Last week brought an end to the first month of my World Race.
Month One consisted of short hours spent at a beautiful ministry, Lifting Hands. My time there was full of laughter and smiles and just loving on kids and praying they grow to break the poverty circle they are growing up in.
Month One taught me a lot about myself; I learned to let go of control, to throw my expectations away, and realize (yet again) God knows what He is doing. I grew to love being The Pinky Toe at ministry and understood that simply being there for the kids was all I needed to do. I let go of trying to feel needed or important and started to just be.
That is when God started working. I made connections with kids, I loved them and they loved me. We smiled and we laughed as we tried to understand what the other was saying in a language we barely knew. We played games or we just sat in silence together. And that was ENOUGH.
I didn’t have to be preaching “God loves you!” I didn’t have to be making drastic changes. I didn’t have to be front and center, or even really seen. I simply had to be.
I simply had to be there to welcome a kid into a game. I simply had to be there to return a shy smile. I simply had to be and then I could see my impact. On our last day I took these pictures with the kids and will remember their smiles and hearts forever and all the lessons they taught me.
Now, I write this blog on the roof of a hostel over looking Jaco Beach, Costa Rica in this time called debrief.
This is exactly what debrief means: looking at what my World Race has been so far and seeing what I learned from it. But also, debrief is about revival and renewal and refreshment. What better place to be revived, renewed, and refreshed than the beach? I can’t think of any place I’d rather be.
The beach instantly makes me think of two words: peaceful and powerful. Contradicting? Maybe, but somehow each fits so perfectly.
The ocean is powerful. The wave roar, the waves hit hard. Sometimes you can hold your head up and tread, while other times you’re thrown down and tossed around. But then the wave passes and you stand back up and the wave loses its power and crashes back to the shore. And that’s the peace of the beach. The same thing happens over and over: a wave builds up, it crashes, and it fades.
That’s life. Sometimes you’ll be in over your head, but know the wave will always come to pass and in that, find peace.
This week here at debrief I have found so much peace. I have been renewed. I have been revived. I have been refreshed. Today, I return home to San Jose eager to discover my next ministry and devour all that God has in store for me.
