This Wasn't In The Job Description

For those of you that have ever had a job description, there was probably a disclaimer at the bottom that says something along the lines of, “and other duties as assigned.” Well, evidently God has a similar disclaimer. Tonight, I found myself on a city planning committee. That's right a committee. We received a notice that there was going to be a meeting at the City Hall regarding paving and repairing the road that runs along the main school campus in Sosua. I attended this meeting along with one of our school teachers, and we learned of a plan to repave the road; however, the question is how it will be paid for. According to the mayor, the city can only cover 20% and the rest will come from the residents of the road. This includes, our school program, a private school, several hundred private homes, a hotel, and several apartments. In this meeting it was decided that the large group was not going to be an effective way to resolve the issue, so they created a road committee, and wanted representation from our school, since there was not a representative from the other school. We got a call this morning that there was going to be a committee meeting. So tonight, Gloria, the school director, and I went to our first committee meeting. We were there with about eight other committee members, the mayor, and two of his staff. Tasks were delegated out, which we fortunately avoided at the mayors directions, because he didn't want to burden us, and we scheduled another meeting, which we offered to host at the school. They have actually moved the meetings up a few weeks so as not to conflict with my families plan to be on furlough. I really am not sure why I am part of the committee, but it is interesting. There are three primary languages, Spanish, German, and English. There are people on the committee that seem to have a different primary language, but one of these three can serve as a common language. The Mayor has two interpreters, one that translates Spanish & German, and another that translates Spanish & English. It is somewhat comical. Many of the committee members speak two of the languages, so the conversation shifts from Spanish to English to German with no warning. At the conclusion of the meeting we talked in small groups, and one of the guys mentioned the fact that it is interesting that with all the problems in the area we are discussing how to get a better road, which allowed me to share the mission and vision of New Missions and specifically the school affected by the road improvements. Again, I'm not sure why I am part of this committee, except that I don't want us the school to shoulder any unfair burden to have the road fixed. Something, that we have not asked for, and aren't sure we want, because it slows down traffic on the road. But, I want the Mayor to know that we want to be of service and be involved in the community. Missionary life is anything but boring, and with that disclaimer on my job description, it doesn't look like it ever will.