As I frustratedly sit outside TGI Friday's at a mall in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, I feel helpless to upload something deep and meaningful to my blog. I'm sitting out here trying to glean a little bit of the wifi that is strong inside the restaurant. It's my team's first day off in nearly two weeks, our first chance to get on the internet. We spent about 3 hours earlier today inside Friday's, mostly catching up with family who were anxious to hear our voices. For those of you who don't know, it has been a very strenuous time for my team. Our family dynamic hasn't been the same since we got to Honduras.
Only a few days after we got here, one of my teammates had an episode that left her barely responsive, unable to move, and in a great deal of pain. Worried and scared, we carried her to our ministry host's car and watched her leave for the hospital.
The next morning, we were told that she was in stable condition and had been diagnosed with a syndrome affecting her nervous system. She required 7-10 days of treatment and could be sent back to the States for further treatment and physical therapy. Cue massive amounts of prayer.
Unable to do anything else (not really much of a visitor's room at this particular public hospital), the rest of us continued with our scheduled ministry, keeping Beka in prayer as often as the Lord brought her to mind.
Each day and night a couple of representatives from the squad would stay at the hospital (or outside of it, they have some pretty amazing stories too…look for some of those blogs), and despite the encouraging news of her progress they brought back, our team wasn't the same.
Day after day multiple members of the team were either at the hospital with Beka, recovering from staying overnight there, or in Danielle's case staying back because she has a cast on her entire leg. One particular day, only Jessica and I went to our scheduled ministry site. While God blessed the ministries and blessed us through our work wherever we were, at the hospital, at our host site (Zion's Gate), or at our scheduled site, our dynamic as a team was just off. We needed each other. All of us.
God has been revealing to me bit by bit how to love the people around me better. Part of that is seeing them with His eyes; seeing their worth, their beauty, their unique gifts. That was made incredibly obvious to me by how wrong it felt to not have my whole family together.
He has continued to bless us. Today my whole team was together. We sat together and enjoyed each other's company over our favorite activity: eating. This unspeakable joy I feel is an incredible reminder of how He has and is blessing my team. He brought Beka back to us (she was released from the hospital on Monday), and though she still has a great deal of work to do she is making amazing progress that is baffling the doctors. He is continuing to heal Danielle and she will be getting her cast off next week (we are praying for complete healing). He has brought joy and unity to my Race family and for that I am unspeakably grateful.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
1 John 4:11-14
