Surprise
A few days ago, while in the shower, I reached for the shampoo bottle and found a lizard staring at me. My kids have found lots of lizards (little salamander size) during our time here, but this one crawled thru the window and was enjoying a hot shower.
Waiting
While we have been waiting for our furniture and other posessions to arrive, it feels like we’ve been camping in our condo.
As we continue to pray for our neighbors, we are beginning to meet them. On a natural level, its only a matter of time, but we also know that in the sovereignty of God, we are meeting them in a not -so – random order or timing. I won’t share their stories here without their permission.
A day in the life
We chose not to have a car for a while.
As such, we are adjusting to walking nearly everywhere, or using public transportation. Where we live in the city, most everything we need (like a grocery store, pharmacy, hardware store, malls) are within a good walk. The longest walk we’ve made has been about 45 minutes across town one way.
Each day also includes a trip to the pool and so our kids are growing in their confidence about swimming.
We’ve run into some interesting characters.
Tourists stand out so much that we play “Spot the tourist” game.
One man tries to sell me a love poem that looks like it was printed out in the early 90s with PrinterMaster 1.0.
Street vendors sell food and beveranges out of the back of their truck or off their bicycle cart.
Banks have armed security guards standing outside. We live in the financial district, so we see lots of guards.
Getting Around:
We are learning the bus routes here.
In our old hometown, there were signs for bus stops, and printed schedules and fares. Buses ran on a time schedule.
Here, buses stop where ever they want on their assigned route. In fact, we’ve seen buses stop at places where there is a “No Bus Stop” sign.
There is no “time”, and the bus route is paitned on the window above the door. More than once, we’ve gotten on the wrong bus and have had unguided tours of different parts of the city.
Informing our prayer
Bus tripping thru other parts of town, its clear to see blight, urban poverty, and its associated social problems. Such trips give us a glimpse of the city that informs our prayer.
Living in the financial district simply puts us the upper middle class — homes are nice, new construction condos are expensive, and the condo towers are getting taller (one new construction tower at 80 floors, prices 1 bedroom condos that begin at 250K and 3 bedrooms that start at 550K).
But as we ride thru our city, we’re beginning to get a feel of its pulse and its needs.
Let me ask you this:
Do you have a spiritual sense of where you live?
Blessings!
Chris
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