This month our squad of women are all working at the same location in the Dominican Republic. Our contacts have blessed us with the opportunity to become involved in all the facets of their ministry. Teams switch off and have a new job every day. One of these, and my personal favorite, is teaching kids English at the center in Cien Fuegos. Cien Fuegos is one of the most impoverished areas in Santiago, and is near the city dump. Many of the kids spend time in the dumps scavaging for scraps to earn money for their family.
Everyday is a mystery when the team for the day leaves for the hour and a half trek down the mountain to the small English center. It’s a mystery as to how the children will behave that day. Some days they come to the center and are totally focused and pretty polite. Other days they can barely last 5 seconds before getting in a fight with each other, standing on the chairs, trying to leave the classroom, or just refusing to do any work. One week I will come out of the classroom feeling completely accomplished and others I will leave completely frustrated with a slight desire to pull my hair out and throw my hands up in the air. Then what is even more confusing is how after an hour of chaos that we try to call class they long to run into my arms, play with my hair, and have spin them around upside down. Such inconsistent behavior!
And then it hit me. This is exactly how I act towards my Heavenly Father. In fact, I am consistently inconsistent. He can totally count on me being all over the place time and time again. And not just over the course of a month or a year but even throughout each day. I can start off my morning in complete trust in Him and praising Him, and by the afternoon I can become consumed by distractions that are of the flesh. I go one second to marveling and soaking in His Creation on this beautiful mountain in the DR to worrying about what purpose I have or how I haven’t written an email back yet to so and so.
But because of His mercy and grace, He doesn’t give up on me. He loves me through my distractions, my faults, my struggles, and my lack of focus on Him. His love for me is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. My fleshly nature does not deter Him from desiring a relationship with me.
“Though the mountains move and the hills shake, My love will not be removed from you and my covenant of peace will not be shaken, says your compassionate Lord”.
-Isaiah 54:10
And so just as God continued to love and watch over the Israelites throughout years of disobedience, He love and watches over me. And so I enter the classroom again and again, ready to love on those children with a selfless love that is a reflection of my Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ.
