One day in Nicaragua, we were doing a health clinic for a
local village. We pretty much showed up to a small empty building and brought a
doctor and some first aid supplies. Our two teams got delegated jobs. Some
people got names and ages of people as they waited in line. Other people took
blood pressures. We had three nurses and a medic with us, so they could do even
more helpful things like help with diagnosis or prescriptions. Everyone had a
job. Everyone except me.
I was feeling particularly awkward that day as I tried in
mangled Spanish to connect with or entertain the people in line. This was one
of our first days in Nicaragua and my Spanish was supes rusty at best. After a
couple more attempts and failures to talk to kids or make them laugh, I was
ready to throw in the towel for this particular day of ministry. I remembered
the ‘clinic’ had a hammock in the back room. I could easily slip past everyone
and just disappear for a while. So I got up to do just so, and I felt like the
Lord said ‘draw a picture of that kid.’
Little did the Lord know that that was one of the kids I was
trying to avoid.
But I felt it really strongly. It wasn’t a ‘maybe that was
His voice.’ It was a ‘that WAS His voice. Do you want to disobey/ignore Him?’
And yes, I kinda did want to ignore it. As I had this debate
with my spirit and flesh I walked at least closer to the hallway for the
hammock. And suddenly all these people showed up, that were not there a second
ago, blocking my way. Seriously?
I sighed and realized that my God is doing one of the things
He graciously does. He is making it easier to obey Him. He knows I can be weak.
Especially that day.
I took His grace up on the offer and sat down and drew a
silly caricature of that kid. Which he loved. Which led to playing paper ball
in plastic cup basketball. Which led to teaching him the cup game. Which lead
to more children crowding around us. My next two hours were some of my favorite
time on the race so far. I had about 10 children in my posse and they didn’t
care if I botched Spanish or not. We climbed trees and sang songs and played
games and scraped our knees, and it was fantastic.
The boy I originally drew the picture of was my favorite.
His name was Dulcan.
At the end of our time together, I told all my little
friends goodbye and that I loved them. Especially Dulcan. I expected never to
see them again.
A few days later we were digging and irrigation ditch for a
village. On our lunch break we walked over to a school to play with the kids,
and guess who was there?! My buddy Dulcan and his friends. It was such a huge blessing to see our his excitement as he ran to give me a big hug.
The next two days as we dug ditches, those boys were right
next to us (literally in the trenches) helping us dig.
(Related side story: my water bottle got stolen one of those days, and the boys marched off into the neighborhood and retrieved it for me.)
I am so blessed that God intervened on a day when all I wanted
to do was become a recluse and feel sorry for myself, and instead He blessed me
and gave me this cool story. It also makes me think what might I be missing
when I do say no to God or do choose to ignore His voice. I want to be one that
is always quick to say yes when He speaks.
