An interesting thing happened the other day. We were expecting Dr. Green’s medical team on Saturday, October 23rd and this was the day before. I had to get groceries and supplies. We try to get the perishable groceries last minute because they deteriorate quickly in this hot, humid environment and they are not always fresh when we buy them at the store here. So the Friday before they came in we made the hour plus long drive into San Pedro Sula to purchase our list and supplies and get right back to Helen Ruth Snipes at the mission center. I had every stop planned and timed, we were in a hurry.
At the first store we picked out our goods and went to the check out. Our card was denied. We knew there was money in that account and so we had them try it again. Again our card was denied. We had to pay with another account, just to get through the line, and then stepped outside into the mall where Gary and I sat down and tried to figure out just what we were going to do. We had a long list, (groceries for twenty some people for seven days) and did not have other funds that we could use. We prayed….we showed up…now what? As we were leaving the mall, we saw an ATM machine near the stairs. Normally if our card was not accepted at one business it would not be accepted anywhere. Also, we do not use ATM’s and seldom get a lot of cash so as not to put us at risk, but we thought we would give it a try. Amazingly, it took our card, but gave only a limited amount. We used both of our cards and got another limited amount and went on our way. We had several stops before we went to the big “SUPER” as they call it here and purchase the large amount of food. It took some time and several baskets and we headed to the check out, but something was wrong. The lines were not moving. In time we found out that the “systema” was down, i.e. their computer system was not functioning and no one how had credit or debit cards could check out. They gave out a call that if you had cash you could come to the front of the line and check out. We were put up to the head of the line and checked out and had just enough cash to purchase the groceries. Had our card not been denied and we not gone to that ATM, and gotten cash, we would have never been able to get groceries that last day before the team arrived.