Let me introduce you to a woman named Victoria. She is a mother of four and an employee of San Isidro street. She walks up an down cleaning the trash off this street. My first encounter with her started with how are you, ended with Burger King, and in between, tears and hugs. But the second encounter was what turned a one day story into a month long relationship.
It started with Brad praying over me as I had asked. I wasn’t feeling like being a missionary that day and everything in me wanted to be selfish. But I knew God wanted me in the square that day. And when Brad and I were walking around the town square and suddenly I recognized Victoria, I knew why. There she was working with a broom and dustpan in hand. “Victoria…” I said hesitantly, not knowing if she would recognize me from last week or not. Within a split second, she had looked up, dropped her things and hugged me. On a day when I was in no mood to love others, this woman was more than ready to love me. I couldn’t help but think, “Who was this lady?” I left that day not just touched by Victoria’s spirit to be a mother to me, I was drawn to be a son for her. And there began the Spirit’s cry in me to wash her feet.
This cry was put on hold as my first attempt to accomplish this was not fulfilled. Josh, Brad, and I walked around that day without ever finding her. But God gave it great purpose. As my frustration built, my hunger increased also. It just so happened that the next day was Christmas Eve. All the guys had packed 50 lunches, set up camp, and passed out food and clothes to the homeless. But I had set my face on finding Victoria for days now and I was determined to find her. This time the Lord had laid something even more special about Victoria on my heart. The beauty that the Lord gave her. The thing maybe she had stopped believing in and had forgotten about.
I grabbed Josh to come with me to find her. We stopped on a street corner and unexpectedly there she was crossing the street. She gave us our usual hugs and I quickly asked her if she could take a break from work so I could wash her feet.
She said yes.
After I was done, Josh wanted to take her out to eat so we blessed her with Burger King. But as for me, I wanted to bless her even more than a meal could. What the Lord had laid on my heart the day previous was to resurrect the princess in her. This manifested itself into taking her to a hair salon. I had squared it away with one of the owners of a salon near the town square telling her that it was for my friend. But when we showed up with Victoria, the friend I told her about was not the person she was expecting. All around women’s faces getting pampered for Christmas Eve soon hit us with confusion. We just pressed on as I talked with the owner telling her to do whatever Victoria wanted and I would pay for it. She kindly told me that it would be three hours until she would be done. As Josh and I walked back to check in on the other guys, we laughed discussing the looks on the other women but were more excited to see the look of Victoria in the hours to come.
When we returned, it was an entirely different scene. The other women were interacting with Victoria, laughing and talking with her. Women from across the room were telling the owner what seemingly were orders to give Victoria a manicure. As we sat, watched, and waited I reflected on the reasons for the tears and hugs that occurred when we first met. It was not just that Victoria worked her street making barely anything. She was also a woman of deep pain and suffering throughout her life. A woman that lost her husband to strikingly early death and a woman that lost her daughter to murder and rape by a local gang. Her little girl was 14 months old. But this day was not about her disappointments. I knew those things but the Lord had given me His eyes. I saw her, Victoria, the woman of God. But the hair salon didn’t show me that. The hair salon showed her that. Victoria smelled her hot straightened hair, as if it was the first time she had come to know that smell. She looked in the mirror with so much excitement that she quickly felt embarrassed, like she probably did as a young child. She walked with her shoulders a little bit higher as we left, even using her hand to flick her hair back as she hugged us goodbye. Surely the princess in her had come back to life.
I believe the Lord showed Victoria her true identity that day. She is not poor, she is not ugly, she is not unknown, she is not a street cleaner, she is beautiful. Because thats what the Lord says. He makes beautiful things out of us. And I was just lucky to show her that.
Isaiah 61:1-3
“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,[a]
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.”
