My Day… May 8th, 2009 a day I will NEVER forget.
Worship at 8 am. I shared with the team what I was going through the day before. (the Raw blog) Just having a day. They thanked me for sharing and being honest. I felt good, heard, supported and just getting crap off my chest always helps me. 9 am we met with the The Friend (ka-wan) Center staff to find out what we were to do for the day. Since we serve breakfast (consisting of buttered bread and Milo or Coffee) we were to split up as to who would to do what. A couple people doing the bread and butter, some in the kitchen helping prepare for lunch and today some where to go out and do some street evangelism. Anna, Zack, Jenn and I went out to the streets.
The three girls split off on our own. Not before praying that God guide us and give us the words to speak. We prayed especially that He would put people in our path. (this is not our favorite thing to do) This really stretches some of us and challenges us to go by faith and to really listen to the voice of God. I ended up seeing a girl from across the street sitting on the steps of a mall by herself. She didn’t look homeless, just bored, waiting for someone.
I went to talk to her, her name is Nadia and she is an amazing 17 year old girl who is just about to begin college. She wants to be a doctor. She speaks English very well, is super sweet and pretty funny. We talked about a lot of things. One that stood out to me was Religion… of course. She is Muslim, and she told me a little about it. She doesn’t practice all the things that they teach because she doesn’t really think they are necessary. For example, wearing the head coverings, long sleeves, can’t touch a boys hand etc.
I shared with her that I was raised Catholic and I didn’t believe in all the things that they teach and rules they follow. I said that I wanted to know God and if I wasn’t going to fully believe in something (Catholicism) I didn’t want to be a part of it. I chose to be Christian. Simply follow, know, love Christ.
She looked like a normal teenage girl. One your might see in the US. Anyway. It was a wonderful conversation that had me thanking God I went out that morning.
We all got back about 11:45 made some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (a world race favorite) and rushed to our next location of ministry. The Cheshire Home for handicapped and mentally disabled people. We got there during their work time. What they did was pull little pieces of rubber out of long plastic tubes. It was really easy, kept them busy and they made money from it. It was nice and cool in the area and they didn’t seem to mind. One lady that I was particularly drawn to was pulling the little rubber things out with her teeth and spitting them out. She had a stroke and her left side was paralyzed. She spoke some English but you couldn’t understand her very well at all. I told her she had a cute haircut (she did) and I started to adopt her method of rubber removing, she really enjoyed it. I later met up with her again when she was doing some physical therapy I told her I truly believed she would get better.
There was a boy there that was severely handicapped. No one knew his name. Darci spent most of the morning tickling him, making him giggle and talking to him. I was by him during their snack time. Dave was close by chatting with another guy. So this snack time of theirs consisted of tea and these super sticky gooey patties with a corn mush inside. Very strange. I was given a few for him with his tea. I had to pour the tea in his mouth little by little so he didn’t choke. I pulled apart this gooey thing into small pieces to feed him. I put the small pieces in his mouth and he would begin to kinda chew them or tongue them around. Well, this didn’t work out well either because the pieces would get stuck to the roof of his mouth. When I saw that they weren’t going down I would ask him what I should do. He obviously couldn’t respond but thought it was funny that this was happening. I told him I wasn’t going to stick my finger in his mouth to get it down, and asked what should I do to help. He giggled and thought is was so funny. He has amazing eyes that just light up and communicate so much when he is unable to. I thought it was funny but I really didn’t know what to do. I ended up getting a spoon and fishing out the glob from the roof of his mouth a couple times for him to chew it and swallow it. I was telling him he can’t have this snack again, he should be having crackers or something that dissolves. I think he agreed.
We sang some songs for the group and later helped them brush their teeth when the dental assistants showed up. This was quite an experience as well. I helped brush a ladies teeth because she didn’t want Dave to. As Dave stood by he was bit by an ant and this lady thought it was hysterical. Her toothpaste gooping out of her mouth as she laughed at him. Me holding the toothbrush waiting to get into her mouth to get another chance to brush her rotting teeth. Her gums were bleeding and I just stopped to pray for her mouth. Prayed that she wasn’t experiencing any pain. There is nothing she could do about the condition of her teeth. I wheeled her back by some of her friends and she gave me a tight squeeze around my hips, from her wheelchair.
Sigh.
We left. Went to eat dinner with Terrance (a ministry contact) and back “home”. This is where things get interesting. I was early evening when some of us decided to take naps and just hang out. It was a really long day already. I did some laundry, took a shower, and got an awesome time in my timed word find. We have a word find that all of us have been timing ourselves to see who can get the best score. I was timed by Zack & Jenn just before I decided to go watch the sunset and spend some time with God.
I had found this great spot on the roof top that was quiet and kinda hidden. I was up there the night before ( Thursday )away from people. About an hour or so after I wrote my last blog, the Raw one. The rest of the team went out for dinner, I heard them from the outside leaving the building. They knew I needed some time. I was up there just dealing with stuff… the day’s events and all that God was teaching me. Having me go through…
I am going to jump back to Thursday night for a bit because I was up on the roof at the same time spending it with God and going through the days emotions and things I was working through. I read the book of Jonah because later that evening Dave was going to teach me a bit about it… and go through it with me. (thank you Dave) As I read it I was really affected by the part where God said to Jonah in Jonah’s complaining, “The LORD replied, “Do you have any right to be angry?” (Jonah 4:4) God said this twice to Jonah.
It was what I needed to hear considering I was just frustrated with myself and community living. Needing to discuss things with the team before doing things etc, etc. I chose into this… I asked for brokenness. What right do I have to be upset and angry? – – – none.
Next blog to continue with A Day I will NEVER Forget.
