I once read a World Race blog about hating the race. While I have tried to eliminate that word from my vocabulary I can identify with those feelings. It’s honest for me to say that there are days I don’t like this journey. It’s not all the fluff stuff that can be imagined when experiencing foreign lands and culture. I won’t romanticize the harsh reality of living as a World Racer and facing families living in poverty with generational legacies of violence.
Cartagena is a tropical paradise, many tourists come for the crystal clear blue waters of the Caribbean and the lush surroundings of this coastal Colombian community. However, most taxis won’t even drive to my current neighborhood, San Francisco. By a local it’s been called “forgotten.” Not by the police…Drug bust next door last night! Gangs rule the streets, the day before arriving a neighbor was shot. Every evening party music plays till 5 AM, there are gunshots and dog fighting.
On a prayer walk we were graciously invited into homes to meet the “forgotten” residents of San Francisco. We met a developmentally disabled boy with a terminal illness, while holding his limp body his family desperately clung to the words of hope for a miracle. Tearfully we layed hands on this boy and prayed for not only his healing but for the family to increase their faith. We also met a woman whose paralysis left her completely dependent upon others to care for her every need. We prayed for her to be reminded daily of her tremendous value and for others to surround her with love. This was the last of our prayer walks because the gangs took to the streets with their guns making it unsafe for us to leave the foundation. The children haven’t been coming to the program for classes because the neighborhood has been in a state of upheaval.
World Race living compared to the current community in which we live and I have asked myself what’s to have more disdain for?
To say it’s all been very hard would be an understatement. I suspect that’s actually what Jesus intended for in a journey like this. The physical and emotional discomfort revealing all that is carnal in my life, all that needs to change to have me be transformed into His likeness. I have been frustrated and discontent, not only with what I dislike seeing in this community but with what I have seen about myself this month. I trust God for what He is doing in this new place of brokenness. There is nothing like body pain I haven’t had in years, sleep deprivation, 105-degree real feel temps, the precarious ladder (now incomplete stairway) to our upstairs room, long days of cooking, chores, ministry, team time, feedback sessions, group time in between each task, rare access to Wi-Fi, as well as ridiculously freaky mishaps. Yeah about those…silicone earplugs that I divided to many times to make my supply last for the year, waking up wondering where it was and realizing the tiny piece was deep in my ear canal. Frantically tweezing my inner ear in hopes I wouldn’t have to find a clinic to extract it. Then there was the time I opted to go down a tattered old slide into the ocean, later realizing I had thousands of fiberglass shards imbedded into my backside. Praise God for the duct tape I packed, and the teammate who took pity on me.
I consider all these things and want to run away from the Race but then I see their faces, consider their community and the need for someone to pay attention to them, to show them the love of Jesus…Lord, continue to do your work in me so that You can do Your work through me. If everyone would please pray for each one of them and for my ability to get through the various trials with the joy of the Lord. Joy just like theirs!
