Cliff Jumping 101

A perfect picture to describe our day!  ---photo by bzo, wikimedia

There are times when we are prompted to take a leap of faith.  That prompting may come through counsel, Bible study, any variety of means.  Long ago that started for us.  Our CTEN family advised us that about 2 months before leaving for the field, jobs should be left and full time support raising taken up.  That was only one area of prompting that I can recall...it is something that has been on our minds for a while.  That’s a scary thing though, leaving your job and not knowing how you can provide if enough monthly support isn’t coming in.    So we did nothing.  (Well, we did lots of things, it’s just that Ken didn’t leave his full time job.)

We learned today, that sometimes when you are standing at the edge of that cliff, wondering what to do - God pushes you over the edge and forces you to take the leap.  (Which I suppose is not really leaping ourselves...hmmm)  That happened for us today.  We no longer have to be concerned about when Kenneth will give his notice, or how we will get the time off to visit Canada.  God took care of that for us, and Ken’s company laid him off today.  Now we will be able to work on finishing this part of our race together - how much better that will be!

We feel a little strange, being thankful that he has “no job.”  It seems weird in this economy to be happy to be out of work.  But we are.  We know that God’s hand is in this, and that He will provide for our every need.  We know that He is able to bring in the rest of our monthly support, and we thank him for that.

Please be in prayer for our housing situation.  We now have no choice but to find renters, or sell the house by June 1.  Please pray that God’s hand will be present in this task as well.

Here and there...

The market on the steps of the church in Chichicastenango, Guatemala.  The majority of these people would be considered self-employed, and thus counted in the employment numbers cited for the rest of the world to see.

So, I pulled up to my parents house this morning, and there was not a soul in sight.  There were some cars parked in driveways, but no people visible.  I didn’t think about it at that precise moment, but I am now.  That is a sight, or lack of, that just doesn’t happen in Guatemala.  In Guatemala there are ALWAYS people around.  I think it has something to do with the unemployment rate, or the type of employment.  We are complaining about unemployment here, worried, anxious - but there it is a way of life. 

The website CIA World FactBook, lists Guatemala as only having an unemployment rate of 3.2%, quite suspicious numbers to anyone who has ever been there.  Being suspicious I started to do some research this morning (when, of course, I should have been doing other things.)  I learned that:

Guatemala is ranked 3rd worst, globally, when it come to distribution of wealth.  On a scale of 0 - 100% (with 100% meaning one person holds all the wealth in the country) Guatemala scored a 59.6%.  Now, I’m no statistician, but that shows me that all the wealth of Guatemala is owned by about 40% of the country.  Most of that wealth is centered in the department of Guatemala, which includes Guatemala City - thus the big shopping malls, universities and the like.  Guatemala City is compared to an “Asian tiger” city, while the rest of the country is compared to “equatorial Africa.” (Guatemala Hardship Considerations, Andrew Reding, 2000.)

The 97.8% of the country that is considered employed, includes a large number of people who are underemployed.  Basically, they are making some money, at a job of some sort - but I have heard that the government includes begging on the street as a form of employment.  Now, I haven’t actually seen that in print - but I certainly believe it.  The income distribution rate is so off, that the per capita average of around $4,000 is very misleading.  UNICEF found (Reding) that about 53% of the population earns less than $1 a day.  Their yearly income is $365, when most of us spend more than that per month in groceries alone.

So, back to my morning car park experience.  I pulled up on the side of the road, left the children in the car while I brought the dog into the house, let the kids out, left the van wide open (with my computer in it) while I took the various loads of “stuff” into the house.  During that whole time, I never saw a person.  I would NEVER do any of those things in Guatemala, anywhere.  There are always people around, busy being underemployed, and most of them are perfectly willing to help you take care of all that stuff you have - you just may never see it again.  Not very shocking when you figure how many years they could live off of one computer.

Praise God for Saint Patrick

Abigail at her favorite Guatemalan restaurant, Pollo Campero, on her first trip back in 2005.  It is hard to believe that she will be 5 years old in just a few short days!  Wow - she really liked that ranch dressing...
Abigail has recently been struggling with our decision to leave for Guatemala.  She has the 4 year old anxiety of leaving her friends, heck, I have the 29+ year old anxiety about that.  She also has somewhat of an understanding of what it means to be a missionary.  Well, today in her class they were reading about Saint Patrick.  (If you don’t know his real story - not just about corned beef and leprechauns - check it out!)  Saint Patrick is a wonderful example, I think, of leaving those you love to go out and spread the Good News of the Gospel.  In the car on the way home, when questions about Guatemala came from nowhere, we were able to talk about Saint Patrick and how that relates to us.  We at least fended off the tears, and the topic was quickly switched to something completely random and unconnected, in one breath.  Welcome to little girls.  (They make me understand why women are so hard to understand - well, to men at least.)

In the Eisner world, we have been working hard to raise the rest of our support, and to complete our video series.  The latter is done, yeah - Joy can have a life again!  We hope to post the videos on the web site soon for any who are interested.

Thanks to all who have been praying for us.  Please continue!  Here are a few specific requests:

• There is still much to be done, and it really is a balancing act.  Pray that our daily life, and parenting won’t suffer. 
  
• We are at 50% of our needed support.  Please pray boldly that the rest will come in quickly. Pray especially that those who are planning on support, but haven’t mailed in their cards yet, will remember.
  
• We need true Godly wisdom in dealing with Abigail’s emotions about leaving, and ours as well.
  
• We are still trying to take our Perspectives Class for credit, so there is a lot of reading and homework involved with that as well.  Pray that we will be able to fit that in and prioritize well.