I looked down at my shoes caked with mud. My socks were soaked and I was covered in sweat and rain. I still had almost a mile to go.
One rainy Wednesday, our team spent a day in the shoes of a family who works at the dump. The second we showed up, we were paired with a woman, Laura, and her son, and joined them on their trek home. The road outside of the dump was less of a road and more of a mud pit. We leaped over puddles and attempted to walk on semi-solid ground.
We went up a hill and as we descended, entered into a jungle. Paths went out in many directions. We took the one that required us to climb through a barbed wire fence. Our team climbed more slippery slopes, made a river (well, stream) crossing, and got shoes stuck in mud. It took us over an hour to reach home. I was exhausted.
This woman makes this hike multiple times every single day.
Laura's home was a wooden house, with a tin roof surrounded by buckets to catch the rain water. We were greeted by a dog, a duck, and a puppy. Laura sat and let us rest for a moment, then set to work making lunch. We made rice and beans, and I learned how to make tortillas.
We were helping with food, but I wasn't sure how else we were ministering to this sweet woman. I swept the floors, but I didn't see much else to do. But as we prayed for the food, Laura began to cry. It turns out that her brother was killed in an automobile accident a couple of months ago. She misses him so much.
A simple prayer for food turned into a prayer to heal a broken heart.
I don't need to "do" anything to minister to someone. God doesn't need a magic phrase or a to-do list in order to speak to one's heart. He speaks in and through everything. We just have to be willing to say yes.
Even if it means muddy shoes.
