Alright, so here’s the latest scoop on what has happened these past couple of days…..
Last Friday, both squad A and B from the World Race got together to debrief for 2 days in a small village outside of Palenque, before racing to Guatemala.
While debriefing, everyone went to this sweet waterfall to have fun. Our motto is, “Work hard, PLAY hard.” So we went and played hard. A couple of us, while there, managed to go into this cave within the fall. Now this cave isn’t like a pansy cave…. this cave was humongous! So we went exploring with our little headlamps through this cave. In some parts of the cave, we had to trudge through water that was up to my lips and had to fight off hundreds of bats and their feces. So that was pretty wicked amazing! I can’t say I ever expected to do that in Mexico :)!
After our little adventure, the actually debriefing began. Everyone started to share their cool God stories that had happened to them for the past two and a half weeks.
It was really encouraging to hear of what all God had done, but another part of me (aka my flesh) was a bit saddened. The reason I was saddened was because I was surrounded by people that had all these “cool” stories of God doing these miraculous things like healing people and people coming to know Him. Now me on the other hand, didn’t have these really “cool” things to say or at least do not seem as “cool”. Basically all I did was play with kids and love on them the best I could.
At that moment, I knew that I did all I could and that what I did was just as amazing as what the other people did, but I couldn’t make myself believe it. Since I’ve been on this trip and even on prior mission trips, I feel so much pressure to be this amazing Christian that has all these great stories for eveyone and that when things aren’t going that great, I still must find something positive to say about God, even when I don’t want to.
I feel like when I do just say a story and kinda make it sound better than what really happened so I can have a great story and when I talk about God with empty words from my heart, than I am just being fake, and then that is causing those around me to get sucked into feeling like they have to have great stories too.
So with that being said…. I am putting an end to that. I want to be comfortable with wherever God has me and whatever He has me doing. If that’s doing something as little as sitting with a kid for an hour playing silly games or doing something big as sharing Jesus with someone, and that’s what God’s will is for me, then I want to be content and I want to be doing it with every inch of my soul. Whenever I am doing God’s will, then I am living that “great” story. End of sentence! Also, whoever determined what “little” or “big” meant was anyways.!
So when you read my blogs from here on out, I’m not going to sugar coat them or to use empty words about God, which I haven’t yet, and I must say the temptation has been greatly there. I am going to share with you the real and true God I know. If that real and true God isn’t good enough, then I don’t know what is.
Okay, one more story before I go.
So, my team and I arrived last night into Antigua, Guatemala, and this morning we finished our race, which the race consisted of us racing to this hilltop and praying for an hour in Antigua, and then running to the center of the city to finish the race. We ended up taking 3rd, which I am totally thankful for. Anyways, on with the story…. Well afterwards, I was walking around trying to find an ATM. As I was looking for one, I came across this frail and petite woman that was begging for money and who was carrying a small teenager on her back. The teenager I saw was mentally disabled and was 3/4 her size. I couldn’t believe how she was carrying him. At first I didn’t know what to do, because I couldn’t speak the language and I had no money, but I did have my credit card. So with my broken spanish and hand signals, I asked her if she wanted food. She said yes, so we went out scrounging for food. After a minute or two, we found a restraunt, and it was a Buger King of all places. We went in, she was still carrying the boy on her back, and we ordered some food. After getting the food we all sat down together. I started using all the spanish I knew… I think that lasted about 2 or 3 minutes :)! Then I just sat with them and smiled and began praying over them silently. What was weird was that it didn’t feel awkward because sometimes in those moments they can be. All I know was that I felt so blessed to be sitting with them. My whole body and soul was just overwhelmed with joy. So we just sat in joyful silence, but later my teammate Annie came by and I yelled at her to come in because she knew spanish, so then we were able to have a conversation with the woman.
Annie and I came to find out that she was 51 and has 8 kids. Her eldest was 40… so that means she was a 11 when she has her first one. That is ridiculous! We also found out that she was on her own watching over her youngest, the teenaged boy, which was 19 years old, but doesn’t look much older than 12.
After chatting with the woman for a while, I asked her if I could pray for her. She permitted me to, so I prayed over the woman and her son, and then Annie and I departed.
Right now, I pray and I ask that you all pray that I get to run into her again and get a chance to be blessed by being with her and her son and by serving them. Also, pray that God will send more people her way to receive the same great opportunity that I did.
