January 18, 2007

Dear Friends,

A few interesting things have happened to us recently. Because we live in a house, we have many people come to the door selling things or asking for work or just asking for food or money. It has been difficult for us to know what to do. After talking it over with German (our boss), we decided to not give out money, but would give food, like a bag of rice, can of tuna or something similar if we didn’t have a job for them. Some people have told us to not give anything, but we feel very badly when the person looks really down-and-out.

Franklin, a man who has done some yard work for us, has come many times. We try to have him work for us so we can pay him. He came last Saturday. John figured that this was a good time to have him help clean up the side yard. It is a narrow strip with overgrown weeds and lots of stones. Franklin was very happy to get the job. John was planning on working with him. Franklin was a “speed-king.” He got right to work, separating the rocks and filling up double-bags with the debris. John was amazed at how quickly he filled the bags, using only his hands. In about an hour, or a little more, there were 15 heavy bags of rocks that were put out for the trash collection, which happened to be that night. And the side yard looked great, with old floor tiles arranged as stepping stones. We paid Franklin and admired the finished product.

The next morning, we noticed that the trash was not fully taken. The bags of rocks were still there. We figured they may have been too heavy and thought we’d have to lighten them up and only put a few out at a time. Being a Sunday, we had taken it easy and hadn’t done anything about the bags. At about 6:00 p.m. another man came to the door, probably the scruffiest looking of our visitors. He noticed the bags and, in his fast Spanish, asked about them. I told him that the trash collectors would not take them. He offered to haul them away for a fair price. I told him that that would be great. So, he put down his burlap bags and, using one of them, he filled his bag with three of the bags of stones. A little stooped and legs buckled from the weight, he walked down the street. John, wondering what he was going to do with the stones, decided to follow him, to make sure they weren’t dumped on someone’s lawn. The man walked to the corner and turned right. Then he went into the middle of the road and began to fill up some of the potholes, arranging the stones smoothly, to fill the holes. He did that five times in less than an hour. When he was through, we paid him and praised him on his ingenuity and strength.

Both men worked very hard, wore only plastic sandals, and didn’t think twice about the difficulty of the job or the dirtiness. They both wanted to earn money and did what they had to do to obtain it. This is very typical of the problems that many people have in getting work. Colombia has an unemployment rate of 20 percent and an underemployed rate of 40 percent. Over three and a half million people have been displaced from their homes and farms and have moved into the big cities to look for work and safety. So these occurrences are new only to us.

We know that we will have more of these happenings. We pray that we will be sensitive to the needs of others and respond in a loving, appreciative way.

John and Paula Ewers

The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 46