The Haves and the Have Nots.

I am staying in Tent Fox #2 room #2. I thought that sounded cool for some reason. The tent is approximately one hundred feet long and hs two long hallways dividing three living sections. The hallways run from front to back. My room is in the front left corner. This may be hard to imagine but they build plywood walls to make the rooms. Mine happens to have a door that can be locked with a pad lock when I leave. The room itself is apprximately 7 X 6 and I have a bunk bed in there so, yes, I could eventually get a room mate. Yesterday I was able to scounge up a small wooded, three box cubby and a plywood table about two feet high and two feet wide. The chair is a short stool so my legs fit under the desk. Trust me it did not come from staples and I don't know the last owner. I also have no light as of yet and the AC does not seem to make it to my corner.

When I first got to the room, I was disappointed. I thought, I deserve better than this. I am somebody important here, the Transportation Manager. It started to get into my head that I would ask to switch rooms. I even heard that Supervisors had rooms right by the main office. How could that be! Anyway, I stayed. I figured I could not complain until I stayed there at least one night.

That first night after reading my bible by flashlight I went to look around the tent. As I got to the other hallway I realized that the other half of the tent had no room dividers. The entire opposite side, except for the wall along the hallway was a single room full of bunkbeds and men. Each had about 18 inches between them and the row was diveded by about two feet. It was hot and noisy, you could imagine. As I walked back to my room I realized that there was no reason for me to complain, I actually had it better than most people here. I asked God to make my heart content and appologized for my attitude.

God works in some glorious ways. Last night I was asked to go locate and ascess the heavey equipment licenses of some of the TCN's (Third Country Nationals) that work for the company. At 21:00 I walked into one of the tents they are housed in. I was shocked. The entire tent was open room, no dividers. There was four rows of bunks with the ones in the middle back to back. The spacing was similar to the one in my tent. I counted approximatelt 160 men. No privacy, nothing.

It may be hard to realize, it took me a minute, but for some of these men this is better than what the came from. They have come here to make better lives for their families back home. They are content because this is an opportunity they wouldn't otherwise have. Think about this.

God will if you allow him show you things that you would never had seen before. God will in stark ways show you how to appreciate the blessings that He has provided you. It is not that I believe that it is wrong that I have so much back in the states, that I even have more than most here, it is that others do not.

God wants us to be good stewards of what He has given us and help those who have little. Find your opportunities...