As the month ends and a new month begins I’ve had the privilege to think back on my amazing life in the Philippines. It would be easy to write about the amazing hosts Ryan and Michelle or the wonderful servant hearted three young men they mentor about getting to be apart of the first service at their church, or even the wonderful trip to the beach when we got a flat tire, however, the world race is not always easy and the Chicken pen was one of those things.
The morning started as any morning, it was hard to wake up early and the food was delicious, very normal. It was a Thursday and like every Thursday a few people went into town to get wifi and send paperwork to leadership, this left myself and 6 other people. So we were told to work on the Chicken pen and I was read, however it was a little harder than expected.
Problem 1- Bamboo is tough, REALLY TOUGH
Problem 2 – The hammer weighed less than my hand (okay maybe this is extreme)
Problem 3- The hill we were working on was straight up mud
Within two hours most people had left in frustration and even though I stayed my heart was so not in the right place. I wanted to prove to myself I could and I forgot the why I was doing it. When our host came out and wanted to re-do the entire chicken pen that we had been working on for the last week my heart dropped and we spent time talking about how we could make it work without redoing it all. We finally solved the problem and could easily fix it, however it was a peanut butter and walk break time.
After walking around and praying for a while I realized how silly my frustration was, who cared if it was hard to get footing, thats normal life and with that it was time to go back to the pen. At this point Noy (One of the young men our host mentors) was there and I laughed at how easy he made it look. So for the next hour of work we continued to laugh as it was so hard for me yet so easy for him and finally my part was done.
When I look back at the Chicken pen day it is my favourite. Even though it was frustrating I learned something and I was forced to lean on others. It is always my choice how to choose my reaction to everything. My initial frustration was not like Jesus but the moment I decided to react like Jesus everything changed. There will be more hard days on the race and I am so looking forward to all of them.
