Beggars

These last few weeks have been very busy for us as we are in what we hope to be our last few weeks before leaving for Mexico once again...we are working to raise our support to the level it needs to be in order to leave for the field by the end of July.  We were hoping to go by the end of June, but have had to push that back a month; not really a bad thing, really, just a disappointment, but we're dealing with it.  :) 

So we've been visiting friends, family, supporters and potential supporters, casting our vision for ministry and sharing about our work.  We've either had guests in our home or been guests in somebody else's home just about every single day for about three weeks now...sometimes more than one somebody's home in one day!  On the days that we are home, we've had the challenge of catching up on all the housework we've neglected with all of our busyness...and I don't really want to talk about the pile of dishes over there in the sink.

As is normal with such a busy time, we aren't exactly operating at full capacity since we're getting tired and pulled in many different directions.  We've been handling it fairly well, for the most part, with only some minor issues and conflicts...encouraging for me since I haven't traditionally handled stress all that well in the past. 

So this last Wednesday night, we were driving to our supper appointment which was about 30 minutes away from our house.  About halfway there, Miguel noticed that we were about to run out of gas, so we stopped at a gas station close to our friends' house to fill up.  But when Miguel asked me to give him the cash from my wallet, I discovered that my wallet was not in my purse!  I had taken it out for some reason and hadn't remembered to put it back.

Miguel said, no problem, I'll just use the debit card and went to pull his wallet out of his back pocket.  He got a really funny look on his face, however, as he realized that he didn't have his wallet either!  He had taken a shower right before we'd left and his wallet apparently never made it back into his pocket. 

So there we were, no gas and no way to buy any and 30 minutes from home!  It was rather embarrassing to show up at a supporter's house, enjoy their hospitality, eat their food and then have to ask them for some gas money on top of that!  It was either that or spend the night with them, LOL!  We felt like beggars.  Fortunately, our friends saw the humor in the situation and we all had a good laugh about it...don't think Miguel will be able to live that one down very soon, though. 

Okay, gotta go clean up the house a bit...we've got company coming for supper!  I'm making arepas and fried plantains...hope they like Venezuelan food!