“Going to the fence” is the phrase our team uses for “answering the door” or “seeing-why-someone-is-standing-by-the-gate-screaming-your-name-for-the-last-three-minutes-while-you-try-to-finish-brushing-your-teeth.” There are lots of reasons for going to the fence but I thought I’d share some from the last few weeks.
- Ladies came to visit (love this one!)
- Men came to borrow the shovel…and the pick…and a measuring tape…and the hair cutters…and super glue…and the wheelbarrow…
- People came to buy beans. There has been a shortage of food at the stores lately and so we brought extra out to sell.
- Little kids came to play dominoes.
- Friends came to ask me if Pete and Liesl were home. They live about 10 feet away, so if they can’t be seen, it makes sense to come here and ask me to call on the radio and see if they’re in or not, right?
- People came to ask me to ask Rachel to bring them stuff from the states and from the nearby town. The list included diapers, shampoo, little boy’s shoes, jeans, milk, walkie-talkies (see the last post) and more.
- Teenagers came to look at pictures. This is a popular reason for visiting our house. They don’t really want to chat, just want you to lend them a photo album to look at.
- A little boy came to tell me that he had borrowed his friend Charlie’s shoes because he wanted to walk over to where the truck was with the poles for the lights and see what was happening and his shoes aren’t to his liking because they’re old and hurt his feet a bit and so now he had the new borrowed shoes on and didn’t want to take his old shoes all the way home because that was too far, so he had come to my house to leave his old shoes until he came back from the place where the truck was and then he would call me again and get his old shoes from me and put them back on and take the borrowed new shoes back to Charlie and he knew I wouldn’t steal them so that’s why he came to my house. [This was all said in one breath.] When he came back he brought six little friends to play with the dog.
- Women came to study Nahuatl with me. They brought their kids to play with the toys while we worked and stayed to drink coffee and warm up.
- The government teachers came to borrow our internet.
- The doctors who visit our village came to chat for a while and see how we had built our latrine so that they could encourage the people here to build one.
- Seven other people came later to tour the latrine.
- People came to ask for seeds and little branches from some of Rachel’s flowers in order to plant them in their yards.
- Three little girls came to ask me when I was going to go visit them at their house and how come I never put my traditional skirt on anymore.
- A friend stopped by to wonder, “Don’t you make bread any more?” She enjoyed a mango muffin and then went home.
- Several worried Nahuatl ladies stopped by to make sure I was OK without Rachel and that I wasn’t crying or being too sad from missing her.
- Agustina came by many times to study the Bible. She continues to amaze me with her growing faith and joy.
- A little kid and his siblings came by to tell me that while I had been gone my dog had almost eaten one of my chickens. They wanted to know if the chicken made it. (It’s fine.)
- A 12-year-old boy came by to help me weed the garden and water the plants. Then other kids came by to ask if I had work for them so that they could make money.
- Five of my friend’s grandkids came to ask me with sweet smiles if “I wasn’t feeling motivated to maybe give them some gum.” I was.
- Large groups of people from other villages came to buy blankets.
- A concerned mother came to find out why her baby was sick and to see what kind of medicine I could give her.
This post has gotten long enough, but I haven’t even begun to cover all the visitors to our house. In the spirit of honesty, I will admit that sometimes I despair of hearing my name called. “When am I supposed to get God’s work done here?” I find myself thinking. The Holy Spirit is faithful to remind me that this IS God’s work. I am sharing with, caring for, giving to, and talking with the people who God wants as part of his family. And I pray that in all this the people will see that I am loving.