Month 8 is coming to a close and it’s crazy to think that there are only 3 months left. We spent the month with Pastor Cairo in Jinotepe and, miraculously, after I posted my blog about the area not having had rain, it rained almost every day for the rest of the month. God is good.
(Where we lived for the month)
(We celebrated Katie’s birthday with a whistle parade)
(some more manual labor….my shovel skills are deadly at this point)
(out doing door to door evangelism)
Throughout the month we were involved in all sorts of ministry. Pastor took us to visit and encourage churches in Tipitapa and Managua. We got to lead children’s programs, we painted the church, we taught the youth new songs and games, we handed out tracks, did door to door evangelism, and even ended the month taking a survey our team created out to get a feel for where people in the community were spiritually. I was amazed all month long how organized Pastor Cairo was, he has led a church since he was 17 and has so much wisdom to share. There were definitely some difficult moments. We saw more poverty this month than I have personally seen all race so far. Some things took some getting used to. Church members are expected to attend all 5 church services throughout the week. When we went to “visit” church members that actually meant we visited individuals in Tipitapa, Managua, and Jinotepe who had been missing the church services and ask where they had been. In Managua, the pastor we were visiting told a lady that she should have keys made so, though she is in charge of the household until others get home, her family could come home late but it wouldn’t stop her from attending church. In Jinotepe, Pastor Cairo told a single older lady, who we found out couldn’t read and has to provide for herself so she had been missing church due to the laundry that was her income, that we need to store treasures in heaven, not on earth.
It would be easy to get defensive because it’s not how I would run things. To be honest, I broke down and cried for the community of Jinotepe. I cried for the single ladies like Lourdes who are just trying to make ends meet or Louisa who we visited and found out she misses church because she can’t walk and has no one to take her. I did have a good conversation with Pastor Cairo and brought up questions like, why isn’t the church serving in the community? If he wants to see more prayer, more service, more visits, then equip the church members to head that up instead of him taking it all on himself. Why isn’t someone with a car picking up Louisa? Why can’t someone help Lourdes finish up her work so she can attend church services since she so obviously wants to? Then I felt really convicted. As much as we like to say “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, who am I to think I could build Rome at all? I thought, how prideful, to march in and start giving orders. Sure, some things don’t seem right, but to think I have all the answers? At one point I blamed it on Pastor’s youth, since he is only 25, that maybe there aren’t older, more mature pastors pouring into him. Then, I thought, hello Brianna, the Holy Spirit working in each of us is more powerful than any pastor or leader.
We had team changes again this month. Leadership changed, some team members stayed the same while others moved to new teams, but everyone is processing that we’ll spend the last 3 months on yet another team. Some wish things hadn’t changed, others would do things differently. Teams changing month 8 is much different than when they changed month 4 or even when we started out month 1, all fresh eyes and bushy tailed. Relationships are messy. Living in community is messy. We’re all kinds of tired. Loving one another, the way that God calls us to love others as we love ourselves is messy. I think about Pastor Cairo and my own journey on the race. I would be devastated if people gave up on me during the messy parts or if people wrote me off because of my age or didn’t give me a chance to blunder and hopefully get it more “right” the next time. Bill Swan from Adventures in Missions came and spent the week with our squad and talked about gratitude. This is our race, each of our own races, but it’s also about life. We have the choice to start each day with gratitude or complaining. We also have the choice to take this race, and our lives by the horns and make it as loving, full of compassion, full of adventure, full of joy and grace, even as full of God as we want. I don’t know about you, but that’s the kind of life I want. It doesn’t just happen to us, it started with God taking a chance on us and now we take a chance not only on others but on ourselves.
“Where you go, I’ll go. Where you stay, I’ll stay. When you move, I’ll move. I will follow you. How you serve, I’ll serve. How you love, I’ll love. I will follow.” I will follow by Chris Tomlin
