As sit here in the restaurant/hotel down the street from the compound we have been living at while in Albania, it hard for me to believe that we are just past the halfway point of month 2. This month for me has flown by.
Last week was our first week of camp. We had a full and busy schedule Monday through Friday, with our days starting at 6am and going until around 9pm. I had the privilege of serving in kitchen this week with 12 other squad mates and 2 wonderful ladies (Flora and Ducha) who cooked all our meals. I didn’t expect this week to be a walk in the park but I did not expect the rude behavior and the demands that were made by some of the campers and their counselors.
If you have ever worked in the service industry you know how demanding and entitled people can be. But if you have ever been to camp you know that the food that is served is what there is. There is nothing else with the exception of those who have food allergies. This is not the case here at the camp. Our small and over crowded cafeteria quickly became a small restaurant. Suddenly we were being demanded to serve things that weren’t on the menu for the day. We were asked why there was no vegetarian option. (side note: the vegetarian option is only rice, pasta, of fries instead of rice, pasta, or with whatever meat is being served not salad or some sort of other vegetarian options) This as you may imagine quickly became really frustrating. There were times that I dreaded going to the kitchen because I knew what was about to go down. More so I hated to see these Albanian teens treat Flora and Ducha with such disrespect (in Albania there is little to no respect for women). These women literally salve away in a hot kitchen all day long to make the food for all the campers, counselors, and all us racers.
While talking about these frustrations one day a girl on my kitchen team said to me “if you think you have a servant heart wait until you are treated like one”. I didn’t think much of it at the time but then later I started to think about those words. That was when The Lord starting to speak to me and I have a serious heart check. He brought me to two scriptures.
In John 13:1-17 Jesus washes the disciples feet during the Passover feast. He tells his disciples once he is finished that he has just set the example for them and that they will be blessed to do the dame to others. The thing is that feet washing was a job for the lowest of all the servants and the disciples knew this. To have there feet washed by someone they considered Lord and Teacher was un heard of. People in high positions or positions of great respect would never do this. But earlier in scripture Jesus also told us that whoever makes himself first will be last and whoever makes himself last will be first. Then in Philippians 2 It talks about how we are to humble ourselves and look out for the interests of other rather than our own and further down again shows us the example that Christ set for us making himself a servant.
These passages stood out to me much differently to me this week than any other week. I am I not a servant of Christ? Is he not my Lord and Teacher? When I chose to live my life for him did I not pick up my cross and follow him? He never said living for him would be a walk in the park or that we would come out smelling like roses. He did say to me that if I loved him I would obey him. And I do. So I will.
Colossians 3:23 – Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for The Lord, not for human masters
