On Thanksgiving morning, our team decided to hike up a mountain that is in the middle of our city, Los Andes. It’s a small hike and fairly easy. But once you get to the top, there is a complete 360 degree view of mountains. On one side there’s snow caps and on the other there is cacti and trees. It’s one of the most gorgeous views I’ve ever seen.
Apart from the mountains, there is a huge statue of Virgin Mary. It’s white marble and she has her arms open and hands turned to the sky. It’s a beautiful statue and people have decorated the patio around it with Christmas decorations. The people care about this statue. On the side of the statue, there are 4 metal boxes. In these boxes there are lit candles. Each lit candle represents someone’s request. Somebody hiked this mountain with a candle and a lighter to bring it to Mary in hopes that their circumstances might change.
This broke my heart. These people don’t understand that you can bring everything you have and are straight to Him. How sad these people don’t believe in a God that can do. They feel the need to light candles and cross their fingers and hope that maybe this will help. That this statue can fix something. They misunderstand God and how much He loves each and every one of them. In Chile, my team and I have been incredibly blessed and we all have comfy beds and lots of food and our ministry is making and selling bread for the church. It was really hard for me when we got here because we did have such nice circumstances. Our ministry is not super relationship based and it was hard to believe that we do actually serves as ministry. It was really hard for me to believe that this is what God wanted us doing.
But, seeing that statue renewed my spirit towards ministry and how it doesn’t have to be working with the homeless or doing door-to-door evangelism. The Lord is asking me to find those deep conversations with the ladies who cook lunch for us everyday, the youth group I’m involved in, and the church family I get to be a part of these 2 months.
