Drifting off to sleep, I hear someone come into our room and he has no qualms about being everything but quiet or sober. Hostel life is so stupid. Why is this person so freaking inconsiderate? I am clearly trying to sleep! I would understand if it wasn’t the middle of the night, howev–oh…it’s only 8:15.
Sitting up, I find my glasses and put them on. This very tan and well built guy is standing next to my bunk, covered in green body paint. When he sees me, he begins to apologize in a a South American accent for being so loud. I assure him he is okay because it is, in fact, only 8:15.
He introduces himself as Ricco. Then he goes on and on, explaining about this booze cruise he was on and how great it was and how he is leaving town in the morning and he needs to get the paint off his body. He says the lady on the boat said it would only come off with nail polish remover, so I dig around my big pack and offer him what remains in my bottle.
There is only one problem: there is no way he could reach the paint on his back even if he was sober and as it turns out he is too drunk to get the paint off on his chest. I can’t believe I am offering this but...”Do you need me to help?” I ask. He just keeps telling a story to the girls on my team, who can barely suppress their laughter and don’t even try to hide the fact that they are taking photos of this. This is totally the modern way of feet washing, right? I mean Jesus would probably offer to clean booze cruise paint off a man, right?
I throw the empty bottle of nail polish remover in the trash and look Ricco over. Not too bad! He probably won’t even notice that his nipples are still green…
“I was going to head out to the bar later, do you all want to come with me,” he asks our team.
Anna, our leader, responds, “If Lindsey agrees to go, we’ll go.”
Oh great. The decision is all mine since the team knows I am basically a grandma. Okay, make a quick list of pros and cons. Pros: (1) It will be a great way to get to know the environment here and assess what types of strongholds are present (2) We came down south specifically to do bar and hostel ministry. Cons: (1) I would have to change out of my pajamas (2) I would have to be social.
“We’ll go out with you,” I say with a sigh.
—
Two hours later, I now understand why I never went out while in college: I am awkward.
Why did I ever agree to come out?
I tried to push my thoughts aside and focus on dancing, which for me took a lot more effort than a normal person.
But it is so difficult because none of this is normal. I am in the middle of the dance floor, looking around at all these people who are so lost.
I look to my right and there are two twenty-something’s inhaling nitrous oxide out of a balloon. One collapses to the ground and wakes up a few seconds later, laughing uncontrollably.
I look to my left and a girl is stumbling and she falls to the ground. But the stability of the floor provides her with the perfect spot to continuing drinking out of her liquor bottle without being disturbed.
I look straight ahead and see three Cambodian women whose outfits have enough fabric to cover my left arm and whose stilettos are longer than sticks I’ve fire-roasted marshmallows on. Their faces show a mix between pure disgust and feigning enjoyment as they try and attract men to purchase them for the night.
That’s when Ricco, in traditional Latin fashion, grabs my hand spins me into his arms. “Talk dirty to me,” he whispers in my ear as he spins me back out. What the heck did he just say? I think he just asked me to talk dirty to him. Well that’s awkward. Oh wait…I think that’s the lyrics to the song. Oh yep, that is definitely just the lyrics to the song. Guess I am not up on current music. I am pretty awful at this whole “acting like a 22-year old” thing.
And that’s when it hit me: God can use me, despite how awkward I may be, to bring light and hope to some of the darkest places in the world.
Jesus set the example of going to where broken people are and helping them there. We, as Christians, cannot sit around expect every single person to come to church looking for Christ. We need to go out into the world and bring hope every where we go. We can’t do so in a judgmental or a condemning way, trying to sell people on following Jesus because it will get them out of hell. Instead, we need to act with love and preach on what people are missing out on: the never ending love of God.
Our obedience to God will help bring love to all nations and that love will save the world.
