Down and Dirty

Yesterday was a messy day.

This week our team got the awesome opportunity to participate in village ministry. Village ministry is a time for us to go out and visit the communities that are right outside our compound. We get to walk around and pray for healing, the communities as a whole, have conversations, and share Jesus with the people we meet. We’ve seen God work and miraculous things happen in only two outings. Our team is super excited to continue doing this next week.

Allison (our Alumni Squad leader who is with our team for a couple weeks), Sara, Kelley, Will, and I started the morning out by heading to a new community. After walking around for a couple hours, and not having much luck holding conversation, we felt a little discouraged. After taking a break to discuss our next steps and pray for discernment from the Lord as to continue or go back home, we decided we would give it a little more, and prayer walk on our way back to the house.

It is rainy season in Honduras, so it rains almost everyday if not multiple times in a day. The whole walk in the village was filled with very muddy roads, where we would trek through dirty water or jump over puddles just to continue. The roads were rough, at times there were no clean paths to take so we (mostly Kelley and I) would just plow through them because we were already very muddy. On our way back we were wandering through different roads and parts of the community to see if there was anyone else we could talk to. We found ourselves around a lot of farmland and we took a path that probably only horses and cows had walked on in a long time. As we got to the end of the path, there was a huge mud puddle, that covered the whole road and had water from side to side. Kelley lead the way, and I decided to follow thinking that it would be okay. I watch the exact course that she took, and decided I thought I had a better idea for a path. This is when things went very bad..

I jumped over a puddle to avoid getting even more dirty, only to slip and fall on my knees. Kelley happened to be in front of me, so I reached out to grab on to her and almost took her out in the process. We both stood up, thinking it was over. She continued to trek through the mud hole and made it to the other side. I on the other hand was not so lucky… I proceeded to walk through the mud hole (not calling it a puddle because it was not a shallow mud puddle you can splash around in, it was massive) only to realize I was not going anywhere but down. Somehow I had fallen into this mud hole and was not able to get up. The dirty water was up to my waist. You know when you are in a foam pit and you are trying to get out but somehow just continue to sink closer to the bottom? That’s what was happening to me, but it wasn’t foam, it was nasty muddy (and God only knows what else). I was covered from head to toe, it was in my hair, my mouth, and all over everything. My sweet teammate Kelley was right there laughing along with me and trying really hard to pull me out. Long story short, I made it out after rolling around for a while.

When I look up after falling the first time, I see a Honduran standing their watching us from her house. Marta stood there the whole time, watching through both falls and the struggle to stand. At some point during the whole situation she walked out of her house and came up to us. She did not laugh once, but she looked very concerned about us all. Through our very broken spanish, we understood that she was offering us water to clean off with. We tried to tell her I was okay and that our house was not far away, but if you have ever tried telling no to a Honduran (or anyone from Central America) you know that it is nearly impossible to tell them no because they want to bless you with what they have. So we went to her house, where she proceeded to wash me off with water from her water reserve. Marta was so sweet and very caring for us all. Not only did she help clean me up, but she took my arm and guided me out of the house after we were done, to make sure that I did not fall again.

It was a good experience that brought a lot of laughter to us all. But it also allowed the Lord to show me a literal example of His love for us. Marta’s love and compassion changed my perspective and life that day.

You see, we try going through our lives by ourselves walking in mud and somewhat dodging the dirt. But as we go through life, we fall and stumble only to find ourselves trapped in a mud hole. All the while we are doing our own thing, the Lord is there, waiting patiently for us to accept help and come to him. Oh boy, when we come to Him, He doesn’t only wash a little bit of the dirt, mud, and sin away, but he completely cleans us so there is not one speck of dirt left on us. He then guides us through so we don’t completely fall again and get covered in mud, just like Marta did for me. We just have to trust and come to him, believing that he will wash us like new.