He sat alone at the Matamorros bus station, arthritic hands clinging to a small green duffel. His dark, leathery face was weathered by years of sun exposure and contrasted by light, time worn eyes. Our team sat across the isle, barricaded in by piles of massive backpacks. I watched as he slowly massaged each of his pained hands, first rubbing the knuckles of one then the other. I felt a prompting in my Spirit, “Morgan, go over spend some time getting to know him.”
“Como te llama” I asked, hesitant to try out my Spanish, nervous it would be difficult to understand.
“Paulie,” His voice was uneven and shallow as if it took insurmountable energy to formulate each word. Conversation begin to flow, I was surprised by the fluency I could speak with. Eventually Paulie removed his United States permanent resident card from a shirt pocket and began telling me about the different places he had worked.
He had spent time picking oranges and lemons in Florida. At one point he resided in the central valley of California. Excitement shown on his face when he realized that I had also had lived in California. Conversation continued to flow pausing as the loud speakers blared announcements for bus after bus.
Eventually Paulie gestured at a bag below his feet. I looked down at the plastic grocery sack filled with two Costco sized containers of dry coffee creamer. He explained that they were gifts for his two kids and went on to tell me about how much he was looking forward to seeing his wife.
He talked more; I listened, his quiet voice and my lack of Spanish knowledge making it impossible to hear every word. At first it was frustrating to not be able to completely understand but his need was to talk, it didn’t matter that I couldn’t get every word.
Long after I had boarded the bus for Palenque, I grasped one of the lesson’s God had for me in the conversation. This year is not about understanding everything that comes at me. It would make me crazy to try. This year is about asking God where needs are, no matter how small, and letting Him use me to fill those needs, even if I don’t always understand.
