Ram's in the thicket...

We’ve recently had a change in our night guard situation. Each evening, Jim would spend time talking with our night guard, Fernando, working on building a relationship with him. For whatever reason, I was more hesitant about getting to know him on a more personal level, but was always willing to help him with medical treatment and medicines for his 18 month old daughter. Fernando always came to work and was usually pretty punctual. He was polite and was agreeable to change in his work habits whatever it was Jim needed him to change. He came with good references. But on the evening of the 13th of this month, we had a problem.
I had been feeling a bit guilty that we weren’t doing as much to help Fernando and his family as we had been doing with our other employees. So, that day, I bought a big bag of powdered milk for him. As is typical of those who receive those bags, he was surprised and very grateful. He had said that the doctor had told his wife that she needed to start weaning Hilary and giving her milk but they couldn’t afford it. Whether all that was true or not, I don’t know but I do know that bagged milk like that runs about $18 a bag which is astronomical for most of the folks we work with.
I stayed outside and really talked with Fernando about his life for the first time. Of course, his story was a sad one, as so many are. When I came back in to the house, I was going to finish going through the pantry. Before going out to give Fernando the milk, I was in the process of reorganize the pantry as we had Leonard, Nancy & Debbie coming for a visit. I know…that’s a crazy thing to decide to clean but I like to keep it organized and it wasn’t in the shape I typically keep it…can you say “obsessive”?
In the process of reorganizing one of my shelves, I found a few things that I knew we wouldn’t eat...a package of spicy peanuts we had bought by mistake some time back, a single serving of cereal that came as a promo item, some single ketchup packages which I knew we wouldn’t use…the ketchup here is very sweet, just some little things like that. Instead of throwing them away or storing them for us not to use later, I bagged them up for Fernando and also dished up some beef soup for him…I’m always a soft touch for a sad story, believe me.
Jim took the things outside and was gone for some time. Of course, it was dark outside as it was about 8:30 by that time. I assumed Jim was just visiting with Fernando and didn’t think anything of it. About 20 minutes later, he came inside and told me he couldn’t find our guard. I asked him what he meant and he said that he couldn’t find him…that he had disappeared. I asked if he checked in the corner of the yard and behind the platano trees…he had. I asked if he checked the guard room and the bathroom down there…he had. I asked if he had called his name…he had. We were both puzzled as to what could have happened to Fernando.
We both went out on our back deck, with Jim going toward the side that faces our yard and I went to the side that faces our driveway. We both called his name…guess whose voice was the loudest? I happened to be looking over the railing up towards our gate when I suddenly saw Fernando jump down from the next door neighbor’s guard shack and over our concrete wall in to our driveway. He had been over in our Donald’s (our neighbor’s) backyard! He did not see me and he hurried over to our upper front yard. I told Jim what I had seen.
He was furious! That’s not an easy point to bring Jim to. (I know I ended that sentence with a preposition…but grammatically incorrect or not, it’s true!) He went back out front and asked Fernando where he had been. He told him he was over by our water tower (other side of the yard from where he had jumped the wall). Jim told him that wasn’t true and asked him again. Again, Fernando lied and Jim asked him a third time. Another lie. Finally, Jim told him that we had seen him jump down from the fence. At that point, Fernando knew he couldn’t keep lying and he ‘fessed up to the fact he was next door.
Jim asked him what he was doing over there and Fernando said he went over to talk to the neighbor’s guard. That story didn’t fly as it was Donald’s guard’s night off. Jim reminded him of that fact and then Fernando said that he climbed the fence because he just liked to know what was in their yard. Jim again said he didn’t believe that. Remember I told you how patient Jim is? I would have had Fernando down on the ground by this point trying to choke the truth out of him! He has no idea how God spared him that night!
Jim told Fernando that he had no business next door, that he had no right to climb the wall and that he was being paid to be on our property, not our neighbor’s. Fernando agreed and asked Jim if he was mad at him. Jim told him he was angry. Fernando apologized and said it was the first time he had done that and that he wouldn’t do it again.
When Jim came inside he told me of their conversation. We were both just flabbergasted that he would do such a thing. Donald was home and we wondered if Fernando was looking in his windows or what… what if he had been responsible for some earlier thefts that had occurred next door? And if not, if there were to ever be items missing in the future, whether Fernando was responsible or not, we would have a nagging doubt in our mind. The more we talked about it, the sadder we became as we both knew that we were going to have to let him go. We could no longer trust him. He had trespassed, he had violated our trust, he had left his job post and he had lied repeatedly about all of it. We were sick at heart about all of it. We also realized that our concrete wall with concertina wire was not impenetrable. I felt a profound sense of vulnerability at that realization following so quickly on the footsteps of the fact that our security guard was not trustworthy. We both slept fitfully that night, each of us imagining our own “what-ifs”.
The next morning, Jim got up early so that he could catch Donald before he left for work. He told him about the incident and asked if he had noticed anything missing. Donald was understandably upset about the situation and said that things appeared normal as best as he could tell but would check better upon his return home that evening. He also told Jim he appreciated the news although he wasn’t happy about it.
Jim had made up his mind. He was going to terminate Fernando upon his arrival at work that night. He asked Felix what we needed to do to stay within the boundaries of the labor laws here. Felix told him we needed to have a letter written for the Ministry of Labor and he offered to draft the letter for Jim. He also told him how to figure up his severance pay. He also told Jim he wanted to stay to make sure that Fernando understood everything and to ensure there wouldn’t be any trouble. We went to the “bank” and got the money we would need for Fernando and then headed to the airport to pick up Nancy, Leonard and Debbie. We were so excited to have them with us but felt sick at what was going to have to happen later that night.
That evening, when Fernando arrived, he saw Felix and knew that he was in trouble. He talked with Felix and expressed he was angry that he was going to lose his job, claiming he didn’t really do anything wrong. Felix told him that maybe God was using this to get his attention and giving him an opportunity to change his ways. Fernando listened but Felix said he didn’t indicate he was repentant.
Jim went out and told Fernando that we were sorry but that we were going to have to terminate him immediately. He told him he had talked with Donald and that none of us felt like we could have complete trust in him now. He said he understood and showed little emotion. Jim gave him his letter to sign, his severance pay and had him sign our Employee Pay Book. Jim told him we were sorry things had turned out like this and Fernando agreed. As he was leaving, he told Jim to thank me for all I had done to help with his family and his daughter. When Jim told me, I thought I was going to cry. Not for Fernando, not even for his wife, but rather for Hilary. I wondered who was going to help her now with meds and milk. It was a sad evening.
When this first happened the night before, we wondered what we were going to do for a guard if we terminated Fernando. But just as He always has done, God had a ram waiting in the thicket. While we were praying for an answer, God had already answered it before the need was there. Donald’s night guard had quit his job there due to low pay and what we thought was his night off, was actually a night without work. He was at Donald’s the next morning, all dressed up ready to go job hunting. He had evidently come to talk to him about references.
Jim and Felix talked to Eddy and he was happy to step right in to working for us. He had been so good to help keep an eye on our house before he even worked for us so it somehow just seemed natural for him to slide right in to that role for us. He lives in the same barrio as Freddy and Felix and not only worked for Donald as his night guard but also, as the weekend gardener for our other neighbors. We feel like he’s as trustworthy as anyone else at this point. Although he doesn’t have all the written references that Fernando had, I don’t know that matters much. Fernando wasn’t trustworthy with glowing references. We’ll see how Eddy does.
Xander likes him and he likes Xander. Felix trusts him and we trust Felix. He’s a simple man. He’s not a Christian. He is single, 32 years old and can’t read or write. He can only sign his first name. I’m already excited about what God’s going to do with this relationship…it’s just going to take some time to build it but Jim is patient and I am learning.