Imagine this: You find yourself at the top of the mountain looking over the City of Quito, and your friends that you’ve made in the kitchen say this to you: “Aqui, Aqui.” You’ve just started your ministry days before, but the ladies in the kitchen are already your friends. “Aqui, Aqui” is something you hear often because you go with them everywhere already.
You walk with two empty buckets swinging in hand and hear the Spanish conversation, understanding about half. You walk along the dusty road, laughing with your friends and stop at the green gate that has become normal to pass on a given day in Quito. The buckets you carried are passed through the gate and passed back. Upon return you see them overflowing with animal intestines, hearts, livers and other parts that you can’t really identify. The smell is potent to the American fresh from the States. You get over the smell as you realize you’re about to pick those buckets that have a smell you’ve never smelled before. Swallow your up-churning stomach, and smile.
This is the World Race. This is your life.
If that was the end of the story I imagine that I would not be spending my day recounting this story to my team, my squad or to you.
But, those buckets were much too heavy to carry, and overflowing so throwing some of those uh, parts, into a trash bag to make them possible to haul was necessary. Imagine that the American in the group got handed the bag that weighed close to 40 pounds. I tried my best to be strong and carry it, but a few steps in I realized that this wasn’t going to be a quick jog. (add in 9000+ feet in elevation to make the jog that much harder). We would take a few steps, then stop and put the bag down on the ground. This happened a few times as I picked up the bag again, life felt like it was in slow motion. As I saw the animal guts fall all over my feet, I literally had no time to think about what was happening. I was standing there without knowing what to do at all. That moment, with the organs on the ground, seemed to last forever.
Thankfully, the beautiful Ecuadorian woman that I call my friend had seen this before. She sprung into action and fixed the bag that remained seemingly glued to my hand. She put the animal organs back in the bag, plus a little dirt. She wasn’t fazed by it. After a few minutes, we got a new bag to place the old one in. We then hauled the bag back to the ministry’s compound.
The story doesn’t end there. Just a few minutes after we got the buckets into the kitchen, the ladies were asking us if we would carry them back out to the edge of the compound. Thankfully, a few of the men of Kabod were there to help us haul the buckets to the edge of the main road and up the mountain for the grandmothers in the community. I listened to our friends exchange words with the beautiful women, and listened to the conversation go something, in my half understood Spanish, like this:
Ecuasol Staff: I’m sorry to tell you that when we were carrying it back, it got dropped on the ground and some of it got some dirt on it.
Grandmother: You provided me with food for my family for a long time. I am grateful for anything that you can provide.
Ecuasol Staff: Good day to you! Goodbye.
I’ve spent most of the rest of my day with this on my heart. Why?
Because the Lord reminded me of how much he cares for us in this story.
The ladies of Ecuasol were so quick to respond when I did something that I thought would hurt someone, even if it was an experience beyond my control, mostly. The Lord clearly reminded me that He treats us the same way. Dropping the food today could have been viewed as making the food unusable, but those ladies, both the grandmothers and the ladies in the kitchen, made it no big deal. The Lord doesn’t hold it against us, doesn’t remind us of our failures, but takes our mistakes and moves on. He doesn’t care how much we smell, or even if they have a little (or a lot) of dirt on us. He just wants His people to know his heart.
Today, I am ending my World Race day thankful that God doesn’t choose to do this by himself. He uses us to haul animal intestines around, and make friends with people who talk differently than we do. He lets us see Himself so evidently pictured in our lives.
God uses our failures to make the story. He doesn’t need us. But He choses to use us.
And on certain days, that is to haul animal body parts around.
In Him,
Kristy
Quick Support Update: I am closer to our April 1st deadline of $11,000 than a few days ago, but I am still looking for people to join me on this journey on the World Race!
