This month more than ever I felt my life reflect what it means to be the church. Church is just people doing life with God. Even in the mundane, Jesus can be found. To help keep my eyes on the kingdom, I wrote down moments each day that either directly brought me to God or had an undertone of His glory within them.
Nov. 26th-Dec 2nd
Monday:
Before dinner time, my team and I sang in worship and then took turns intentionally praying for each other for emotional healing and restoration.
Tuesday:
We went to a new village that had a grassy soccer field. After teaching the children the story of Zacchaues, we played soccer and that made me and the kids really happy. At the end of the day, my friend Chooch and I drank coffee together, ate Oreos, and watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on a bottom bunk under her bug net. That’s hospitality.
Wednesday:
After spending the morning doing manual labor on the farm, my friends and I swam in the river. In the afternoon we went back to the village and taught the story of Peter walking on water, and played more soccer! I enjoy soccer because it’s a way of relating that doesn’t use words. The hard work of running, passing the ball, and the adrenaline of scoring a goal together does a lot for building trust.
Thursday:
In the morning we prayed and had a time of intercession in a building that will become a bread-house. The vision for the bread-house is that children will be able to sell the bread in communities and women will find employment in baking the bread. We believe in that dream, so we spent time praying for it to come to pass.
Later that day, our team found success in teaching the children a jungle-fied version of duck duck goose, calling it instead boa boa anaconda, and the children had a lot of fun chasing us. We didn’t get up quite as fast as they did. And then, of all things, the pastor had found a sloth, and we got to hold him. A wild, lazy, slightly disoriented sloth. Going home from ministry on our boat, Rolando spent extra time driving us around to watch for river dolphins. In the beauty of the setting sun, Maddie, Caela, and I stood at the front on the boat screaming songs about the Creator of it all.
Friday:
By the end of the week, I could tell we had played hard. I was not as fast on the soccer field, but it was a good last day of acting out a bible story and spending quality time with giggly, gleeful children.
The next two days were rest days. Church on Sunday was led by my teammate Erin, who created space for us to connect with God through art and painting.
—
My team and I left our home on the farm by the river yesterday morning. We said goodbye to our green wonderland, and prayed with the family we had spent the past two weeks with but were now leaving behind.
This month has been really incredible. My team grew together spiritually as we participated in unconventional church and worship. We enjoyed taking a boat to different villages to teach bible stories to happy, eager to learn children. Team Abundance thrived within the travel and transition to finally settle into the jungle heat + company of many different creatures. (including cows that will eat your laundry if it’s drying in their reach and bats that like to splash in the water of your bathroom while you’re trying to sleep.)
Overall, we played a lot and rested a lot too. I took today to stop reflect on the experience, because in the next few days change is coming again as we move to our next country- Guatemala.
Thank you Jesus, for this beautiful life You’ve given me. I pray to be a faithful steward of it. Amen.
photos from Aly Badinger:
