Lately, I have found myself thinking negatively due to my circumstances as I adjust to culture. For example, we had to go to Moca, a nearby town close to Santiago, to get some electrical things fixed on our car. Now, in my mind I’m expecting this won’t take but a few hours and I’ll be in a nice air conditioned waiting room with magazines, TV and free coffee like we have in the States. Instead, the owner of the mechanic shop says, “oh, it could 3 or 5 hours to see what’s wrong with your car, I don’t know. “ I said, “well do you know the exact time you will begin working on our car, would you like us to go home and come back in 5 hours?” He said, “its okay you can wait by this car lift until we are done.”Let me paint this picture for you, it was outside in the heat, we sat on plastic chairs with mosquitoes surrounding the area, two feet from the car lift. So basically we were sitting in the area where the mechanics actually do the work on the cars. The mechanics walked around us, pulling extension cords by our feet, passing tools around us etc. Needless to say, this was not what I expected nor did I want to wait 5 hours in that sort of environment. I had a serious attitude and a battle of negativity was roaring in my mind.
After 3 hours of waiting they started to work on our car. By then it was lunch time so Jason and I walked down to get some rice and beans at a nearby café. The portions were huge, Jason finished his meal, but I just couldn’t finish mine and thought I would get a “to go container”. As soon as I put my fork down this man came up from behind me and started to grab my plate. I tried to say I wasn’t done in Spanish and wanted a to go box. I didn’t realize it at the time, but he actually wanted my plate so he could eat my food. He hung out by the café in order to get leftover food from the customers. I felt so bad for the guy but then I began to think, “I can’t even relax in this restaurant without someone coming up from behind me begging for food.” It’s really common to see lots of beggars and sometimes I feel bombarded at every corner.
Anyway, after that whole experience we walked back to the mechanic to get our car. After a few more hours, we found out the mechanic would need to take 2 days to fix the car. It was necessary to then rent a car for a couple of days. Of course, the car gas gauge said empty when we rented it. "It's no problem," said the rental agent, "just bring it back empty." So after driving the car through the airport parking lot, it ran out of gas...back to the rental counter to get another car.
After the two days, we showed up at the time the car was supposed to be done and we ended up waiting an additional 3 more hours. (Through this whole process the Lord was starting to show me my negativity in my mind, so as time was passing during this process, I was battling this whole thing.)
Anyway, we finally got the car done and began to drive home. As we got closer to our house the stirring wheel started to smoke! Jason and I looked at each other and said “oh no, this can’t be good.” We made it home and the smoke stopped. As we were getting out of the car, I said to Jason, “your lights are on” so he turned it off and we went upstairs to our apartment. Jason then made a quick call to the mechanic to inform him of the situation. After the phone call the neighbor buzzed our apartment and said you left your lights on. We thought that was strange because we both knew we turned the lights off.
So Jason comes down and opens the car door and all this smoke comes bellowing out! Then he opens the hood and the engine catches on fire! On top of that the horn starts blaring and would not stop! I heard the horn and knew something was wrong and raced down the stairs. Meanwhile, Jason was yelling to the boys to throw down buckets. We were frantically throwing water on the engine to get the fire out. The fire finally went out but the horn was still blaring, by that time we had a nice big crowd of people around us. Finally, two men came over and disconnected the battery to get the horn to stop blaring!
How embarrassing! This is just plain craziness! By that time the Lord was bringing laughter in my head because I could not believe this was actually happening. He changed my negative thoughts into laughter and I thought to myself, “this could only happen in the Dominican.” I’m so thankful however that even in the midst of my circumstance the Lord is rewiring my thinking so it is not as negative. In fact, I’m so thankful the Lord has allowed me to think positively in this matter.
I started to have a thankful spirit rather than negative spirit. This is only God who could do this in my life. As I look back at that experience I'm so thankful the boys were not in the car when the fire happened. I’m glad we were at home when it occurred because our car was near a water spicket. I’m grateful we had neighbors to help us disconnect the battery to stop the horn from blaring. It’s certainly a different perspective. It’s been neat to see that in the “car fire” circumstance God has allowed me to be thankful.
I do however wonder what is next because it seems something out of the ordinary is always happening. Each circumstance is a chance for me to depend on Him fully even in my thought life. It never hurts to have a little adventure in my life; at least I’m not bored. I’m a diamond in the rough and it’s going to take a lot of chipping away at my heart and mind to continue to make me more Christ like.
Thank you God for using bad circumstances to mold my thought life!
(By the way, the car will be fine; no major damage and it is back at the mechanics where as of today they have taken all the wiring out and will be rewiring everything tomorrow.)
