Well as you can recall last month at the end of our time in Haiti, I posted a blog about how much I learned about love during the time that we spent with the orphans. Well little did I realize that God wanted to keep teaching me more fruits of the Spirit in the Dominican Republic. The DR has been forever planted in my mind as the “patience” month. Every situation that we were put in, I felt that God was trying to stretch my patience. Not that they were trying or exhausting situations, but I just knew that God wanted to extend my patience and make me learn how to eventually be patient and loving at the same time.
It was an interesting trait for God to be working on me, in my own selfish opinion. Back home, I am usually pretty easy going, and it is not easy for someone to reach the end of my patience, so I thought that patience was one of the things that I had down pat. Well, apparently being in a different country that speaks a different language and living in a house with 27 other people will find a way to work your patience. It was definitely a month where God revealed areas that I had hid from myself and had deceived myself that I had all together.
The first thing that really tried my patience was the ministry we worked in. The kids there seemed to be more of a hassle/headache than the orphans did in Haiti. Even though they were probably just as good as the kids in Haiti, I feel like God allowed them to annoy me in order to teach me lessons about patience.
The next thing that tried me were the church services that we went to. The services were obviously all in Spanish. What was worse was that the sound system in the church was absolutely atrocious. It consisted of very loud and obnoxious crackles and pops every 10 seconds that resulted in piercing headaches on multiple occasions.
This blog may seem like a chance for me to vent, but that is not the purpose. In order to prevent it from looking like that I will quit talking about what tried me and actually talk about what I learned.
Throughout this month, it became easier and easier to love and look into situations the way Jesus would have when He was on the planet. I know that we look at His ministry and just see the glamorous side, but in all actuality HIs ministry was just as dirty and ugly as some of the ministries that we get involved with nowadays. Jesus practiced utter patience. A lot of times it involved pulling Himself away from the situations that frustrated Him and just spending some time with His bros. I found myself doing that a LOT this month. Just retreating from situations and either talking it out with one of my bros or the ultimate Bro in my life. Not that I was shying away from situations that needed to be addressed, but just give God and myself enough time to work through a situation. By the time we were done working it out, I could approach the situation with utmost love and grace. This will definitely be an important lesson to carry out for the next 9 months and the rest of my life. In the past, I would step into situations without grace and love and offend or hurt brothers and sisters. After my time in the DR, I find it a lot easier to step back and observe the situation and learn my place, before spouting off then regretting my statements later.
Looking back on the month, I know that seems like a very simple lesson to learn, but it is really hard to quantify this type of growth in words. Just know that my growth in the patience realm extends 100x further than a simple blog could ever describe.
