Who am I trying to impress? Lessons in Availability - Explore Archived World Race Alumni Blogs

Nestled high in the Andes sits the town of Baños de Aguas Santas. Volcan Tungurahua towers over this small community, keeping watch over the relaxed and amicable people yet impetuously ready to erupt. While this place may not be wealthy by Western standards, it is rich in terms of its peaceful lifestyle and sheer beauty. There are no megastores or fastfood chains – if you want a loaf of bread you amble on over to the nearest ‘panaderia’ and place your order with the actual owner who baked the bread himself that morning. And if you want a steak you go to the Wednesday or Sunday market and weigh out your preservative-free, just-butchered cuts.

Just down the road from Baños is the home of Dr. Wes and Donna King, overlooking the mighty Pastaza River. Dr. King – a retired medical missionary – came here 16 years ago to start a boys home. Ministry this month was how it often is in ‘normal’ life: create your own, go where God leads, self-start.

Normally this is the part of the blog where I start listing all of the things we accomplished in Ecuador. Sometimes in missions there is pressure to have things to ‘write home about’: we built a school, 20 people accepted Christ, we fed 100 needy people. However, I think we can sometimes build up a resume of all of these great things we are doing for God without actually knowing Him – Matthew 25:34-46 talks a little about this. The most important thing I can bring is the presence of Jesus, because He can accomplish infinitely more than I can on my own.

I’ve met some impactful people around the world and I keep hearing this same bit of wisdom from all of them: be available, be present.

Be open in every situation to share God’s love. We don’t have to go halfway around the world to make an impact: we can love someone, listen to someone, share with someone wherever we are.

Be available. Be present.

Honestly this is very hard to do – a million things try to distract me: my thoughts, my phone, my music, my plans for the future, my internet, my stuff– but amazing things start happening when I am available.

Example

We were in Malaysia staying at a hostel in Kuala Lumpur. Normally I hardly even notice the waiters at restaurants, the taxi drivers, the hostel workers – I’m not excellent at being available. But the hostel had just opened, it wasn’t busy and there was time to get to know the co-owner Mac. Mac was born in Iraq, became uber successful in the finance world of London, but left it all behind to avoid the jealously of his brother. His family lives in Pakistan now while he operates the hostel in Malaysia.

One night Cameron and I were hanging out at the hostel and we started talking with Mac. We learned that his mom is Christian while his dad is Muslim and I could palpably feel this tension inside of him. It was a tension between man-made efforts and grace, human-power and God-power, between the jail of guilt and the gift of freedom. He told stories from his time in London: ridiculous amounts of cash – one night winning enough money to buy a Mercedes sports car but the next night gambling it all away because the car dealership didn’t have the desired color the day before; partying for 12 hours straight on LSD highs in Paris and then sleeping for 3 days after; excessive highs and profound lows. Crazy things. But when I met him two months ago he wasn’t doing anything insane, just trying so hard to avoid this destructive lifestyle again. He told me about how he prayed every day in his room that he would avoid evil but that he feared that one day he would give in.

We had an extended conversation and Cam and I were able to hear his story and share our stories with him about how Christ has transformed our lives, and how we can do things like avoid temptation not on our own strength but by the power of the Holy Spirit that is within us. We were able to encourage Mac and pray for him and he mentioned that he could physically feel God’s peace after. And all that happened because we were available and present in that moment.

So I will avoid the temptation to write about Ecuador in grandiose terms but I would like to share a couple moments when I was available and present:

We went to the Amazon jungle to provide deworming medication. To reach one village we drove several hours, hiked through the jungle on foot, and then took a wobbly boat ride across a river. They had just finished a church service there and we were able to encourage them and pray with them and sing a hymn for them. We had to drink the traditional Chicha drink, which is made by chewing on Yuca roots and then spitting into a big bowl and letting it ferment for several days (to refuse could offend) – yum.
We put on a dinner for the pastors of every church and their families in Baños to encourage friendship and unity across the different denominations.
Cam and I set a goal of a peak-a-week and were able to climb several of the mountains around Baños on our off-days
Cam and I met Roceo one day when we needed water during our hike to the top of a nearby mountain. Turns out she just opened a beautiful hostel with her husband on the side of the mountain but didn’t have a camera to take pictures for advertising. We returned the next day and took pictures of the beautiful rooms on my camera. At the end of the month she helped us celebrate Valentine’s Day by putting on her first dinner event at her new hostel.
Cam and I helped butcher a pig. Pig skin doesn’t taste too good.
Our team had lots of time for prayer and we also began studying Revelation

Goal: Trash my efforts at a spiritual resume to impress others and get on with simply loving God and loving others. Be available. Be present.

P.s.

I cannot believe God’s raised over $15,000! I’m raising the last $1k now – would you considering joining me?

Mac & me