This has been a year of giving – giving our time, resources, energy, knowledge, love, etc. We give to those wherever we are sent. But the month of October has been teaching me something… not new… just something I haven’t encountered much on the Race.
This past month, we have been doing Unsung Heroes again. There is one church, in particular, with which we spent a lot of time. Tabernaculo Biblico Bautista is a mega church, with a large store, a cafeteria, a drug rehab program, an orphanage, a homeless feeding ministry, a hospital visiting ministry, a barber shop, a pupuseria, a school, a daily Sunday school, and more.
Our first day meeting them, they gave each of us a bottle of water or tea or any drink we wanted. I remember Elaine turning to me and saying, “I don’t know how to handle this.” We had been so warmly welcomed and honored. We felt almost guilty for accepting the water without paying for it.
And it continued on to the following Sunday at church. We were introduced to the congregation at one of their 5 services on television. They fed us lunch in the cafeteria and gave us each a shirt from their store. Another day they gave us Starbucks coffee and still another visit involved delicious pupusas. We felt a little like celebrities.
I discovered that I haven’t quite figured out how to receive – without guilt, without feeling that I owe back, or that I need to do something to deserve the gift. I’m bad at receiving. This past month was good practice at learning to bless others by receiving freely from them.
