You can only anticipate so much before traveling to a foreign place. You probably will expect to eat rice and beans every single day (which you are correct, BUT YOU WILL NEVER GET TIRED OF IT..), see a lot of poverty, go on wild adventures, experience so much beauty and kindness, and help the community tremendously with big projects everyday.
And while all of that can be absolutely true..
Their is so much more that I didn’t expect.
I wasn’t prepared to shatter my favorite watch, or to be covered in an allergic reaction twice in one week. I didn’t think I’d feel uncomfortable as much as I do just because of the language barrier. I never thought that some days I would feel useless and like it didn’t matter that I was here.. But I also didn’t know it would feel the way it feels to get to say hola to a hundred or-so kids everyday and just to play and love on them, even though I can barely say how are you. I surely didn’t expect to be sitting in our house with air conditioning or to be loved on, the way we have been loved, and I wasn’t expecting for God to constantly show me why things are happening.
I came here saying I had no expectations, and while I thought that I didn’t, the truth is that I absolutely did.
However, through every single situation, I have been learning that God has me right where he wants me. I am here with a purpose, even though I’m not sure if I’ll ever know what that purpose is. I am not here to be comfortable or for my own doing. I am here to serve my God. And if that means raking leaves for three hours straight or sweeping and mopping for two, I am willing.
I am willing because you sent me, for wherever you go, I will go.
For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. – Ruth 1:16
