Sitting Next To Satan

The past few weeks have been crazy here in my home. Getting ready to add two adults and four large dogs to our household kind of turned us on our head. We had to clean out, get rid of, pack up, and organize a lot of "stuff". We had to rebuild fences. We had to literally put out a fire (thanks for making that part of my day, Daddy). We had to switch things around and we had to shed a few tears.

The good news is that we survived it all. Hubby, Daddy, and I made it through the daunting emotional task of cleaning out Mama's room and packing up her belongings. Sister, Ricky Ricardo (nickname for brother-in-law), and the hounds arrived safely and got moved in. The hounds got boxed in to the cul-de-sac when they got out of the backyard and could not get away from us when we went after them. Hubby managed to get out of here on time to go to his men's retreat at Laity Lodge and I did not have to frantically call him back to handle any emergencies.

An interesting thing that kept happening through the course of this preparation and moving-in process was that I would find prayer requests that I had written down at various times over the last few years. Some were in notebooks and others were on scraps of paper. The requests came from a multitude of different people that I had met in all kinds of interesting ways. As I found each request, I would say a short prayer for that person again and then move on to my next task.

Desde el Monte... Prayer (and a poem)

Previous installations of Desde el Monte...

Preface

The Beginning

Joy Bus

The Streets

The Beauty

***

What do you do when you are supposed to be helping a church in a country where you do not know the language? I have two answers for that: 1) anything they ask you to do and 2) pray. Sticking to my first answer is how I ended up walking down the street further and further away from the church building with a man who spoke NO English. Sticking to my second answer is how I got through it without being brought down by my fear.

I know that I was given a decent amount of background on Nestor before we left the building, but I only remember a little. Nestor, a native of Uruguay, was a widower with a daughter in elementary school. I do not remember how long he had been a Christian, but I do know that he was training to take over some of the preaching and teaching duties at the church. He really seemed to have a gentle spirit, which is why I somehow let somebody (can't remember who) convince me that I should spend part of my second day out on the streets with him. Nestor and I were going to hand out flyers just like I had with Ronnie and Karen. Just the day before, God had told me that He was sweet on me, so I was ready to do what He needed me to do for this small church congregation. 

My Prayer

I humbly confess that I am often perplexed by the problems of life. 

Sometimes I do not seem to know which way to turn next. 

I pray Thee, therefore, to enlighten me by Thy Holy Spirit 

that I may recognize what is Thy will in every situation; 

give me the courage to decide every issue accordingly 

and to leave the final outcome to Thy direction.

From the prayer "For the Grace to Make the Right Decisions", 

My Prayer Book, Concordia Publising, 1957

I bought the prayer book for one dollar at Martha's garage sale. It had belonged to her late husband. I did not need it, but I really wanted to buy something just to encourage Martha, who was going through hard times. Indeed, months later Martha thanked me for driving Mama all that way to be at the garage sale and for buying a few things. I had put the book in a little basket that is next to my bed and rarely thought of it. I did not read anything in it until today.