I’ll set the scene for you.
It’s our off day from ministry, so our host organized for our teams to go to the Valley of the Angels. The valley is a place where many tourists go in Honduras. It’s a small city with good food and touristy shops filled to the brim with knick knacks and other Honduran novelties—what more could you ask for? I had a full day walking around, shopping, and enjoying some yummy food with Jordan and Katie and then it happens. The endless search for wifi.
Something that I’ve realized about the Race is that, sadly, many of our adventures end with a mad dash for wifi. Most of the places where I’ve lived don’t have regular access to wifi, so we have to make good use of our time and use every coffeeshop opportunity to contact friends and family, post blogs and journey markers, and take care of all the other chores that involve wifi. You’d be surprised of all the things that you need wifi for! Our world is so connected that we realize how lost we are only when we don’t have the opportunity to connect anymore. You would also be surprised at how the mood of the day changes once wifi becomes a factor. Annoyance stirs up with bad connections, and hurriedness becomes eminent with the realization that there’s only an hour left to do all of the things. Jordan, Katie, and I left the wifi dash for the last 2 hours of our trip because we wanted to truly enjoy everything that the Valley had to offer.
We walked and walked. We couldn’t find a good connection and time was running low. The emotions began to rise, and then to put the cherry on top of the situation, my flip flop suddenly breaks! Who can walk with a broken flip flop?! No one!
We attempted to fix my shoe with a hair tie with no luck until we encountered Noah. Noah, full of laughter, rushes to help with super glue in hand. After realizing that his super glue was empty, he then sends one of his workers on a mad dash to go and buy more and invites us to step inside his restaurant. He also said that he has great wifi and wanted to offer us free food— what in the world was going on??
After walking inside of the restaurant and ordering a couple things from the menu, we finally had the chance to figure out who this kind stranger was. Noah sat down at the table with us and asked us why we were in Honduras. We told him that we were missionaries, and his face lit up! Noah was not only the owner of this restaurant, but he was also involved in a nearby church, studied theology in Costa Rica, and was looking to become a missionary! He was delighted to hear all about our trip and the places we were going. We had great conversation and he even let us all say a prayer over him. Sadly, we didn’t get to stay for much longer and we didn’t get much quality wifi time, but it was worth it. We had the opportunity to encourage a believer to do what God had called him to do. We even got him connected with our ministry host so they could work together in the future.
I truly believe that God broke my flip flop that day. He saw how a great day was slowly turning into a stressful day. He knew we needed to see His face in a tangible way that day. He wanted to bless and encourage Noah in the process. He also might use this new connection for His glory. The Lord truly does turn around all situations for His glory. It might be in the span of one day or maybe one month, but God truly is in our everyday lives. And sometimes, God may even use the kindness of a stranger to show you more about who He is.
Who can you be that kind stranger to today? I will definitely be more aware of how I can show the face of Christ to strangers now.
Go and bless someone today!
Jor
