My sister and I are on an 11-month Christian mission trip to 11 different countries across 4 continents. We’re headed to Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Chile, Uganda, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Cambodia, and Thailand.Our work ranges from country to country in partnership with established ministries in each area. We’re working in orphanages, building churches, ministering to trafficked women, and more.
Currently, my team is in Santiago, Chile working with a local Baptist church.
On our first Sunday in Santiago, Pastor Nelson preached out of Luke 21:1-4.
The Widow’s Offering
“As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”
He talked about it from a perspective I’d never heard before.
He emphasized how Jesus could be so influential, how he could say so much, with just a look.
He looked up.
He spoke about how if we would be more intentional about “looking,” we could say so much more.
This past ten days, our team has been doing ministry non-stop. Home visits to the elderly. Learning and teaching Spanish worship songs. Giving sermons in Spanish. Trying to say so much.
Then, I looked.
I took a moment from all that we were trying to communicate… and just looked.
ONCE.
We were invited to “Once” with a local church family.
In Chile, “once” (think eleven, in Spanish) is like tea-time, with coffees, teas, and pastries.
We walk into the home and see a huge table taking over the living room and kitchen.
Plates of all different sizes. Coffees. Teas. Multiple kinds of fresh-squeezed juice. Pastries. Cakes. Sandwiches. Freshly baked bread.
The aroma of baking empanadas fills the room.
Suddenly, we’re being greeted with kiss after kiss. More than twenty family members flood into the room, urging us to sit down.
With kids running around the table laughing, the family spoke loudly and excitedly to one another in Castilian Spanish.
I could barely follow a conversation. Vivi, our fluent teammate, couldn’t keep up.
So, I just looked.
I saw all the laughter, the smiles, and the extravagant love being extended to us.
Multiple households had worked together to make this “Once” special.
In my heart, I remembered Jesus’s teaching.
“All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”
This family truly gave of themselves for us to feel welcomed.
Silently, I prayed a prayer during that “once.”
Lord, I don’t want to just give out of my wealth. I want to truly give all I have for you.
