Note: Blog from Nicaragua that I am posting late. My apologies.
I thought I would find myself at the end of the month typing a story on self-discipline. I shouldn’t try to predict what God wants to teach me. In fact, I learned something that I thought I already did well – maybe the story will wrap itself back around but here it is. A little piece of my first goodbye that was tough to bare.
I have many stories about this topic from this month, stories I engaged with and stories I watched my squadmmates participate in. I will tell two. This is my story.
I learned about love. Not the kind of love that says “I love my family”, not the kind that says “I love my boyfriend”, not the kind that says “I love you because Jesus loves you”. This love is a friendship, one unexpected, one you didn’t think you’d make.
It’s
A love you create where you wish to spend time and hang out because they are purely awesome people.
A love that you want to do stuff for them because you want to show you care more than you already have.
A love that is hard to say goodbye to and makes you questioned if you should have started this love because it hurts to go.
Noami, Ale, Anhala – the women of the kitchen. The women I came to love.
It was a random Saturday, we had been in Nicaragua for 2 weeks already but there were ministry sign up shifts. I decided I would try something different and help cook in the kitchen. I know absolutely no Spanish and my partner in crime was of little help. (Thanks Koots) My teammate and I went in confident that we could do whatever task was set before us. Right away the ladies started instructing us on jobs. They asked my squadmate for a pan in Spanish and she brought a crate of limes. They asked for a knife and we brought a spoon. To say we were helpful… well not in the least but we made them laugh and we felt good about that. The night went on and we helped finish the meal, we decided to serve them food before the rest of our squad and we would do the serving that night. It was a fun night and a good afternoon/night of ministry. I didn’t think much more about it.
The next day one of our ministry contacts approached my squamates and I asking if we would be willing to help in the kitchen that night. She said the ladies were asking and we looked at each other surprised but said yes without thinking. Another night not understanding but still getting tasks done and a delicious meal as product. Slowly, God was revealing a friendship, a bond, a love between us and these women.
Our off day and sabbath day past, I found myself missing the kitchen and the women inside. The next day when we had ministry we were approached again by our host asking if we officially wanted to make the kitchen our afternoon/night ministry. Without hesitation we said YES! I was so joyful and excited. For the next week we helped cook meals with the women, they started to trust us with more and more of the food. We would often come in and completely take whatever they were doing out of their hands so they could do something else. Let me tell you – serving an estimated 50 people for 3 meals a day and doing all the dishes is not the easiest thing you’ll ever do. These women work hard and long days. They arrive at around 5:30am to begin and then don’t go home until 7pm with little breaks besides to eat and rest for about an hour after lunch.
The laughs continued the rest of the week, every afternoon coming into the kitchen they would be so excited to see us and vice versa. We will hold tightly to the stories and memories made in the small kitchen. The ladies meant so much to us we decided to buy them the most amazing chocolate chip banana bread from Pan de Vida and make them a USA special – rice krispie treats!
When we presented them with the gifts and told them how much they meant to us we hugged and danced and the girls went crazy. My heart was exploding with love. It was tough to say goodbye to them a short two hours later. More hugs and more tears. As I sit back and reflect on my time with Naomi, Ale and Anhala I feel sad, I miss them. I desire to be cooking with them, becoming friends, loving on them anyway possible.
Maybe this was a ‘nice’ story to you. Maybe you felt I should have shared about the homes we visited in the surrounding villages. The families we prayed over that were without a way to financially provide for themselves or their children that are involved with gangs or all the ill fallen ones that were bed ridden.
Maybe I should have wrote about the community center where children come to play and hear about God for potentially the only time of the week. Just maybe I should have wrote about the hospital, the beds we got on our knees in front of, the hands we held, the tears we watch fall as we prayed that the greatest physician of all would heal these people broken in spirit and physically ill.
The thing is… I didn’t.
I told you about three women. Three women that touched my heart. Three women that God wanted me to love on and build friendship with. It’s tough to have left these new loved ones but I couldn’t chose to not love them for this is the greatest commandment and love is the the fulfillment of the law.
Romans 13:8-10 “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You should not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love you neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
Paul is writing to the Romans in this book. He is sharing about faith, grace, righteousness and justification. In this particular chapter Paul is stating that ‘love is the fulfillment of the law’ echoes Jesus’ teaching that all the Scriptures hang on these two commandments: love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself. The rest of the commands are explanations of how to show love in specific examples. Thus, Biblical love – is what should guide us as we carry out all God’s other commands.
So there was no choice here. The story of Naomi, Ale, and Anhala was one fulfilling God’s ultimate commandment – love. There’s no question it’s hard on the race but I wouldn’t change the way I love on the race just because I’m leaving. I’m being obedient to the Father, I feel joyful when I love, it makes others smile. I will continue to love deeply for the Lord has called me to it.
Much love and many blessings,
Rachel
