“The race is what you make it”
Prior to going on the race I read countless blogs of racers saying that this journey is what you make it. I never really understood what that meant until now.
This month my team is in south Nepal living at a school/ church doing multiple types of ministries on the grounds during the day. We have gardened, gone on a prayer hike and we also painted a mural of Jesus finding the lost sheep. But my favorite ministry of this month is nothing that was planed out for us by our host. It was totally led by the Holy Spirit.
By no fault of our host this month the drinking water just tasted a little funny to a few of us. For whatever reason I could not bring myself to drink it. (Our host followed all the steps of boiling, and filtering it multiple times for our safety). After a few discussions with as team we decided that those of us who felt the taste was off would walk to the corner stand and buy some bottled water.
As a few of us went to the corner store to buy some, but as we walked we were so lost in conversation we passed the water store closest to our ministry site. In fact we passed several stores. Once we realized we kept walking to one that was up ahead just a bit farther. We were greeted by a really nice man who sold us cold bottles of water!
The next day we decided we would walk a little bit farther and buy from the same man who was so nice to us the day before. He was sitting outside his shop like he was expecting us almost. He had 14 cold waters all ready for us. He then brought over some chairs for us to sit in. As we sat and talked with him children kept running over to sit and talk as well. Turns out this gentleman has a 15 member family. I think we met a different niece or nephew every day we visited. He gave us each a chocolate bar while his nieces asked us all sorts of questions about our lives. There was just something about sitting and talking with this gentleman and his family that seemed so right. In fact as I sat in the red chair eating a chocolate bar I clearly heard the voice of God tell me that “this is why the water tasted funny to you. I wanted you to come meet this man and his family. They are ready to know me.”
As our visits continued we continued to meet new members of the family. The kids even had us walk across the street one day to their home to meet their mothers and to sing songs to them. We had sang “This is the Day that The Lord has Made” for the kids earlier that day.
Also in the same day the Waterman’s 16 year old niece told us that she went to church once on Christmas because there were games and music. I asked her if she knew what Christmas was and she said “the day a man named Jesus Christ was born” I asked if she knew what Easter was and she said no. Laura and I explained to her and her cousins what it was and that Easter happened to be this month and that she and her family were invited to come!!
Well Easter service was on Saturday the 19th because kids go to school in Nepal on Sundays. I was hoping to visit the store in the morning before service started to remind them but I had been sick the last few days and started to feel really drained.
Well service came and went and none of our friends came. I must say I was really sad. I almost felt like it was then my fault since I did not go before church to remind them. I was also really sick the rest of the day which gave me a lot of time to talk to God.
I poured out my heart to Him in my tent. So many people in my life that I care so much about do not love Jesus. My dad, cousins, and some of my closest friends. Somedays I do not understand why God began these relationships in my life. It is so painful to have a loved one not know Jesus and to continue to watch them turn away from His love and His gift of salvation. I think about all the times my human nature had taken over and I did not show the love of Christ. I blame myself for them not accepting Jesus into their life. “If I had done this, If I had shared this.. then they would know Jesus” The same way I thought that Water man and his family did not come to church because of me.
But guess what IT”S NOT ABOUT ME. It is about Him who paid our debt. It is about Him who died on a cross. It is about Him and His sacrifice. That is the reason we have Easter in the first place. To celebrate the day Jesus defeated the grave.
If it is Gods will he will use us in any way He can. He can even use our mistakes and mess ups to bring others to know His love.
This morning is Easter and as I woke up I noticed two things. One I was feeling a lot better and two there was a little boy staring in our room. I thought my eyes were playing a trick on me.. it was one of Water mans sons. I told Laura and we both went outside. Water man was at the school signing his three sons and one nephew up for school. And not just any school… its a Christian school! This Hindi family will now have four kids going to school each day where God can plant even more seeds to draw this whole family to Him.
This month I read the book In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day. One of my favorite quotes from it is ” God wants to stack the odds against us so we can experience a miracle of divine proportions. Maybe faith is trusting God no matter how impossible the odds are. Maybe our impossible situations are opportunities to experience a new dimension of Gods glory.”
This month I felt on more than one occasion the odds were stacked up against me. And more than once this month The Lord has revealed to me new dimensions of His glory!
A picture of Laura and I with some of waterman family 🙂 I really love these little kiddos.
