Change of Plans

I am pretty sure that in most of the world the phrase “change of plans” is the standard. You pretty much fly by the seat of your pants and little goes as planned. You must make adjustments in many areas of life. This means that there is not a lot of pressure for perfect performance or for everything to go smoothly; on the other hand, it can be very frustrating.

We knew that we would not move to the interior right away as we had several things to accomplish in the big city (Recife) first. I made a trip with Robert and Carlos on Monday (Feb 3rd) to see the apartment and look at other options. There were no other options, so we planned to return to Arcoverde Thursday to shop. While in the city we found a store apparently similar to Ikea and Sarah found furniture she really liked. So we changed our plans to shopping here in Recife these past couple days and taking a big moving truck to Arcoverde. 

So Sarah went shopping. But her card would not work to pay in one store with all the electronics. While she waited for me to go pay, she went to the Ikea-like store and found a bunch of furniture. However, the furniture was only available March 24, but they are going to ship it out there and assemble it all for less than $200. The other truck was going to cost over $300 (with me assembling, which would cost over $1150 in lost assets). 

So now instead of going to Arcoverde today, we are going tomorrow and since the shipping would only be for the furniture bought in that one store, we will be buying the other stuff in Arcoverde. (Pray Carlos the negotiator is at his best tomorrow). 

So we will be eating on the floor and not have much furniture for a month and a half, but we got good deals on the stuff we can wait on and tomorrow we will be able to buy the stuff with which we need to live. We will transport a little more than half of our other belongings by tomorrow. 

On the ministry end of life here, we did not see too much active involvement with the main church in Recife. However, it just so happens that the youth have just started asking for theology classes. It looks like between the missionary Pastor, the Brazilian Pastor and I, we will be doing a type of Bible Institute with their church. Lord willing, this will bring more active involvement with the church and their missions project as well as train more church leaders. (I will probably come to Recife 1-2 times a month for weekend classes and then the other Pastors will teach when I am not in Recife). 

Through it all we see the providence of God in it all. The “change of plans” might just be our own earthly perspective.