to be no?” YES!
This is an
out-of-the-box concept for Paraguayans who operate on a “manana”
mentality. Keeping relationships in
right standing is so important and their idea of keeping a relationship in right
standing is by telling you what (they think) you want to hear. We run into this all the time in the big city
and in our small rural town, with people we call friends and with strangers. This
has been a difficult idea for us to embrace since we come from the land of time
keeping, schedule making, production oriented and “the customer is always
right”. Aren’t different cultures
interesting?
Even
though the car wasn’t ready, we were (more than) ready to head home. The mechanic put the car back together and we
drove home. It is drivable just not 100%
reliable. We are praying that it will
make it 3 weeks until we have to head back into the city to pick up the TIME
interns. We will have the new parts put on then.
SOMETHING TO PONDER....The morning we were packing up to leave, our team mates (who had
just had a baby) were also packing up to leave.
Jeff looked at their baby (4 days old) and urged them to get a bilirubin
level done on the way out of town because she looked very jaundice
(yellow). As they were driving through
our town 10 hours later, they received the lab results which showed her levels
to be dangerously high. Jeff urged them
to get back to Asuncion ASAP and consult with a pediatrician. Early that next morning Anna received intense
phototherapy. Praise God, her levels dropped
significantly. Baby Anna will be in the
hospital and will continue to receive treatment until her levels are within
normal.
As we were settling into bed
last night Jeff asked, “Do you think God had us in Asuncion a week without
reason just so I could diagnose Anna’s jaundice?”
Only God knows.....
1 comment:
We are struggling so much with that "tell me what I want to hear" stuff, too. 1 wk of car repairs is now at more than 2 months, and we still don't have it back. And our lawyer tells us daily, "Tomorrow we'll have word about the case, I'm sure." We've heard that for a year now. And even when we say, "Please just tell me the real time frame so we can plan, even if it's going to be longer than you're telling me right now," we still get the manana answer. Hard to plan for that. ;)
But I'm so glad to hear that God had His hand in your delay and worked it out for good, in little Anna's case. YAY, GOD!
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