My team and I have a running joke about our first month on the field in Honduras: “All they (our hosts) do is feed us and serve us and love us!” My first month on the Race was not what we expected. We expected to hit the ground running with ministry all day, 6 days a week.
Our host, Pastor Gregorio and his wife, Francisca, run a children’s feeding program out of their home and their church next door. Our first day in Honduras, my team went to a full day of ministry. We sang, we colored, we read bible stories in Spanish (can you imagine my accent? yikes). The second day Pastor informed us that we didn’t have ministry for the rest of the week due to the children and teachers being on vacation. In addition to not having consistent ministry, due to the safety of the area where we were staying, we were not allowed to leave the house without Pastor. The next 5 days we spent doing a lot of team time, taking muchas siestas (many naps), team workouts, and learning how to rest.
After the first week, we were SO ready to get out of the house. We stood at our gate, wishing we could leave and jokingly said, “Let us out! All they do is feed us and serve us!” We realized that was kind of a beautiful thing. God quickly told us to embrace rest. It isn’t what we expected, but there is so much to learn in letting yourself be served. God brought us to Honduras and put us in a home with just a few windows, at the bottom of a hill, with little freedom, to learn how to rest and to be served. Perhaps God wanted to teach us how to serve well so that we can serve others well over the next 10 months?
Francisa cooked us 3 meals each day, and all we had to do was listen for the clink of the silverware and plates and show up to the table. Every single time we said thank you Pastor, and Francisca responded with “Es un placer (It’s a pleasure).” We attended church 5 nights a week, and almost every sermon Pastor gave, he talked about how much he loved having us in his home and being able to provide for us for a few weeks.
God does the same thing! He invites us in, gives us a place to rest, and prepares a place for us to sit at his table. God’s table is always big enough, and there will always be a seat for his children. There were several times throughout the month that my team felt like we weren’t doing enough to serve our host and his community. God continued to remind us that what He had prepared for us this month was good enough, and we just had to receive it. We had to lay our expectations down at the door, and let ourselves come to the table and be served.
