All my life I have had everything I needed. Everything I needed, not everything I wanted. I grew up being the giver to the less fortunate, but that changed when I came on The World Race. I did not really start to notice it until month 3-Honduras. Honduras was a hard month both physically and emotionally. Living conditions left us with little to no sleep, the heat was incredible, and being a translator without being fluent is tough.
When I signed up for the Race I knew it would be difficult. That there would be months that being away from home would be hard. Months when living conditions would stink (literally and metaphorically). Months where God would stretch me so much that I think I will snap. God called the disciples to leave, go out into the nations with nothing but the shoes on their feet and the clothes on their backs to preach the Good News (Luke 12). While I did not have the confidence to leave America for 11 months with only what I had on my person, I did have to leave a lot of things behind-you can only fit so much in a 60 liter backpack!
Last month I realized that instead of being the giver, I was the recipient. It is very humbling being on the other side. The people who provided for us never did it begrudgingly, but wanted to share in their abundance. While doing my bible study I read this passage from Deuteronomy 15:
“7“If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, 8but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. 9Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the LORD against you, and you be guilty of sin. 10You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. 11For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.”
God calls us to have open hands with whatever we have-even if it is not a lot. The things we own are not ours, but they are Gods just given to us to borrow. We shouldn’t hold onto things, but in our abundance bless those who need it. Along with that we also need to accept when things are given to us in genuine faith. As Mama and Papa Law always say: “don’t steal my blessing!”
Honduras was hard, but it was also the first time I felt like I was adopted by a family on The Race. I became a daughter and a sister. I left the town with tears in my eyes not because I was going to miss the place or the ministry, but because I was already missing the people. People who loved us so well. People who showed me God’s goodness and provision. People who are the hands and feet of Jesus.
Honduras, things certainly weren’t easy, but you stole a piece of my heart.
