Month one was in El Salvador and for the most part, our ministry was manual labor.
We were told there was a little house (which we later named “La Casita”) that needed cleaned and painted for the kids ministry at a church. Now, I have done this 11 month journey already, and you would think I would know by now that nearly everything you expect is not actually what it is. I had this image of the little house being a bit outdated and dirty, but a normal house none-the-less.
On the contrary…
1, The “church” was actually a patch of dirt where leaves were cleared off and chairs set up
2, This little house, has not been touched for decades and had a forest growing inside. Not only a forest, but full of poison ivy-like plants, rats, scorpions, spiders, wasps, and who knows what else.
When I walked up to this house I remember thinking, “God no, God please don’t make me go in there. Don’t make this my ministry all month. Nothing could ever come of this even if we tried cleaning it up.”
BUT something came of that house and it is beautiful! It took a lot of hard work but it was an amazing blessing to see a visual example of the the transformation God does in our lives.
If you know me at all, you will already know that I love metaphors! I love them more than I could put into words and the Lord speaks to me through metaphors regularly.
That said, when I went to our casita the very last time, I looked at it and realized the potential I just wrote off when I first saw it, but look at it now…it’s clean, useable, and on top of that, it’s beautiful! I realized that is often how we see ourselves. We look at ourselves and can’t see the potential we have but if we would just be dedicated, work hard, and trust the process God is taking us on He will transform us into something beautiful.
The End. : ) Watch the transformation of our Casita below!
