“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
When He sent me, I had no idea where He was sending me to. Sure I knew the route, the 11 countries that had stood out the most, that I had prayed about for months and excitedly signed up for. But besides that I had no other information. And with this month’s surprise route change to Panama, it was quite clear that I really am blindly going.
As the end of every month approaches, speculations and sometimes rumors start to spur as the curiosity of where we will end up next month starts to build. With the biggest question being, what will our ministry look like and what part of the country will we be in? And although we all try our very best not to have expectations, not to already formulate in our minds what the next month will look like, we are only human and it can be difficult. And although I have been learning to see God in everything and experience and choose His joy in all situations, there are still certain things I am more passionate about. There are still those ministries my heart jumped for, just imagining myself on the race. Such as holding orphans in my arms, healing people, rescuing girls from human trafficking, and working besides young women to help them obtain a better life. These are the passions of my heart that The Lord has cultivated in me through the different experiences of my life. These are the passions that He is continuing to grow and refine, all while adding new passions, as he expands my horizons as I travel this world.
On the Race, you don’t get to chose the ministry you will be working with. One month you could be in an orphanage and the next month you could be working in a hospital. But each month we are placed with a host who either runs, works closely with, or started that ministry. Someone who has answered the call of The Lord and has entered into the harvest field. Someone who is living out their passion and has devoted their life to serving The Kingdom. And while I have come to think that this has truly been one of the biggest blessings not only on the Race, but in my life, sometimes it can be difficult. I have learned so much and been so encouraged and inspired. It has caused me to dream bigger and expect so much more out of my God and what He will do with my life. It has caused me to trust more in Him and redefine my future, my desires and my hopes. But at the same time, it has made me realize just how much more work He has to do in me before its my time. Before I can be his hands and feet to change the world. Before I can find my spot in the field, the spot where my passion is ignited and where my calling is fulfilled. Being around all these amazing people, my amazing brothers and sisters in Christ, has impacted me in every way possible.
When I arrived in Panama, not knowing a single thing about our ministry or our hosts, except that there being something about working with the deaf and that we were their first World Race team, I heard God tell me to really watch and learn from our hosts.
Their names are Danny and Heather Nelson, a married couple who left their home in Florida to move to Panama to start IC Jesus ministry. Their passion for The Lord and the people of Panama is contagious. In everything they do, whether its painting benches, or teaching a deaf boy to sign for the first time in his life, you can see the joy that exudes from their hearts. This is their fourth month in Panama, so everything is very new. They too, came not knowing quite what God had for them, but knowing this is where He wanted them. They too, came with their passions that The Lord had cultivated, Danny with preaching and Heather with working with the deaf community. It has been quite the blessing getting to see them navigate this new journey, seeing the way they have left their hearts open to anything as God directs their paths.
We have spent a majority of this month working with the indigenous people of Panama, called the Ngobe. Which has truly given me a new in site into working with unreached people groups. The pictures that I had painted in my head back in fourth grade of Indians and the Europeans coming to America flashed in my head. Sure I was aware that there are still people in this world living without electricity in tiny thatched huts and of course I knew that there are still parts of this world who have never heard of Jesus. But in growing up in the most modernized country in the world, with everything at your fingertips, it just didn’t seem like anything I could possibly relate to. So as we made the hour drive up (possibly one of the craziest drives of my life) eerily similar to the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland, I didn’t know what to expect.
When I sit here and think about what Heather, Danny, and pastor Alex, a 62 year old pastor who has left everything he has in Costa Rica, including his children and grandchildren, to devote his life to these unreached people, I am speechless. He has started 14 churches throughout the Comarca, or the Ngobe reservation. In addition to running two seminaries, where he finds and trains Ngobe pastors. And if that weren’t enough, his home doubles as a children’s home for abandoned girls from the Comarca, where he and his wife raise and take care of them, with the hope of sending every girl to college. Pastor Alex travels around to all of the churches, helping them in any and every way imaginable, including picking up trunk loads of people thru out the mountains and taking them to church, as many of them walk as long as three hours to get there. After unloading his car he then makes his way up to the pulpit and preaches. Then it’s back home to that home that doubles as a children’s home and the neighborhood church on Sunday nights, where he again picks people up, brings them to his house and then preaches again.
I have spent the past month in awe of what these people do. Of how they could leave everything to devote their lives to this tiny population of people, a population that almost everyone outside of Panama has never heard of. A group of people that isn’t necessarily the easiest to love. Strongly rooted in their culture and tradition, they show little emotion and are very slow to warm up to you. They keep their distance and say very little when you speak to them. The children don’t come running up to you to give you a big hug, or let you cuddle them in your arms. Smiles are a prize you have to work for. And sometimes it can be easy to question if they really understand the point you are trying to convey. If all the work that was put into that sermon, movie night, play, or Sunday school lesson was really received. As someone who longs for intimate relationships with people, this month has been somewhat of a struggle for me. But seeing the love and devotion that Danny, Heather, Pastor Alex, and the other people we have worked with here, pour out on these people, has been one of the biggest blessings. And the most beautiful thing about it is they don’t see it as a sacrifice. They wouldn’t be anywhere else in the world, because this is their place in the harvest field, the place where their Father has called them to be. Throughout the month I often found myself wondering if I could do the same, if I could leave everything to devote my ministry to a place or group of people never heard of.
As I go along this Race, I’m learning to have grace with myself. That my heart isn’t always going to melt every where that I go. That some places or some things won’t always be where I feel the strongest connections. That it’s okay that I didn’t feel this overwhelming connection to the Ngobe, or want to cry at the thought of leaving them. It’s not my place in the harvest field. But one day, I know I will find my place. One day, I know that God will call me somewhere, and it won’t matter what the people or the place is like. It won’t matter what I sacrifice, because that is where I am called to be. And when I do, I will look back and remember all the ways that were so beautifully demonstrated for me this month. I will look back and remember Heather, Danny, and Pastor Alex and the Ngobe people. And I will remember the love and life that was shared all the way up hidden in those mountains. My heart is so thankful for people like Heather and Danny. And although this place is not where I feel called to be,I feel a sense of peace knowing that they are there. That God’s children in the Comarca are well taken care of, because of Heather, Danny, and pastor Alex. There is so much work to be done. So many fields that are just sitting, waiting to be harvested. And a God who is calling on His workers. So the question is, will you go?
I don’t know quite yet where I belong,where he will call me to go, whether it’s in my own backyard or somewhere far far away, but I am getting ready! He is doing a great work in me, preparing me for my time and the place He has for me, giving me the best teachers of the harvest, like Heather and Danny. Jesus is coming soon! And when He does, I want my field to be tended to, for it to produce fruit and life, and for me to have poured out everything I have to my field. I want to collect every crop, until my arms can hold no more, until every fruit has been picked, because each and everyone is important to my King.
