Customer Service?

Living in a foreign country always has its challenges. Being really far away from home. Dealing with a culture that is definitely not your own and is strange to you. But these things, with time, ease and become more familiar. There are some things though, that are harder than others. Customer Service. What wonderful two words. Words that mean nothing in Bolivia. Words that have a meaning so foreign to Bolivians that they cannot even grasp the concept. Two months ago while at the mechanic's our sunroof got broken. (The owner agreed to pay for the new glass, which is unheard of, but that is only because he lived in the States for a number of years and he knows the meaning of customer service. But that is not my story.) We took our truck to Vidcla, the automotive glass place in the city and placed our order. Remember this is the beginning of February we are talking about. They did not have the piece of glass we needed so they assured us their providers in Santa Cruz did and we would have it in one week. One week went by and we called. No answer. We stopped by. Closed up. We continued to call and stop by for the next two and a half weeks only to find they were still closed and no one would answer the phone. Finally we got in touch with them and they said that the shop in Santa Cruz was still fabricating it and it would be a little while longer. A month and a half after the initial order was placed (by the way, they had a down payment from us) and many phone calls later, we called to find out when the glass would arrive and the man said, "You just need to come to our shop so we can talk." We went to the shop and they told us that the fabricators were just now telling them that they no longer make any windows with tempered glass, which is what we ordered, but they only do the laminated glass, like windshields are made out of. So the truth of the matter was that they had probably never even placed the order for us until that moment a month and a half later. We told them to tell the fabricators to go ahead with the laminated glass and we were hopeful that we would have glass soon. A week after that, we received a phone call saying that they needed to measure the sunroof before they could place the order. What!! We went to them again and they took their measurements and told us it would be in Sucre in two weeks. Now we are hoping against hope that we really will have glass in one more week. Two months is a long time to wait on glass for your sunroof. Lying is an acceptable practice in the Bolivian culture and customer service? What is that!?

On a different note...I have been working on a correspondence class from BJU called The Practice of Counseling. We just covered a section discussing the heart. The theme of that section was, "The heart of the problem is the problem of the heart." I want to share with you three quotes from an author named Paul David Tripp that really impressed my heart. Most often people blame everything and everybody else for their problems instead of acknowledging a sinful heart. The Bible says, "for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh." Luke 6:45b

This is what Tripp says.

"Jesus' point [Luke 6:43-45] is that a tree has the kind of fruit it does because of the kind of roots it has: we speak and act the way we do because of what is in our hearts. There may be no more important thing to say about how people function.... Here Christ calls us to humbly accept responsibility for our behavior. He calls us to humbly admit that relationships and circumstances are only the occasions in which our hearts reveal themselves."

"If a certain set of desires rules my heart, I will not want God to be a wise, loving, sovereign Father who gives me what he knows is best. Instead, I will want a divine waiter who delivers what I have my heart set on."

"Human conflict is rooted in spiritual adultery. My problem is not sinful people and difficult situations. My problem is that I give the love that belongs to God to someone or something else."

Luke's Advice on Wiping Computers

We have an older computer that has been sitting around and we've decided to sell it. However, we were not comfortable with the idea of selling the computer and possibly have that person turn around and use a simple to use Data Recovery Program to access all of our old files. So I did some research and came across Active@Killdisk at killdisk.com. I downloaded the program, burnt the downloaded iso file to a CD, and then rebooted. I followed the simple directions on the screen and within an hour the computer was wiped clean and I was ready to restore the computer to 'out-of-the-box' conditions! It was fast and simple and now we can sell the computer with a peace of mind. Thanks Killdisk for a great product!

Where Do I Begin?

I have experienced a bit a difficulty getting started in the "Blogging World." Partly for the fact that we had rare internet access up until we got it in the house back in October and then after that it was simply because I forgot that I had a blog account. Just never thought about it. So now my sister Jocelyn has inspired me again (she was the one who got me started in the beginning) to become a faithful blogger. I am not sure where to begin or what to write about, so... I was just listening to one of my correspondence courses. I am taking Practice of Counseling from Bob Jones University and I am reminded of an important issue that I began to ponder in my heart as a teenager. The issue of Biblical counseling verses the world's counseling or psychology. As a teenager I heard many Christians say that if you have problems you should go see a psychologist. You undoubtedly have a hurt "inner child." Something bad in your childhood is responsible for the decisions you are making today. You need to deal with all your problems on a psychological level. Or there are the integrationists who believe that God's Word is helpful but it is not enough. People need psychology to help figure out what is wrong with them. Does anybody feel this little nagging doubt in the back your mind? I did as a teenager. I felt this frustration inside of me and I always asked, "Why is the Bible not enough for peoples' problems. Why do Christians need secular thinking (with no regard to what God has to say) to tell the how to solve their problems. Why is the Bible not sufficient for these people?? These are the things that went through my mind as a teenager. Then I went to BJU and my first semester freshman year I was privileged to hear Dr. Mazak speak. He wrote the words: Biblical Counseling, Psychology, and Medical on the chalk board then proceeded to X out the word Psychology. He explained his views. Unless a person has legitimate medical problems that can actually be diagnosed with legitimate medical tests then the problem has to be a spiritual problem. The Bible is sufficient!!!! What glorious news! I knew it in my heart to be true and here was a person voicing what I had felt for years. I went on to take his class on Biblical counseling. Now I am taking his second class on the subject 9 years later. It is refreshing getting into the subject again. Man will never have the answers. God created man and forever will be able to help that created man. Man is pretty lofty to think he can come up with answers without God. I am so thankful for a God who graciously gave us His written Word that can deal comprehensively with the problems of life. "The law of the Lord is perfect(complete) converting(restoring) the soul." Psalm 19:7a


On another note, here are a few pics of my big little 4 year old Keira. We enrolled her in a private prekindergarten, which here they call 'Kinder.' We want her to learn more Spanish and we want her to have some interaction with other little children. In our ministry she has very little contact with other children. She loves her school and all the other kids. When I asked every day what she has learned she says, "School, I just learned school." Yesterday she said something really funny and I posted it on my Facebook. I am going to post it here too. Keira was telling us yesterday morning about a boy at school named Mateo who gave her something, but she couldn't remember what it was. So I guessed candy and she said no. Then her Daddy guessed a kiss and she said, "Ewww Daddy that is yucky!!" Later in the conversation we were still guessing and we asked her if the boy gave her some lovin and she said NO and Luke said, "Thats good because Daddy would just have to sit on him for that." Then Keira said, "Daddy could you just really sit on Mateo because he just gives me candy all the time!!" She is always coming up with things to say that makes sense in her 4 year old logic, but are so funny to us. Children are truly a heritage from the Lord.

Bolivian Culture

In the month of September, Sucre, the city we live in, had a several day festival. It was to worship the Virgin Guadalupe, whoever that was. A Catholic thing. Of course we do not believe in worshiping any human being when the Bible clearly states that all of us are sinners Romans 3:23 & 6:23 including Mary the mother of Jesus. Jesus told us in His Word , "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6 If it is not through Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross, then the penalty is eternal punishment in Hell, Romans 6:23. The interesting thing during the parades they had was that they had more costumes depicting animistic beliefs. There were many devil costumes and native indian costumes. I find it interesting that they were trying to honor this Catholic saint who is supposed to be a servant of God with costumes of devils. I recently read a banner posted on a public building downtown that said something about El Diablo, the Devil and it said that the Devil is Bolivian. Very interesting. We know by reading the Bible that Satan is the ultimate deceiver. Mat 10:28 says, "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." This is speaking of Satan and his power to condemn souls to Hell through his deceit and treachery. These people are truly blinded if they think the Devil is something cool. They have an interesting mix of Catholicism and animism. The Catholic part of them keeps them feeling comfortable where they think they will go to Heaven as long as they are a pretty good person. Sadly that condemns them to Hell as much as devil worship. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, " For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast."
We attended part of the parade during the day. It was interesting on a cultural level. The girls thought it was fun. We avoided going out at night because Bolivians will use any excuse to have a drunken fest, especially Catholic holidays. Hmmmm.

Cousin Fun

How wonderful that the girls got to spend this extra time with their cousins Cameron, Cassie, and Caedon! They all got along so well. I am thankful that we can utilize Skype in Bolivia and keep the cousins in close contact. I am so thankful for modern technology. Missionaries no longer have to give up family the way they used to years ago.

I have entered the blogging world!!

This summer has been going by entirely too fast! We have been in SC, VA, PA, IN, WI, and IL and we are headed to OH, NY, NH, VT, and CT before the summer is over. It has been so much fun seeing friends and families. This last weekend we were with Pastor and Mrs. Brown at their new church in Green Bay, WI. This picture above was taken by a photographer in their church named Mark Hawkins. He and his wife take beautiful weddings pics for a living. Check out their blog site. http://www.markhawkinsphoto.blogspot.com/ For the 4th of July we went up to Northland Bible College with the Browns and enjoyed great music, a carnival for the kids, and a good fireworks show at the end. It made us sad to leave, but now we are having fun with my sister Jocelyn and her family. Today we took the kids out on a boat to have some fun in the sun!

Mrs. Brown and Keira on top and Keira on bottom.

Hayley and me below in one of those great pics Mark took.

God has blessed us abundantly above and beyond anything we could have ever imagined this summer. We are getting great ideas for our deaf church back in Bolivia and we are stocking up on useful items to take back to South America with us. I praise God and give Him glory for His ever wondrous love He bestows upon us!!

Eph 3:20-21 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.