Serve!

     Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let the pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal away your sweetness. Rest in that even though the world may disagreee, you still believe it to be a beautiful, beautiful place. 

       My squad arrived in Palacagina, Nicaragua on Feb 9th. All  50 of us have been staying in our tents within a local church facility.  It's been an amazing month and i've learned so much about who I am in Christ but it has also been very challenging. If you look up Palacaguina on the map you'll notice it is surrounded by mountains and although it is a very poor rural community, the landscape is absolutely breathtaking. It contains around 6,000 people, however; most of the men travel out of town to find field work. The land is very dry in the area we are in,  making jobs  hard to come by.  Within this community, there is a great amount of poverty, which has caused significantly high levels of alcohol abuse and violence within the homes. This kind of brokenness has been swept under the rug, which makes it nearly impossible for people to seek or accept help. ItÊ»s one thing the local churches are trying to bring to the light and your prayers for this town are greatly needed. 
 

       Every day my team of 5 forms with another team and we partner with a local churh within the community, we are then taken to an area of town that is in need of help. My favorite day was spent at a nursing home working with and praying with the residents. It was extreamly rewarding and I was even able to use my physical therapy skills to help some of the peole we came across. Another day we had the opportunity to go to a school that was designed for special needs kids. We were able to play and love on the kids; just seeing the smiles we brought to their faces was absolutly beautiful. However, those were only two days out of the entire month. The rest of my month has been spent doing manual labor. Which lets just say is not my best area of expertise. One job we have started and still in the process of, is working at a local church to level a dirt floor. We spend 6-7 hours a day using shovels and pick axes to try to scrap another layer away from the hard rocky surface. The other day I spent the entire day trying to dig a 10 foot hole for a soon to be porter potty. Other days have been spent picking up garbage, digging out a small pond, and fixing roads.  Needless to say those long hot days, repeated sun burns, and lack of food can easilly start to discourage some one.  One day before leaving our worksite I remember looking back at where we had been and thinking "you canÊ»t even tell we did anything". Seven hours of work and sweat, pouring myself into the site and it looked just about the same as when we had first arrived. That night as I sat outside I thought what the heck am I doing? Is any good coming from this? I was so frustrated and felt like it was all for nothing. Have you ever felt like that? Like all of your hard work is for nothing, feeling unappreciated and wondering why am I even trying to do something good when nobody notices? Its a tough place to be, but I was encouraged one day while reading and I started thinking about the life of Jesus. His life was anything but glamorous, looked down upon and eventually hung on a cross to die for the work he was doing.  You could probably assume he was under appreciated. But he lived his life with tenacity, continuously serving others. Look at John 13 the story of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples including Judas' who would later betray him.  The whole New Testament is full of stories of Jesus serving others, Matthew 20:28 ´´For the son of man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.´´ During our lives here on earth we are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus, to serve others just as we have been served. John 13:14 says ´´If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you should do just as I have done for you´´. Or look at Mark 10:31 ´´But many who are the greatest now will be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be the greatest then´´. According to Jesus Christ we are called to be the doormat of other men; their spiritual leaders yes, but never their superior. So long as there is a human being who does not know Jesus Christ, we are to be their debtor, to serve them until they do. The mainspring of Paul´s service was not love for men, but love for Jesus Christ. If we are devoted to the cause of humanity, we will be crushed and broken hearted, for we will often be met with more ingratitude from men then we can imagine, but if our motive is love to God, no ingratitude can hinder us from serving others. Wow, when I start thinking in this way it completely changes my whole mindset. That day I began to change my thinking from my own self fulfillment and began to focus on becoming like Christ. So, yesterday we went to pick up trash again along the side of the road and this time it was different. For the first time my eyes were open to the impact we had been making. As people walked by they started questioning what we were doing and why a bunch of foreigners were picking up their trash. We told them it´s because we love them which opened up the door to sharing the Gospel. It was perfect day.

Lord empty me, so I can be filled with you. Amen