It comes in a small sentence or one word. This month, the sentences and the one word’s that have been coming to mind all revolve around people. People are ministry. They are the ones you love. See them. Know them. Spend time with them. Let them know you are there. Converse. Smile. Joy. Love. All these words and sentences scream the same thing. The same thing I have been searching for and have ultimately found in each country all year.
Every answer boils down to one name and person. I don’t care what equation or type of math you use. Even if it’s a different or more complicated problem to figure out, every time, the answer is always going to be simple and the same.
Jesus.
Our primary ministry this month has been manual labor at a place called The Leadership Center nestled in a Honduran mountain. While manual labor isn’t my favorite, I somehow got through a week and a half of it with a smile on my face because I remembered that this is life for someone on this mountain and I have the privilege of being in Honduras this month; Jesus called me to live life this way — even if just for a short time. When things get hard, I ultimately have a choice.
I’d much rather have a great time while doing hard work instead of pouting because the work I’ve been given is not my biggest forte. After all the manual labor was finished with this month, I got to spend time with college aged girls, helping them with their homework, hanging out, and primarily building relationships with them. Granted, I am no farm girl at best and manual labor is definitely not my strongest muscle in ministry, but if I had to do manual labor for five hours straight every weekday just to hang out watching movies, laughing, and talking with college girls for the remainder of my day, I’d tell you a big “heck yes” and do it because hanging out with these strong, independent, and smart young Honduran women is worth it ten thousand times over.
I learned one night while making baleadas in the kitchen with some of the girls and kitchen ladies that where we are on the mountain actually doesn’t have a name because it’s so obscure. They just say it’s in Zambrano because that’s the closest town of actual civilization from where we are located. It strikes me that there are people and girls with names here on this mountain for a majority of the year and that the rest of the world doesn’t even know this place exists unless they’ve been here, been told about it, or live here on a daily basis. It strikes me that nameless villages and towns across the world can hold some of the most special pieces in a human’s heart. Do you ever wonder why?
Certain months on my race may hold a special gem in my heart, but the places I’ve lived in and visited all year pale in comparison to the community I have found following Jesus with the people I am with that have allowed me to cry and worship Him freely and wholly as myself.
The truth is that a home is just a home if there are no people inside of it making it come alive. A place is just a place if you are the only one there. Yes, you are there and that is important, but half the experiences we have had and will have in life (and remember) are the things and experiences we have with other people. Community. Ministry. Life. Love.
Jesus’ heartbeat was for people. He loved them extremely well and promised His people a multitude of things, but the thing He promised us through and through was that He would be with us always. I have a thing for the word “always.” I believe Jesus does, too.
Honduras will not be a month I remember as the month I did manual labor work or got sick for nearly a week. No, it will be a month I can earnestly look back on with the full understanding of what it meant for Jesus to take up His cross and be for His people. His heart is always for others and I believe that is what He wanted for all of us to grasp and understand in the midst of mundane daily tasks and hard work. As long as you give me good and healthy people to do life with in community, that’s all that really matters to me at the end of the day because Jesus’ heartbeat wasn’t about the work it took to build walls and cities, His heartbeat was for His people inside and outside those walls and cities. Now that I understand that inside the depths of my heart, it can’t help but beat in the same exact way His does.
