June 27, 2015
This evening I rest,
nestled in a cozy boarding room, feet up against a brick wall of an inner city rehabilitation center where my squad mates have served this past month in Medellin. People are swarming around me getting ready for our thirty-hour bus ride to Ecuador. The noise of the worship service from the first floor is flooding the building with he Spanglish we have been speaking throughout this year.
I’m so overwhelmed with the thought that this race is a little over halfway over. Time has escaped me, and this journey has been a whirlwind of serving, growing, loving, missing and transforming. We always look back at pictures from training camp and launch and agree that we “look like babies.” At this point in time, I can say that I am a firm believer that everyone should take a sabbatical stepping out of their culture, community, routine and comfort and experience a world and tremendous growth and healing yielded by open hands.
Thus far, I’ve experienced such simplicity, humility, close friendships and basic living that I have always subconsciously craved. I’ve been given opportunities to use my gifts and talents in ways that I may have never gotten. In El Salvador, I discipled teenage girls in an orphanage. In Guatemala, I worked with widows and got to be on the other side of Toms shoes distributing them to the impoverished. In Honduras, I helped with a feeding program for street kids. In Nicaragua, I helped with the building of a home for a single mother and her children and gave sermons to tiny church congregations in the woods. In Panama, Ingot to paint a lot and put together church services for the indigenous people. Finally, in Colombia, we got to work on a remote Caribbean island with the youth groups.
Reading through the book of Acts, I identify so much with Paul and the way he lived his life on the move. One piece I read in chapter twenty really poked its finger at me reminding me of all of my hard good-byes:
“After he said this, he knelt down and prayed with all of them. There was a great deal of weeping by everyone, and embracing Paul, they kissed him, grieving most of all over his statement that they would never see his face again. Then, the escorted him to the ship.”
Life is a series of seasons, and this year I have already lived six. Like Paul, saying good-bye each time was hard. Going into this next season, I have been raised up as a team leader. Basically, I am leading, discipling, pouring into, learning from four other women in their personal walks and in ministry. This is a whole new angle to my journey where I will spend a lot of time on my knees with my ear pressed closely against The Lord’s heart for wisdom, grace and discernment far beyond my own capacity.
June 29, 2015
We rose early this morning and backed our bags to walk (yes,walk) across a bridge into Ecuador. Cheers to a new team, a new chapter and a new position and countless possibilities. After a full 24+ hours on the bus through Colombia, we had a few more hours to Quito. We stopped shortly at a cozy home full of missionaries where another part of our squad would be staying and serving. It was so neat to see so many people from so many backgrounds gathered around the living room by the fireplace united for a common purpose.
While resting for a few moments before taking another bus to our little town, I got great news in my email: I AM FULLY FUNDED!
Support-raising is often the least favorite part of mission work (including mine), but it has added so much glory to this experience. Not only am I going into these places, but my generous supporters in prayer and funding are part of it. It is so encouraging to see how many people are not only for me but are so selfless for kingdom work.
A man in Guatemala compared it to the story of the great Samaritan that she’d a new light on it for me. He pointed out that the role of the supporters is the great Samaritan, while the missionary’s role is the inn-keeper who used the resources to do the service.
A huge thanks to all of you who have been a part of this. I’m so encouraged and loved in long-lasting, impactful ways.
July 1, 2015
Alas, here we are in here. We are living in a little valley town called, “Miranda” outside of Quito. We have crisp fall weather in this countryside surrounded by mountains and pine trees. A few weeks ago, I thought that we were working with prostitutes in the city, and I was so excited. As it turns out, The Lord had other plans to have us living and serving with is tiny, indigenous church. Before I came here, I never would have chosen a ministry with is description, but sitting here in this refreshing simplicity, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
We sleep on the floor in a tiny room that they use for their Sunday school. The church is a simple, one-roomed building built by World Racers years before. Everything about this church reminds me of a tiny school house from Little House on the Prairie. I sit here in the second row of old, worn, wooden benches looking out on the mountain through simple, floral curtains. The little building beside this one is full of the sort of wooden desks used in the 1800’s.
The pastor is an older, simple, pure-hearted man who rises early to devote the first part of his day in prayer with us. There is no fancy lighting here or commercials for the church services, no bookstore or advertising t-shirts or accountability groups- just people who love Jesus and soak up the raw gospel, no Americanized church culture, no added supplements of church politics, patriarchy or feminism, theological email and Facebook arguments or keeping up with the Joneses. We are here to work, but it is also a retreat of sorts. Unless we go to an internet cafe, we are never staring at a screen, allowing us to be fully present in a way that I have seen lost in my own culture.
When life is this simple, the pressure is off. I get to bond with my team and the people here in such a deeper way. I notice the beauty around me with its richness in colors. I count the vivid blessings flowing into my life every moment. When the lifestyle is this pure and unadulterated by the fast-paced, technology driven world, I experience the life I was made to live. With this only being day two here, I am sure I will learn and grow so much in the next few weeks, but if there is one attribute I have acquired in just a day, it’s the pricelessness of presence.
