We're taught to not get upset by things at what they might seem like at first, and to pause, and research what is really going on.
Today for the third time, a man came to our door offering us a gift of strawberries and looking for work.
"yu nogat wok?"
This man had been employed by the owners of our house and let go because while he was supposed to be working, he was off doing other things, and the owner caught him. So now that we're in town he is trying to get rehired, thinking we don't know his history.
So we keep telling him we don't have work for him, and he keeps returning.
Today, my wife told him that she didn't have work and that he should leave, her husband wasn't home. She said this because she didn't know how in pidgin to say I was unavailable. 25 minutes after she left, I looked out the window to see him wandering the yard with a bucket. I said hello to him, and instantly thought he might be stealing fruit.
Now I remember a story in our training about a whiteskin thinking a local was stealing fruit and so I paused, and didn't let myself get upset.
I later went to a friend and asked about it, and it turns out, he was not taking fruit but more likely trying to get a view of what work needed to be done so he could return and offer to do it.
This is part of our adaptation to this place. We need to know how to wisely handle relationships so that we are not painted as gullible. If we get marked as gullible, we will have many problems.
Thus far God has provided us good council in the folks that we've met here and have seemingly given us the wise thing to do only hours before we actually need it.
God is providing for us so that we can minister to the folks around us and begin making healthy relationships, while at the same time, avoiding the pitfalls that come with the territory.
I would be akin to us warning people coming to America about door to door magazine salesman I suppose. It is relatively harmless, but there is a wise thing to do and a not-as-wise thing to do.
