A Little Fight Left

In the last day and a half, after returning to South America, Jack fell off the bed and hit his head on the cement floor, we had a day of cultural clashes to try to get the airline to change our tickets rather than charge us $400 more for new tickets, we got in an accident in a taxi, and then discovered that someone had stolen our debit card and had overdrawn our account.

Let me start at the beginning. We were excited to get back to South America and get back into our work. But we had no idea it would be this hard. For one thing, we are not home, we are in Lima, Peru, planning to head out to the jungle to teach at training. We arrived here from the States at about 11 p.m. with, of course, our maximum amount of luggage and had to haul that stuff all over the city. In the middle of that is when we think the card was stolen.

Things are just so much more difficult here. Picture life hopping in and out of taxis in crazy traffic, having to haul your luggage around without a personal vehicle, getting overcharged at dingy hotels, and trying to reason with an airline attendant whose cultural reasoning is completely different from yours. Add to that a baby and you have to live in a world with no changing tables, no sugarless baby food, little hot water access, and no functioning high chairs in restaurants. In the end you have two grumpy adults and one dirty baby.

We finally packed up what we needed for the jungle, rearranged our luggage, and were headed out the door to catch our flight. Jack has just begun to roll around quickly and being the rookie parents we are, we had left him in the middle of the bed. Trent said “Let’s go,” and then immediately after Jack fell off the bed hitting his head on the hard cement floor. We missed our flight of course.

Today we had to run all over the world trying to get all that the airline needed to change our tickets. When we finally had it all we were in a taxi on the way to the airline office for the third time. Our taxi driver tried to make a crazy u-turn and was hit by a van. We are all okay, but very shaken up. At one point in the day we got money out of the ATM and our bank told us we were overdrawn. When we finally got home, we checked only to find out that someone had stolen Trent’s debit card and had been using it.

If this isn’t spiritual warfare, it’s a lot of crazy coincidences. It’s interesting that it would happen now, but I remember the last family who worked in Bolivia before us telling us that they always had trouble getting back from the States. We’re tired, frustrated, and a little nervous about what is to come next. But when all these things happen at once, it kind of gives puts a little fight in us. We can see God’s hand in all of this and we trust Him. Please pray for us as we head out to the jungle to teach at our team’s training. Please pray for our mental, physical, and spiritual strength right now.