Saturday Post -- 21/01/12

"This is a promo shot for my REALITY SHOW..."

After a hard day’s work, Amanda likes nothing better than to come home and plonk herself down in front of a reality show called ‘Property Virgins’. In said televisual production, property guru Sandra guides prospective first-time buyers through the choppy waters of the housing market. Amanda gets a particular kick out of the fact that it’s based primarily in the Ontario region, so she gets to see a lot of her old haunts. As for me, while I find the programme insightful as to the Canadian market, I can do without Sandra’s California-schoolgirl tone, particularly her frequent use of the ever-grating ‘interrogative answer,’ i.e., “I know the asking price is a LITTLE HIGH but that’s just the direction the MARKET’S GOING IN THESE DAYS so I don’t know what you guys wanna DO.”

Nevertheless, for all that, I’d pay good money to subject myself to her infuriating sing-song-speech right now, as we set out to get settled in a house of our own (albeit, we’re building it, not buying, and I doubt even she is suitably equipped to take on the horrors of Bolivieaucracy – though if she opened her mouth…). Yes, you guessed, it, it’s been another challenging week on the land front, though the signposts for ‘light’ along the tunnel walls display ever-decreasing distances.

For those thus far unacquainted with our situation, we paid for a couple of lots of land over a period of a year during 2010 and 2011, expecting the landowner to do her duty and process the required documentation as quickly as possible. This process has been protracted by her general failure to take responsibility for her side of the bargain, her living in Santa Cruz (which has a separate land-registry process) and the incompetence of the authorities here in Trinidad.

The week did not start well. Having received texts from her the week before assuring us she’d be coming to Trinidad on Monday morning – well, she didn’t! We tried to contact her all day Monday, but to no avail. It wasn’t till later that evening that we got a text telling us she’d be in town by Tuesday morning (Santa Cruz is an overnight bus trip away).

We met at the offices of the local land registry, whose task in her absence had been to process documentation related to our priority. Alas, the documents had seemingly been left on a shelf to gather dust. Nonetheless, her anger was quickly directed not at the land registry workers, but at ourselves, for supposedly nagging her throughout the process. We were on edge after her dishonesty about coming on the Monday and it would be fair to say that we responded in kind.

We all agreed to meet again that afternoon, by which time the authorities assured us the paperwork would be dealt with. However, Amanda and I left with a heaviness of heart, sensing that taking things to DEFCON 1 perhaps wasn’t the way forward, after all. We could sense that what we called pursuing our consumer rights, she calls pushing one’s luck – such is the consumer’s experience in Bolivia, where the customer isn’t right so much as thankful they’re getting the vendor’s attention in the first place.

In any case, we just had a real sense from God in that moment that there was really no need to push this, that we were in danger of being given our money back, that we still have two years to build a home before our furlough year, and so perhaps this time it was best to keep stumm and let him work.

Sure enough, as we left it in his hands, the landowner made significant progress, without our sticking our noses in it. By Thursday, when she left town, the matter had been left in her lawyer’s hands to deal with and, hopefully, all that should remain from her is to sign the documents of transfer when she returns in February.

In this situation, of all situations, we have been very much within our rights to apply pressure and demand progress – after all, we have paid in full for the land. But we are re-learning the lesson that the likes of Peter had to learn over and over again: that God’s will is not ours to force or to tinker with. At so many points in our lives, not least in the months leading up to our departure for Bolivia, we have seen God work best when we deliberately take a backward step. Maybe after this experience, we’ll finally get it.

Prayer

• Amanda, in an effort to strengthen ties with her nursing colleagues, is having them round for lunch today (one or two have just arrived). Please pray for her continued witness to them.
• Craig is currently putting together a revised English class programme, combining grammar lessons with Bible readings in simple English, with the hope of launching by the end of February. Pray for guidance for Craig.

 Praise

• For substantial progress on the land front this week, and for lessons learnt in the process!
• For the church band over the last few weeks, where Craig has been able to step back and pass responsibility on to the three regulars as well as a couple of guys who are here for the holidays. Give thanks for real progress in this area, and for the decreasing missionary dependence!

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda