Birthday cakes and broken ovens...

Today Joe and I were making guacamole dip and "trying" to bake a box cake for Joe's BIRTHDAY because we are having our friends over tonight to celebrate! We were chopping and mixing away when I went to pre-heat the oven and realized I had no clue how to ignite the gas oven. Joe came and looked and we could not find where to place the ignited match in the oven to start heating. There were 2 cute little old ladies talking right outside our door so we decided to ask them if they knew how to light the gas for the oven. They came in our house and first asked if we had any dogs because they were afraid of them...mind you there are about 20 stray dogs literally on EVERY street in this city but for some reason was scared of dogs in people's houses! They looked at the oven and said they didn't know what to do as well. I was beginning to think we were going to have a birthday party without the cake this year. But...the sweet, giving, thoughtful little ladies went next door and asked them if they knew how to turn the oven on but no luck, they were not certain either but did enlighten us to call the people who sold us the oven and ask them. Then, a few minutes later, the sweet, older of the 2 women, came back to our door with a gentlemen. He proceeded to come in, take a piece of the oven off, started the fire, and told us if there was anything else we needed his house was just a couple houses down. How incredibly nice of everyone but especially the older lady who looked everywhere to find us the solution to a working oven. Joe and I were thrilled we could have cake again for our friends and couldn't stop talking about how thoughtful that lady was and how this would probably never happen in a city in the States when again we heard someone at the door. It was the older lady again. She asked if we had any food for her because she was hungry! We have really had a hard time with this since being in Central America. A majority of folks here look at gringos only as a means to get money. Little kids are trained by their moms to come beg for money because they need food or the best one we have gotten is they need a prescription filled and actually show us a filthy old prescription they likely have been using for months (even when someone gives them money for the drug the day before). Our hearts break for these kids for not only the fact that they probably are hungry but they are taught to beg for money and that's their future (its also shocking an heartbreaking at how little importance is placed on schooling in many kids' lives).
We were especially convicted about how we need to respond to the beggars while reading James 2:15-16 "If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,' but you don't give them what the body needs, what good is it?" We bought crackers and granola bars for this reason to give the beggars on the street when they ask for money because who knows where the money is actually going and all the guide books so DO NOT give the kids money. It has been wonderful to see the eyes of kids and elderly women receive food but it blows me away at the lack of shame and gratitude for these things...it's simply their way of life and that's all they know. We have grown accustomed to this behavior but tonight when our sweet new friend came asking for food it really caught me off guard. Nothing is completely free I guess and we, as Americans, have so much more everything than this country and we sincerely want to share what we have...but I had to laugh tonight thinking how "neighborly help" isn't so free down here!

Happy Bday to Joe tomorrow and thank Jesus for the incredible blessing of his birth!!!

Love-Julie