The only way for me to sum up this past week is that I was ¨stretched¨ more emotionally and spiritually than I probably ever have been in my entire life. And oh yes, I DO know that this will continue to happen more and more as these next 11 months go on. My team and I traveled an hour outside of Palenque to a village called Arroyopalenque where we lived with Pastor Marcos and his family. He has a great wife and three beautiful children who we have all fell in love with….Goddy age 2, Carla age 4, and Adrian age 10. Pastor Marcos has a small church in this village that is basically connected to his home. Another World Race group came to this same village a year and a half ago and I know that Pastor Marcos has high expecations of my team.
Our ministry was NON STOP this week…..since we live with our contact, we ate with them, slept right next to the whole family, minister with them, and pray with them 24-7. The language barrier was extremely difficult because the whole village speaks Chol, the local dialect. I ended up being the main translator for our group with Marcos since he was the only one in the village that spoke chol and spanish. I have not spoken spanish since my junior year of college (3 years ago), so there were MANY frustrating times where I could just not convey to Marcos what I or one of my teammates was wanting to say. And when you are talking to someone about ministry, not being able to express your exact words can wear down on you day after day.
The hardest part about this week was being expected to perform miracles in this community. The pastor and these people look to us to heal the mentally retarded, make the disabled walk, and heal people of chronic pain. I have no doubt in my mind that God can heal these people, but ….
What do you say to the mother with the mentally retarded child when she asks you if you can make her child normal again?
What do you say to the elderly woman who asks you if she will ever walk again?
What do you say to the man who asks you to relieve him of all of the chronic pain in his entire body?
My answer is this….I will pray and let them know that it is all in God´s time. Its just NOT that easy though….I do NOT want to let these people down who have SO much hope for what we can do with God and with prayer. I take these expectations to heart and truly feel that I have let these people down when these miracles do not happen. I know that it is NOT in my power, but in God´s and I have to come to peace with that.
I am very thankful for this past week and know that everything that happened has only made myself and my team stronger. We still have one more week there so I look forward to seeing what God has in store for us. Please pray for the people of this village and that they will understand that we as missionaries will do everything possible that we can, but that ultimately, God is in control.
