{"id":618,"date":"2018-09-19T12:42:49","date_gmt":"2018-09-19T16:42:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/george-heckman\/?p=618"},"modified":"2018-09-19T12:42:49","modified_gmt":"2018-09-19T16:42:49","slug":"august-september-news-from-the-heckmans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/george-heckman\/2018\/09\/19\/august-september-news-from-the-heckmans\/","title":{"rendered":"August \/September News from the Heckmans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Friends!<\/p>\n

How we thank the Lord for you, and for your prayers on our behalf.\u00a0 I keep thinking I will give a different kind of report each month, but the needs in our family seem to trump it each time!<\/p>\n

I will add that last this\u00a0time, and\u00a0give you a report from one of our first students in the missionary training.\u00a0 He is serving in Colombia and Jack writes:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis month has just about gotten away from me. It started with a bang. In the first week of August I was jarred out of a sound sleep when something crashed onto the top of the mosquito net that covers my bed. Happy,\u00a0my dog,\u00a0got all excited and started barking, so I knew that the author of the noise had to be something quite alive! And was it ever! I shot out of bed and hit the light switch. There clinging to the mosquito net was a huge possum! My house has a lowered ceiling and she had fallen through it onto the bed!\u00a0<\/em>Of course<\/em>\u00a0the fall scared her and she started spraying a musky smell all over the mosquito net which of course sifted on down to me and the bedding! \u201cHow do I know it was a female?\u201d you\u2019re probably asking. After I grabbed up a machete and Happy and I finally got it cornered and I had disposed of it, I discovered that it had five baby possums in a pouch on its stomach.\u00a0<\/em>So<\/em>\u00a0I guess you could say that six possums fell onto my bed! Possums are a nasty scourge out here in the Sticks. They stink to high heaven and get into everything that they can possibly get access to. How many of you knew that possums had a kangaroo type pouch that they kept their\u00a0babies in? I didn\u2019t know that! How many of you knew that they can spray like a skunk? It just doesn\u2019t stink as bad.\u00a0<\/em>Of course<\/em>\u00a0I don\u2019t consider myself a \u201cpossum expert\u201d. But I\u2019ll say this, \u201cI know a lot more about them now!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

In August each year there is a big fair here and Indians from all over to sell their wares.\u00a0<\/em>So<\/em>\u00a0we\u2019ve had a lot more Indian traffic this month than normal, and have seen some\u00a0<\/em>Nukak<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>people\u00a0that we rarely see. That has been nice! They hang their hammocks in the park (or wherever) and pretty much camp out for the duration of the fair. \u201cPublic facilities\u201d aren\u2019t a readily available commodity here in the Sticks, so I had a lot of folks showing up at my house asking to use my facilities, if you get my drift! It\u2019s sort of amusing, as they\u2019ll show up and a common greeting among them in English would be, \u201cwhat brings you here?\u201d I would ask them that and they always would say, \u201cOh, I just came to see you.\u201d But ultimately when they couldn\u2019t stand it any longer they would say with strain in their voices, \u201ccan I use your bathroom?!?\u201d Sometimes they just want something to drink. Sometimes they want to take a shower. And sometimes they really do just come to visit.\u00a0<\/em>So<\/em>\u00a0you just never know till they clarify! It has been a fun month!<\/em>
\nPraise the Lord with me:<\/em>
\n\u00b7<\/em>\u202f\u202f\u202f\u202f\u202f\u202f\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/em>for my mosquito net and that the possum didn\u2019t\u00a0actually end\u00a0up in bed with me! They have nasty teeth and can give you a nasty bite, and with all the garbage they eat I shudder to think what infections one could get!<\/em><\/p>\n