We are only nine days into month three and I already have my word and verse for the month. It was very apparent what lesson God is teaching me in Peru: patience.
The past week and a half has brought up so many instances where patience is vital. Some are obvious and some are more subtle.
There are six of us on Team Kenosis. We are all crammed in a broom closet on the third floor of the church/school ( I’m only half kidding about how small it is). Bordering two of the walls are boxes and shelves piled high, almost touching the ceiling. It took us a couple hours to figure out how to arrange the room so we could all have a place to lay down and sleep at night. In the end, we put the puzzle together and found the best solution. Patience. Everyone was throwing out ideas. We would try one and it wouldn’t work so we had to try another. And another and another. Thankfully, we worked well together and there weren’t any problems with us getting along. It still required lots of patience though. Living in this room together and serving together means we are together 24/7. Literally. It gets challenging. Patience for my teammates is needed now more than ever. We are still trying to get into the flow of things and work out a system that fits everyone’s needs.
For those that haven’t heard the news, the dreads have come undone. This, perhaps, was the most important lesson on patience so far. For five long days I pulled and tugged and brushed out those knots while sitting in that broom closet. I hate to admit that at one point a few tears (like a total of ten) were shed because I was so frustrated. I may or may not have thrown the brush a few times in my frustration, oops.. I felt like they would never come out. They were locking up nicely just like dreads are supposed to do, which makes brushing them out ten times harder and much more painful. I’m not sure why I decided to get rid of them. I planned on having them the entire Race. However, when I walked into the room we are staying in the first night I got here, the clutter got to me. It somehow transferred to my hair and I had to undo the dreads. If I couldn’t get rid of the mess in the room, I could at least get rid of the mess on my head. I needed to be able to run my fingers through it again. My teammates were amazing those five days. Several of them helped me brush them out, and even stuck with it after I yelled at them for pulling too hard, oops again. I wanted them gone yesterday. Five days was way too long to be dealing with them. But all of those five days I kept hearing patience. By the end, I was able to brush some out and then take a break for awhile before frustration set in. I was learning patience.
Patience is key when it comes to running here. My last run in Bolivia, I completed 8 miles without stopping. When I was done I felt like I could have run three more miles at least. It was a true runner’s high. The first time I ran here in Peru I was only able to go 1.5 miles before I had to walk. In Bolivia, the elevation was about 4,000 feet or so. Here, it is 10,000. Altitude makes all the difference. My lungs were burning, I couldn’t catch my breath. I had to keep reminding myself that altitude is hard to run in. Have patience, you’ll get there. I just need to give it time.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to run since. The past few days I have been sick. Sore throat, headache, nasty cough, upset stomach, body aches, and a fever. Not only have I not been able to workout with my team, I have had to skip ministry days. I stayed in bed, meaning on my sleeping pad, for an entire day and parts of two other days. Again, another lesson on patience. I need to give myself rest so that I will get better faster. Even if it is boring just laying there. At least I have some good movies to watch and books to read while I’m resting!
This next lesson is a more obvious lesson. The language barrier. I took four years of Spanish in high school, but that was forever ago and my Spanish skills are severely lacking. I know enough that I can sometimes get my point across or pick up the gist of what someone is saying. Sometimes. Our host family is the kindest family ever. But they speak absolutely no English. Thankfully Katia is fluent in Spanish. I don’t know what we would do without her! It takes a good deal of patience to try to communicate with our host family and all the people down in the village.
Along with patience for the language, there is a requirement for patience with our host family. They are very gentle and soft spoken. This means that it’s often hard to get a straight answer from them. They don’t want to offend us or hurt our feelings, but a lot of times it’s important to get a straight answer because it concerns our budget for the month. It is a very different culture here. I think we finally have everything squared away.
One last lesson on patience- the kids we are serving. Every Wednesday through Friday, 200+ kids come in the afternoon for lunch and sometimes a mini lesson. These kids often come from a not so great home life. All forms of abuse are common. It’s obvious that they are in desperate need of love. It’s also obvious that they need discipline. They throw their food, spit on the floor, call each other names, and threaten to start fights. Patience is incredibly important when it comes to giving them all their meal. I have to keep reminding myself of what their lives are like and why they are behaving the way they are. Sometimes the best thing I can do is simply give them a hug. It makes me feel so good when they all run to me yelling “hermana” or “hermanita” with the biggest smiles on their faces. They are genuinely excited to see all of us and look forward to spending time with us.
Patience. Something I have never been good at, but something I must learn for the remainder of the month here. And for the rest of my life. I’m getting there. Slowly but surely.
My verse for month three:
Colossians 3:12- “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.”
