I hesitate to even attempt to write this blog because my fear is that my words will never do justice for a topic that can go so deep: Woman, and what that means in the world.
It’s currently 6:19 pm and I’m laying under the fan on my borrowed plastic sleeping pad (thanks Lindsay) on the floor of the church listening to music blaring outside from the bar that neighbors us. Tonight, my ministry is being with a sick member of the team while she rests.
A few minutes ago, I stepped outside to our neighbor’s house that is also her business to buy a snack since we won’t have dinner until after 9 pm. It was apparent that Norma had been crying before I walked up, but she gave me her usual friendly smile and greeted me warmly. I asked if she was okay to which she immediately responded with an enthusiastic head nod “yes.” I knew she wasn’t okay. I asked her for my usual, a bag of spicy plantain chips.
In trying to prolong the conversation in order to somehow share something that might bring her peace, I looked for an open door. I noticed her shirt had butterflies on it and realized that I haven’t ever seen her in a shirt without butterflies. Last year on the race, they were a symbol that the Lord gave me to remind me of His presence in even the darkest places.
I told her that I liked the butterflies on her shirt, and what she did next shocked me. She told me to wait, retreated back into her house for a moment, and then returned with a brand new T-shirt in her hands. It had butterflies on it as well and she insisted on giving to me as a gift. This is a woman who gives our entire team free suckers just because it’s a Tuesday morning or brings us a bag of Honduran snacks because she thought we might want to try something new.
Norma isn’t wealthy. I don’t think she has a vehicle or even a bicycle. She works 7 days a week from the time the sun comes out until long after dark. She supports and cares for her family while her husband works in another city almost 5 hours away. Her life isn’t glamorous, but SHE is. She radiates kindness. She serves anyone who will let her. She gives freely and beyond what she can spare out of the generosity of her heart.
As I stood on the other side of the barred window through which all of our transactions occur, I asked the Lord what I could say. He told me to share my hope. As I grasped for Spanish vocabulary within the depths of my brain, I was reminded that eloquence isn’t required in order to love people well. I simply stated that butterflies are special to me because they are a reminder of God’s promises and His presence. That’s all I had to say. I thanked her again for the T-shirt which I will cherish forever and told her I would see her again soon.
All of that leads us back here, sitting now rather than laying down, on my sleeping pad. In the course of writing this, a mosquito has managed to bite my finger, I had to run into the bathroom to reroute the water pipes so that our tank (think indoor miniature water tower) wouldn’t overflow, and the pastor stopped by to pick up some chairs for a house service the other girls are currently attending for ministry.
This is what my life looks like on the race, and it gives me time to reflect and think. Norma’s story is only one of many that I’ve gotten glimpses of this month. More blogs will come about the impact other women have made on me and things I’ve learned, but for now, the Lord is highlighting what it looks like to be a woman through Norma.
Something I never planned to freely share in a blog were some of my other motivations for ever going on the race in the first place. Well here are a few. I wanted to learn (and still do) how to become a woman who will be the wife and mother that I want to be and that I believe God calls me to be. Maybe that seems like extreme planning for the future, but I want to stand at my wedding knowing that I am fully giving myself first to the Lord, and then to whomever He is preparing to be my husband, and then to our future family. For those things to happen in the future, it requires me to walk through hard things and grow a lot now.
As I reflect on the woman I want to become, I can learn from Norma what it means to be kind even to the drunk men on the corner and not just tolerate them. I can learn what it looks like to give with abandon. I can learn how to bestow hospitality and walk in a spirit of welcoming others into a safe place filled with love and life.
In Proverbs 31, the Bible talks about what it means to be a noble woman. This woman works diligently, speaks the truth in love, is gentle and kind, provides for her family, gives to those in need, and thinks of others before herself. Norma is all of those things, and it is an honor to learn from her even if she doesn’t know she is teaching me such invaluable lessons.
This is Woman. This is the World Race.
