Day” was probably my most favorite time during my month in the
Philippines. On “Woman’s Day”, we
invited all of the women in the community over to Pastor Al’s house in order to
serve them.
Before
the women started arriving, I was very doubtful about how the afternoon was
going to turn out. Once the women
arrived I became even more doubtful. These women were talking about how the American girls were going to make
them beautiful, seeming to assume we were going to give them all makeovers and
such using makeup and fancy hairstyles. I wondered how in the world they were going to be OK that we were only
giving them pedicures. And I was sure
that my nail painting job would not meet up to their seemingly high standards either.
When we
shared with them about how we were going to wash and massage their feet and
paint their toenails, all of the women became very shy. Some even went to go wash their own feet so
we wouldn’t have to touch and see their dirty feet.
Once
one woman let us see and touch her feet, more and more women started joining in
as they realized that we didn’t care what their feet looked like, we just
wanted to serve and honor them as daughters of the King. The first woman who let me wash her feet took
much prodding but finally decided to trust me and let me give her a pedicure. After that, a very sweet, petite woman sat
down and let me do her feet. Her name
was Isa and she had remembered me from talking to me on the beach one day. She told me about some health problems she
had been having and so I was able to pray over her which was really neat. Then came a girl dressed in a purple and yellow
volleyball uniform named Grisa. I later
heard that the volleyball players were only in the area because of the
tournament games that were going on that day and that none of them were Christian. I felt such an extra honor to wash her feet.
Then a
young, beautiful, 17 year old girl named Irish came to me for her nails. As I was massaging Irish’s feet, I didn’t notice
that another young girl had bent down beside me. “Carmen? Remember me?” resounded in my ear and I turned to realize it was
Desiree! Desiree is another beautiful 17
year old girl who I had actually met my first day in Aninuan and had yet to see
her since then. It made me so incredibly
happy to see her again. I asked to do
her feet as well but she used the same excuse as everyone else, “I am too shy.” Somehow I finally talked her into letting me
do it. Once I finished Desiree’s toes,
she insisted on doing mine. I wasn’t
going to give in, in fear that everyone would give me a hard time, but I knew
in my spirit that God wanted me to humble myself, do it and spend that extra
time with Desiree. First of all, Desiree
was awesome at what she did and two, she had an incredibly compassionate heart
and it was so much fun to hear her share a bit of it with me.
God
totally showed up to “Woman’s Day” in such a huge and awesome way. I mean, how could I even doubt that He wouldn’t? Sadly I did though. But by the grace of God, my life was touched
by a young girl with a very gentle, serving spirit. I wasn’t able to see Desiree much after that
but she is still in my heart often and I will continue to pray for her. She
is a very special young woman that taught me what it meant to serve and be
served.
