Picture this: You meet a group of foreigners, they seem nice enough but look like they could use a hot shower, warm meal and good night’s sleep.
Their clothes are worn, and they carry backpacks piled high with enough belongings to keep them going for a few weeks. You ask them why they’re here, in your country. Their answer: to serve your people. To go wherever the need is and walk alongside people who could use a helping hand. To eat your country’s food, play with the children living on your streets and show everyone here the love of their God.
So, what do you do? Do you invite them into your home for some coffee? Do you offer them a much-needed shower and warm meal? Are you even so bold as to offer them a roof over their heads while they’re in your country?
What do you do?
Our answers.. probably something along the lines of: smile politely and say goodbye, walk away slowly, don’t make too much eye contact, think to yourself, “what an odd group of people.”
That odd group of people – that’s me and my friends. I’m not polished like I used to be. My nails are dirty and unpainted, my clothes have been worn 100+ times at this point, I have two pairs of shoes that I wear day after day, I haven’t gotten a hair cut in nine months and a hat is typically on my head. No, I’m not the polished business woman that I used to be.
Would you talk to the new me? Would you entertain a conversation with me if you met me on the side of the road? Would you offer up a cup of coffee or even your home to me?
Before the World Race, if I met someone like this I would probably have run in the opposite direction. Maybe I would have entertained a short, polite conversation but that’s likely all I would have done. Offer up my house or even a free meal, no way. I was not in the habit of inviting haggard looking strangers into my home. So, what I deserve is the same treatment, right? Yes, but what I deserve is not what I have received. My treatment across the world has looked more like this:
Chile: Pastor David and his wife housed myself and my team of seven for twenty-five days. While in Chile, we were served numerous free meals in a local restaurant owned by a church member named Damaris. Our last night in this country, a family, living in poverty, invited my entire team into their home and served us a meal. Their oldest daughter ran into her room before we left and pulled out a pair of earrings from her personal collection for myself and each female member on my team. She gave this group of strangers the majority of her jewelry collection that night.
Argentina: My team and I were whisked away to an indigenous village in the middle of the Argentinian desert and housed for the weekend with Tata, the chief of the village. Tata and his wife made every meal for us during our stay and slaughtered one of their best lambs to bless us with. We also had an incredible evening of making and eating empanadas together until 1am.
Cambodia: I spent a month with Pastor Yim, his wife Marta and little daughter Pia in the small village of Pum Taong Lich, Cambodia. Marta cooked every single meal for us, for the entire month. She spent all day in her kitchen preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner with multiple dishes and always a surplus of food. She served us day after day with a huge smile and joyful heart.
Serbia: When I was in Mrcajevci, Serbia, on an evening walk with my friend Sarah, we were stopped by a family sitting in chairs around a small plastic table in their front yard. They called out to us and invited us in to join them. They offered us a shot of rakija, a popular Serbian fruit brandy, and brought us out some of the best cake I’ve had on the race. We sipped the rakija with these strangers turned new friends, and chatted about their lives in Serbia and the history of the ground we were sitting on.
Romania: While visiting my kids in the gypsy community of Pitesti, Romania, I met a smiling man who spoke English and loved to talk to me about Jesus. He gave me the bracelet around his wrist the very first time I met him to help me remember our conversations and his community. A few weeks later, I ran into him again and had forgotten to wear the bracelet he had given me. He then gave me another bracelet and made me promise to keep it forever, which I fully intend on doing.
Bulgaria: While in Vidin, Bulgaria, I stayed in a little community comprised of numerous houses sitting side-by-side. Part of our ministry was gardening, and the day we picked weeds and planted flowers, the entire community came out to help us. Our neighbors dug holes, weeded in the dirt and showed us the proper way to plant. They spent their entire day helping us. Additionally, I never once took my garbage to the dumpster at that house. Every time I attempted to leave with a bag of trash a neighbor would run up alongside me and take it for me. Every single time.
Ethiopia: Since day one in Ethiopia, I have been met by tremendous hospitality and generosity. As I write this blog, I’m sitting in the home of our new friend Kene, who has graciously allowed us to stay with him for our last two weeks in Ethiopia. This is the most comfortable setting I’ve been in on the race and am allowed this huge blessing because of the incredible kindness of a man I met only a few weeks ago. In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, I have been a part of numerous coffee ceremonies, free meals and now a bed to sleep in and roof over my head, free of charge. Arriving in country, we didn’t know what we were going to do and where we were going to stay, but the Lord has provided in abundant ways here through Kene and many others like him who have given a helping hand to us freely and simply out of the kindness of their hearts.
When I arrive back in the United States in two months I hope to look at the people around me with a new lens. I hope to be a person who opens my home and heart to complete strangers who may even look a bit haggard, or different than me. I hope to love the people in my own country the way I have been loved by people in countries all over the world.
I hope to give the same way I have abundantly received.
<3 Amy
“Remember this – a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. For God loves a person who gives cheerfully. And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.”
2 Corinthians 9:6-8
