Sunday, February 22, 2015

Clogged Toilets and Great Faith and Great Memories

Greetings,

Well we had Chris Briles here for a while and he and his team were wonderful and help us with everything from plumbing problems to picking coffee.  They were a great group of young people and God really moved on some of the students and on some of my girls.  It was a super great week. 

When Chris left Friday to officiate over a wedding in La Entrada, our girls bathroom in my house started having problems.  Instead of letting me know one of our 12 year old girls thought the solution was to just flush the clogged toilet with a bucket of water.  She had seen that done before.  However, it just flowed all over the floor. My response was as pleasant as what was on the floor.  As I was wiping up the mess, some sloshed in my eye.  I was miserable.  I had to repent to her and tell her that was sorry after I got it cleaned up.  

We have the most used toilet on the planet.  We have 15 girls who live with me and a host of girls just coming through to borrow the toilet, teams, and visitors.  Chris Briles had the misfortune of all the valves and hoses going beserk the days he was here.  He was working the whole time fixing the plumbing here on the farm and up at the clinic.  

So I was surprised when the toilet starting acting up.  It was draining slow.  Logically I got to thinking about it and really the water hose had nothing to do with the water evacuating slowly.  The girls kept getting me to flush the toilet.  It seemed like every other minute I was flushing a commode.  It was a strange weekend.  But on Sunday night, we had a huge problem.  It wouldn't drain at all.  Not with a plunger or a snake or anything. I was going to have to call a plumber in the morning, but we had to many girls and they would use the toilet whether it worked or not.  I know this from experience. 

The girls and I went outside and took the cement square of the line to the toilet.  It was just trickling.  We used a plumbers snake that was broken and put up incorrectly, and coathangers.  Nothing was working and nothing was happening.  I was into this project about an hour in the dark.  The older girls said they would continue plunging and so I went outside to help and had my hands that no hands should have to go. I came back in and tried the same process, and nothing.  I went back outside, and finally in desperation with our new weekend watchman, I declared in a loud voice, " I just pray whatever is closed will be opened in the Name of Jesus, and all the soiled water just gushed out immediately".  We have been studying the book of Mark at our Chapel service every morning and we have been studying the word "immediately".  We cheered and praised God and our watchman was looking at us like we had lost it, which made it funnier.  We know he will share about his experience.  It will be a crazy way to evangelize others in the community, it will work and people will be talking about what Jesus can do. 

I love these girls.  They are really the best, especially in a crisis.    We all came in and washed up with Clorox, and mopped up the floor and washed with clorox again.  Our girls work hard and study hard and I couldn't do what I do here without these girls.  They are really amazing.   I am thankful to be here in Honduras with them.  Crazy as it sounds we have made a lot of special memories tonight around a toilet.   

Blessings, from the toilet plunging, bleach wielding Honduran MOM. 



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