A friend of mine emailed me yesterday (Monday), and asked, ‘How’s Peru treating you?”
My response was:
“Well, it’s been rough. And by ‘rough’, I mean I’m learning I am much more of a girl than I thought I was. Wheel barrows weigh drastically more than I ever imagined, I don’t like being covered with dirt and sweat and sun screen and bug spray all at the same time, I don’t like hearing bugs yet never seeing them and then waking up to 43 bug bites on one arm alone, I don’t like that I will never be able to sweep all the sand off my bedroom floor, I don’t like washing my clothes in the shower with me and then hanging them up to dry in the midst of a dust storm…
But, I just have two weeks left. Oh, and this coming week we’re doing ministry at the dump.”
I go to the dump this week.
The dump…where people live and work by sorting trash from trash to make their living.
I go to the dump to proclaim how good the Lord is…when the only goodness I had just cited from the week before was that I only had two weeks left.
They don’t have two weeks left.
And the Lord is still good.
These were my thoughts the night before ministry. Tuesday morning, we started our trek to the dump, which included an hour commute on a van and then a bus.
Staring out the window at the never ceasing sand and dust that laced the streets, I asked the Lord, “Father, what do You want me to see? In this mess, when things are dirty and the aroma is far from pleasant…what do you want me to see?”
Then the bus stopped for a second. At that intersection, between the two streets, I spotted a plot of land adorned with gorgeously bold red and yellow lilies. In the midst of the dirt and the mess and the smell and the noise of the crazy streets…were these flowers. And it’s like I heard the Lord say,
“Find the flowers…look for and find the flowers.”
We got off the bus, and made our way into the dump. Upon entering, I noticed a woman in the distance making her way towards us. As she got closer, I couldn’t help but smile.
Her shirt was covered with those red and yellow flowers.
The rest of the afternoon we got to pray with a couple people working in the dump. We prayed with their children as well…it was pretty amazing.
I have five days with this ministry…
Show me the flowers, Lord. Show me the flowers.
