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.