Friday, January 15, 2010

3 crazy nights... good thing I have a big God!


I have more stories from 2 and a half weeks with my little sister than I´ve had in the past 2 months. In that time, we were in Loja, in the jungle, in Quito and on the beach. We met all sorts of people and watched as the Lord took care of us every step of the way. All that to say, I have to tell you about the three craziest nights of my life.
When Janna and I got to Atacames, I had no idea where to get off or where to go. So I decided to ask the man in front of us. This man not only told me where to get off, he got off the bus with us. He then proceeded to catch us a taxi, tell the man the name of our hotel, tell the man he better take us directly there and tell us the exact amount to pay. He then got back on the bus to go wherever he was going. I think he was an angel :).
But that´s not where the crazy nights begin. They begin later. We walked around looking for a good place to stay and found what we thought was a nice place, paid the man and went in. Appearances can be decieving because that night a party started across the street that sounded like it was IN OUR ROOM. Seriously, I wouldn´t have been surprised to see the bartender IN our room asking us what we wanted to drink. Needless, the party did not stop until 3am. Ahhh... finally sleep. But then at 7am, construction started in the room next to us, in the hallway and in the room above us. It was time to leave.
So we went and looked for yet another place to stay. The people there weren´t that friendly, so when we found a very friendly hotel owner with a little mom and pop type hotel, we took it. He promised it wouldn´t be noisy. Aaah sleep... nope a party started next door and lasted until 6am.
But the next night, he PROMISED that we would have no noise... so we stayed. At midnight some kids who were staying next door started partying outside our room so I politely (ok, maybe not so politely) told them to shut up. :) At 6am, my sister wakes me up... I turn over to see the hotel owner KNEELING NEXT TO OUR BED! I sat straight up and proceeded to bombard him with questions as to why he was in our room. It was the strangest thing ever... he stumbled over his words like he was drunk or something and finally got out that our door was open. (I have gone over this part a million times and I am 99.9% sure that I closed that door... but ever if I didn´t!? What the heck was he doing in our room?!) I told him to get out of our room and we quickly packed up and left.
As we sat in the most expensive hotel in the place, we stated talking about what happened and my sister had the most insightful thought... we are very well taken care of on a normal basis. Our dad is amazing and would fly half way across the world if we were in trouble. We also both have amazing men in our lives who would bend over backwards to make sure we are taken care of... but in this moment none of them were there. They could not do a single thing to keep this situation from happening. BUT we have a BIG God who is our amazing Father who takes care of us when no one else can. Praise God for his protection on our lives...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jamie...Very good stories and a great testimony to our Great God and and Father in Heaven...I enjoyed hearing about ya'lls adventures. Once your Dad and I went up to this Youth Conference in Dallas and we checked into this 'cheaper motel' Well we went to scope out the room and the bed was unmade and a newspaper was there like someone had been reading it in bed just before we got there. Needless to say we gave up on that place and found a much better place to sleep. I have slept in a New York storefront, on the side of the road, on park tables, abandoned cars. under bridges. in restrooms, boats,screened in porches and on and on and on. Some before I knew the Lord but most afterwards. God is good and like the great song by Audio Adrenaline 'Big House' takes care of His Kids. It is so cool to see how you gave up the comforts home to go out into the mission field. And having known you for the first part of your life in SA its great to see the young woman for Jesus that you have become....One of our favorite songs to sing at Cornerstone was 'Keep On Walkin'...I know that you will do just that with Eternity in view...Love Ya'

Colleen Hildebrandt said...

Wow....that sounds intense. Praise God for sometimes providing the nice place to stay when you're exhausted.