I’ve been doing this for 6 months. For 6 months, I’ve been thrown into different cultures and communities and languages. For 6 months, I’ve been learning and adjusting and changing. For 6 months, my friends and family have been supporting me in this crazy calling on my life.
So, what exactly have I learned over the past 6 months?
If you’ve been reading my blogs, you’ve got a pretty good idea of how I’ve been spending my time. This is the halfway point, a little past it actually, so it’s the perfect time to do some reflecting on what I’ve taken away from each month. So here are some of the best powerful, funny, and growing moments from each month.
Guatemala
– By far my most powerful experience in Guatemala was my interactions with a young woman named Naomi, whom I met on the side of the road in the bus terminal. She impacted me for several reasons. First of all, she was such a powerful example of the darkness that existed on the streets. Trying to communicate with her when she was completely lost in drug addiction was one of the most frustrating things I’ve ever done. When she threw her arms around me at the end of the day with a big smile on her face, it was the first time I realized I could make an impact just by being present and investing my time. The next week when I saw Naomi, she was much more lucid and sat with me chatting for quite a while, even encouraging me in my call to missions. When I told her that I wished I could stay in Guatemala longer she said, “You can’t. God told you to go.” As simple as that.
– My favorite Guatemalan cultural experience was riding the chicken buses. These were little yellow school buses with people CRAMMED into every inch of space. One of our first weekends there we took about 4 of them to get back from where we had spent our day off. The last one was in the dark, there were 3 people to every seat, and more standing pressed up against each other in every bit of standing room. We couldn’t turn around or really move at all, and the driver kept yelling at us to move back farther, only there wasn’t anywhere else to go. To make it worse, there was a man on the bus “accidently” touching us girls while we were all jammed in like we were in a mosh pit. It was such a ludicrous situation – though not unusual in Central America, as we discovered – that we had to just keep laughing. We almost missed our stop because the driver couldn’t hear us say we needed off, so one of my teammates pounded on the ceiling and yelled, “Let us out of here!” at the top of her lungs. When we exited the bus and it drove away, the other passengers were applauding and every face (or at least every face with enough room to turn and look) was staring out the windows at the crazy gringas who had just made such a commotion.
– When we were first told we’d be doing street ministry, at night, I was a little nervous. It didn’t help that the first time we visited the group at La Casona, there was a man there punching people and stirring stuff up. I thought we were about to be in the middle of a street fight. I kept my distance from this man, Selvyn, after that. He just seemed mean, and even as I became comfortable with the other street guys I never was with him. He was either fighting or passed out on the sidewalk most of the time. Frankly, I was scared of him and wasn’t ready to overcome it right away. Then, our last week, Alexis and I summoned some courage and washed his feet. He had a huge smile on his face afterwards. And our last night playing soccer at La Casona, we sat on the side of the road talking with Selvyn for quite a while. He was awake and lucid, the first time I’d seen him at all lively, and he even cracked some jokes. God had to grow me out of my fear to make that happen. Turns out Selvyn is a funny guy, with a beautiful smile, and he’s not scary at all.
Honduras
– Our first week in Honduras, the ladies on my team went with our contacts to a church service up in the mountains. It was over an hour drive sitting in the back of a pickup truck, with dust blowing into our eyes and our hair flying wildly around in front of our faces. Periodically we would stop and pick up church members, until we eventually had quite a crowd in the back with us. We were asked to share testimonies, the first of many times we were expected to show up prepared to share. It was a packed church in a beautiful mountain community – taking in the scenery along the way while bouncing wildly around in the truck was one of my favorite Honduras memories. On the way back in the dark we sang country songs, much to the amusement of our fellow passengers. It was a beautiful evening of bonding with the girls on my team, and very special to be part of that mountaintop community and their worship.
– On the way back from church one night, our driver stopped on the side off the road next to a giant pothole. He then instructed us to all gather rocks from the side of the road and throw them in the hole. We spent about 10 or 15 minutes picking up rocks to throw onto the road, not off of it. Eventually there was a big hole full of rocks in the middle of the road, instead of just a big hole. Honduran road repair – check!
– Honduras was the month that our entire squad lived together, and anyone living with me during that time knows that this was the time I let my financial responsibilities stress me out a bit. God grew me so much during this month. I learned that caring for the finances for my 50 person squad really was ministry, and it was a privilege for me to be given that responsibility. I learned that missing other ministry to accomplish this was okay, and that sometimes I needed to walk away and not think about money for a while in order to do my job well. My experience during all squad month was different from the other months because of this, but I’m so glad I had this opportunity to learn to balance my responsibilities and take joy in what I was doing, no matter what it was.
Nicaragua
– Our pastor hosted a neighborhood church service one night, and we walked around the community inviting families to attend. I loved this simple grassroots approach: set up speakers and chairs in the middle of a gravel lot, go door to door extending invitations, then talk about Jesus with anyone who shows up. We had a pretty good turnout. Our team was singing, as we usually did at least once during a service, and we were also singing in Spanish for the first time. I was nervous because I was growing into more of a worship role and still wasn’t used to having the mic in my hand, but I was excited for the service. After all, church outside is always a bonus in my book. Then, about 5 minutes before the service started, Pastor David asked who was giving a testimony that night. And I said I was. I’m not quite sure why – I had nothing prepared – but God put an idea in my heart and I went with it. Standing in front of all our neighbors that night under the open sky, I spoke confidently about how the Lord has shown me how to love better on the Race, and how I’m still growing in an awareness of what it means to be loved and to love well. I had no preparation and no time to be nervous, and it was the best I’ve ever felt about sharing in a service. It was an awesome night!
– Nicaragua has been one of my favorite months so far, but it wasn’t without some adjustments. Living conditions definitely took a little getting used to, and provided us with many entertaining moments. The bathroom was an outhouse – no light, cement seat, curtain for a door, etc. Not a huge deal for someone used to camping, but still different from what we’re accustomed to in everyday life. Using it after dark required a headlamp and frequently resulted in screaming for some of the girls, since there were cockroaches that crawled out of it at inconvenient times. I believe our host still chuckles fondly when he remembers the screams and commotion coming from the bathroom all month. The shower was a bucket shower, which was right next to the wash-rack and the pigpen, so you could chat with the family members while you showered and they washed dishes, or carry on one-sided conversations with Wilbur the pig. You just had to hope your clothes didn’t fall off the ledge into his pen. The metal sheet that was the door blew in frequently, so you had to be ready to catch it. The neighborhood kids liked to peak in from the hill above the shower, and if you were in there after dark you might find a large toad playing by your feet. Most of you back home probably wouldn’t be surprised at how well this lifestyle suited me. It felt like a much more reasonable, sensible way of life than how I lived back home. I loved every minute of it! Okay, maybe not the door falling down while I showered. That was just stressful.
– This month taught me so much about what daily ministry looks like. I stopped looking at it as something that I did when it was on the schedule, but rather as a way that I lived. I loved learning from the quiet way Pastor David ministered to his community, and I loved being a part of it. I also learned a lot about how to love well this month. I adored our host family; they were one of the kindest, most welcoming families I’ve ever met. Getting to be a part of their family for the month showed me how possible it is to love others well, without reservation. Our final night there was spent sharing how much we had learned from them this month and what we appreciated about each of them. They cried, we cried. I’m not a very emotional person, so it was easy to recognize in that moment how much the Lord had rocked me through this family. It was pretty special feeling at home even when I was so far away.
And that was just the first 3 months! Check back for some of my favorite experiences from Costa Rica, Thailand, and Laos.
