A walk in the park?

The streets of Prado are lined with grand old mansions and smaller crumbling buildings, and lead to some of the most beautiful parks in the country.  Recently we wandered through an outdoor photo exibit, an exquisitely manicured rose garden, and a botanical garden. 

But our quickly transitioning life has not been a walk in the park.  A series of challenges has left us a little dizzy, a little scarred, and yet full of gratitude for God's loving guidance.

Renting an apartment was the first challege.   As Mark, Jana and I sat in a smoky office with a talkative old gentleman and our realtor who seemed way too nice, I wondered several times, "Is this a scam or is this really how they do business?"  Different is not always bad, but it feels wrong when you are handing a guy $980 cash in a dark, musty office like it's no big deal. 

This was after the realtor told us he needed the money in 2 hours or he was going to rent it to another woman who was on her way to see the apartment.  Since she was a lawyer, he couldn't tell her the place was rented without a deposit.  So Mark, Jana and I had to come up with the cash fast.  Does that sound suspicious? 6 ATM machines later, and with the help of a friend, we finally had the money.

And then a few days later, we had to go to a bank with him to put a cash deposit of five month's rent into an account.  Mark and I split up the money between us, but I was nervous the whole time.  Now we are settling into a beautiful little apartment with 4 small gardens and access to the roof, perfect for hanging out laundry.  So far, so good.

Living without a washing machine, learning new bus routes, and finding where to buy food are minor challenges, but walking out to the car on Sunday morning to find that it had been vandalized was much harder.  We would have put the car in the garage, but a partition made the space too small.  The cd player was ripped out, the cables to the car battery cut, and all the car's gauges non functioning.  The car had been locked, but they pried open the passenger side door.  We took the bus to church. 

God showed us that establishing a relationship with the local mechanic was more important than a functioning car.  Edwardo drove over to the house with Mark, fixed the battery cables, and drove over to another shop with Mark where they could get the gauges fixed.  It was a lot of damage considering all the vandals got was a broken CD player.  We're so thankful for Edwardo's kindness.

Meanwhile, Jana and I decided to remove the wooden partition in the garage so Mark could pull in the car after it was fixed.  We carefully removed some of the trim pieces so that it could be reassembled later if needed. 

As I was prying one last piece out of the way, a large, heavy pane of glass, which had been sitting securely between two groves, fell towards us.  I instinctively let go of the wooden shaft and stretched out my arm to keep the non tempered glass from hitting Jana.  In slow motion I saw the glass about to hit her head before I closed my eyes and screamed. 

All four kids were also in the garage, watching as the heavy sheet of glass pounded us, slicing us in various places.  When I opened my eyes, I realized that Jana had no blood on her head or face.  God had protected her!  I looked down at my arm at three long red marks, one directly across my wrist, and wondered why blood was not spurting towards the ceiling.  I was thinking, "I need to apply pressure or I'm going to die," but I didn't see any blood.  God had protected me, too!  Those marks were places that the glass had hit me hard enough to cause bruises without cutting through my skin. 

The children were surprised but unharmed.  I then gazed at the shattered glass covering the floor around us, some of it four feet away, and wondered how we escaped.  The two of us were shaking as we dabbed a few bleeding wounds on our legs and hands, praising God for his mercy.

Stress?  Yes.  It hasn't been easy.  And I didn't write about the long days and nights the girls and I spent with Tiny, the Rolim's female boxer.  She gave birth to 7 puppies while we watched in awe.  We also watched as each puppy slowly faltered and died.  And then last Sunday, the same day the car was vandalized, the mother died, too.  As the children watched Tiny lowered into the ground, I thought, "How much more can they take?" 

But God knows.  I need to end this post with some highlights of the past two weeks.  We've been so blessed by Anni and Ben Erickson from California who are living here for 6 weeks to learn more about the spiritual needs of Uruguay.  They have graciously stepped up to some of the tasks at the church and their help and friendship has been timely.

I've been hand washing laundry in a bucket, but the mountain of dirty laundry grew too fast for me. They don't have coin operated laundry mats here. Instead, small businesses offer a wash, dry & fold service for about $10 a load.  Finally, we gave in and carried three big garbage bags of laundry over to a little business located in the hallway of a neighbor's house.

 He invited us in and showed us how many clothes would fit in each machine.  Then we noticed the open Bible on the dryer and the verses posted on the walls.  After a discussion about Benny Hinn, the role of the Holy Spirit, and denominations, Roberto asked Mark to pray.  We prayed together and look forward to future conversations. 

Please pray for Roberto and Edwardo.  And pray, too, that our friendship with Paula, Melvin and their son would grow.  This family from the church has been a tremendous help to us as we've settled into the house.  Melvin fixed all the electrical issues for us before we moved in and also fixed the gas oven (which surely prevented an explosion). 

Today we're at the church for Club Feliz.  Thank you for your continued prayers and support as we grow accustomed to city living in Montevideo.