Tuesday, November 02, 2004

My Pistol

As I practiced some Guarani and had my quiet
time with the Lord, I heard a pick-up truck go
by our house on the dirt road. I thought it was
odd that someone was out so early, but I also
knew someone had been stealing cattle from the
farmers around our house. So with that a made a
mental note of the sound of the truck and the
time; 3:15.

I decided to ride my horse to my discipleship
meeting because it had rained the day before,
and the horse was a lot more sure footed than me
on muddy roads.

I was on my horse and on the road when I heard
the sound of that same pick-up, this time coming
towards me on the road. I could see it's lights
sweep out on the forest trees as he rounded the
last corner between him and me. Then with his
high beams on he came up the road and stopped
about 15 yards ahead of me.

My horse tensed up under me, and he was not
liking the bright lights. I was not likeing
the fact that these may be armed men who had
just stolen a cow! I turned the horse to the
side and as I did I heard the truck door open.
I couldn't see a thing beyond the trucks lights.

I thought about my options. Run? They'd catch
me. Ignore them? They still might shoot me,
because I'd seen them. Bluff? At the time I
thought this was the best option. I pushed my
shirt-tail to the side and reached back to my
right hip, acting as if I had a pistol holstered
at my side. (Many men travel with pistols on the
roads at night, so this seemed like a reasonable
bluff.) So with my pretend pistol held at the
ready, I stared them down. And waited for their
next move.

Their next move was to get back in the truck and
move towards me. I held my ground, ready to
pull my finger out, and use it if I had too.

As they passed they yelled out my name and began
"whooping it up" and laughing. They were all
friends of mine, going to an early morning
agricultural meeting. They knew me well and
knew I didn't have a gun to my name. They had
been watching me and laughing the whole time.