Wildlife attacks.

We recently moved from our cute little wood shack up in the woods over to the town of Bocas on Isla Colon. Our apartment definitely provides a true "Bocas" experience.

This whole time I've tried my hardest to apply the theory that we're invading the local bug's, animal's and other random life form's space. We - big, destructive humans come in and ruin the poor little thing's natural habitat. So with that in mind, I've tolerated bats eating our bananas off the kitchen counter in the middle of the night, coming home to roaches lounging with their feet kicked up on the couch, and roaches darting out of the kitchen cabinets at my face like a raging bull charges a red flag. Worse yet, while sitting in the kitchen I suddenly heard the scampering of little feet behind me. I turned to see what that could possibly be only to find myself looking at two very large rats frolicking around in the middle of the living room. My shrill, frantic screaming and the rapid movement of jumping up on the five foot high counter in an instant caused one rat to wisely turn around and run out the front door it came in and the other to run behind the couch, stumbling over my shoes in the process. Liz and a broom handle came to the rescue with that problem. Still, I tolerated it. However, a few nights ago my patience nearly came to it's breaking point.

Liz had decided to sleep over at a friend's house. I came home alone, ignored the roach playing in the clean dishes and started getting ready for bed. Pjs on, teeth brushed, bug repellent slathered on.... just as I turned on the bedroom light and lifted my pillow to crawl in, our eyes locked. An easily 1 1/5 inch roach. How lovely. Liz, the bug killer wasn't there to rescue me, the problem was all mine. I stared it in the eye for a minute or two wishing I could communicate with it. You know, work out some kind of deal: I'll leave a pile of bacteria on the front stoop for you every morning and night if you'll just promise that you nor any of your buddies will ever be found in my bed again. Obviously that wasn't a real option. So, I grabbed a spatuala, the longest weapon I could find and went for the kill. The frightful hesitation on my part allowed for it to run over the edge of the mattress and out of sight. After playing a fifteen minute game of hide and seek without it being found I realized I needed another plan. I ended up taking the only sedative in my possesion - benadryl, tying a mosquito net we had brought with us to the four bed posts, wrapping myself as tight as possible in the cascading 4 feet of the net, and shining my flashlight on my face all night. I was pathetically overtaken by the paranoia of seeing it's twitchy antennae pop up over the edge or waking with that little scoundrel cuddled up in the net with me. Sleep? If only.

FINALLY the sun came up! I fought my horrible mood and all of the excuses I had come up with to not meet the service group and got myself ready. One of the first days here another visiting sister Hannah and I met a woman named Ruby. Ruby is probably in her late 50s early 60s, and has the warmest smile. She gives us hugs and a kiss every departure. Hannah has been studying the Bible with her since that day about a month ago, but left yesterday so she wanted to say goodbye to Ruby. We had our usual study and I said the closing prayer. After saying Amen, Ruby continued praying and said "And thank you Jehovah for Hannah. Be with her on her travels home so that she can be safe and make it back here to Bocas again. And thank you Jehovah for opening my eyes to understand all these things that I didn't know before. Amen." Seeing the humble appreciation for Bible truth well up in the hearts of these people is worth sleeping with all of the bats, rats and roaches in the whole of bocas! The blessings always outweigh the sacrifice, always.