What I miss...

It has been a while since I have written anything new, but I suppose that most of you know that the last weeks have been a bit hectic so you will have to excuse me.
Readjustment (even temporarily) to life in the States has at once been easy and also very difficult. It has been easy and enjoyable to be around family again and to be able to sit and have good conversations about life. However, I have found the blatant materialism to be excruciatingly difficult to come to terms with. A trip to the store is overwhelming because there is so much stuff for sale that one could very easily be convinced is quite necessary for life, but having spent the last year and one-half in a place where most of that stuff does not even exist, I would have to say that not only is it not essential much of it is completely unnecessary. Sure, there is materialism in Nicaragua, but it is such a different scale that it is hardly noticeable.
I find that I miss the sound and the cadence of the Spanish language, but much more I miss the warmth of the relationships that we have developed. As I read through 1 Peter this morning I read in 4:9 “Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.” I realize just how “far ahead” of us the Nicaraguans are on this front. An example: A couple weeks before we left for the States we stopped over at a friend’s house as it was getting towards dusk. The lady of the house (she was the one Colleen wanted to talk to) was not there, but her husband was. We explained what we were there for and that it would be short visit, but he invited us in and told us to be seated. He had been working on hooking the wiring up to his house so that he would have lights when it got dark. Now I don’t know about you, but if someone showed up at my house towards dark and I was working on hooking up the juice I would say, “I’m busy, this is important, I can’t talk right now”.
Being back here in the hustle and bustle (even though we are not doing either) makes me realize just how much I appreciate that about the Nicaraguan culture.