This last week and a half has been eventful to say the least. (We’ll blame that as the reason I didn’t write a blog post last week.) Life on the field, I’m learning, doesn’t pass like life back home. Days bleed together and stretch out and turn over into the next and I’m merely hanging on, watching the sunset every night, and laughing in the in between.
This week we moved five more of our beautiful girls into our already cramped apartment. We were living fifteen girls to eight beds, and two mattresses on the floor. Two toilets. One shower. This week proved to be a challenge for our team, but one we met with grace and willingness. What could have been a time of attitude and irritability, we turned into new opportunities. There aren’t enough beds? No problem. A bunch of us set out sleeping pads on the terrace and slept under the stars in the night air. Some of the sweetest conversations happened in whispers swallowed by the sounds of the city. We gained a new appreciation for the bakery our building sits on because it was often our only place of solitude when every spot in the apartment was occupied. We were definitely cramped, but I was so thankful for the opportunity to be in close quarters with some of the girls I hadn’t been able to bond with yet because they were previously on a separate floor. I’m really impressed by how my team handled this time, and though I’m definitely not innocent of feeling overwhelmed at times, we successfully survived the time without any incidents.
Another aspect of our week, and the reason for the move, was that we were joined by some incredible women these last few days. They came from the States to lead a women’s retreat. Though we generally get our days off on Monday and Tuesday, we actually participated in the retreat this week and miraculously, the days still proved to be restful. Each day of the retreat, the women from the group called Wholeness Journey focused on mind, body, or spirit. It was such sweet intentional time, and the Lord really used them to bring unity and clarity to women of all walks of life. On the last day, when we focused on body, we got to help them lead a little and pamper some of the volunteers and women in the program in a spa day. We did facials, nails, makeup – all the while praying over them at every station, taking care to care for them. It was genuinely a beautiful time.
When the retreat was over, we were blessed with our rest days. Yesterday, adventure day, we took the gondola (cable cars?) up and over the mountain and were blown away by the incredible view, and the little utopia (coffee shop and nature walk) we found at the top. And because Life is Ministry and Ministry is Life, we had a cool chat with a man in the cable car on the way back. We ran into him in the first car, and then again in the next stop, and then once again when he was on our metro. We spoke some hardcore Spanglish with him, and when he found out we were missionaries, he told us that he didn’t understand God. He said his mother loved God, and he loved his mother, but when she spoke to him about God he didn’t understand. The more conversations I have like this, the more I am reminded of a saying my youth leader once said. Sometimes we are discouraged because we don’t feel like we’ve done well enough when we share the gospel, or try to. But sometimes all we can be is a rock in their shoe. Maybe the conversation wasn’t resolved right away, and he didn’t walk away with all the answers, but as he continues to walk that conversation we had will still be there – like a rock in his shoe. I’m so thankful for his bravery in being completely candid with us that he just straight up didn’t understand God. I’m also thankful God kept putting him our path the whole way back to the foundation. And I’m thankful that God is bigger than that conversation and that if the man is going to find God, he will, regardless of how we handled the situation.
All in all, these last ten or so days have been extremely full, extremely hard, and extremely good. I’m thankful for my team and these experiences we’re going through together. Thanks for following this journey with me, and for all of your support, financial, emotional, and spiritual. I am so abundantly grateful for you all!
