11/6/2020
We’ve spent a couple weeks in a house in Andrews, TX. We didn’t expect to be here, but, in this time of Covid, we’ve all learned that anything can happen.
Our team learned that we had been exposed to Covid, and so we went into quarantine.
Let me tell you what that’s entailed.
It’s entailed being in a house and having no contact with outsiders. It’s entailed barely sending anyone to the store and making a couple of trips through the drive throughs of some fast food places when we really needed a break from the house or a creative way to minister (yes, we went on a prayer drive and gave a word of encouragement to the person running the drive through). We’ve spent a lot of time together as a squad. We’ve written a lot of letters and recorded a lot of videos and gone on prayer walks and done trash pickups and put out candy on Halloween with hand-written notes of encouragement. We haven’t just sat around doing nothing. We’ve still found ways to minister to other people even when we can’t interact with people.
And you know what I’ve learned?
I’ve learned that God is pretty amazing.
You see, we were originally scheduled to be down in east Texas before this happened and we got to move out here to west Texas where budgets and availability of housing just happened to line up. But the lady renting us the house has been the sweetest and most amazing woman who is willing to go far above and beyond what any of us expected of a host. She has been so easy to work with and cared so deeply for our needs in this time.
And then today came the real kicker. You see, a few days ago on a walk, some members of my squad met our neighbor across the street. I wasn’t there, but I heard she was friendly and a Christian and offered to help us out if we ever needed anything.
This morning our squad was sitting in the living room for our daily shared prayer and gratitude time when out of nowhere a lady started walking up to our door. Some squad members immediately recognized she was our neighbor and joyfully greeted her as she handed over a gift: a bag of homemade tamales. And then a few minutes later, her mother came up and offered another bag of tamales.
We did nothing for this family really, other than be friendly faces in the neighborhood.
But the love of Christ shines brilliantly through them.
Today, we are the ones being ministered to, even as we do our best to continue ministering to others. Never lose sight of the fact that we all need ministry as much as we need to minister to others. Always let yourself be ministered to when the Lord has a blessing to give you. You deserve a blessing as much as any other person in the world.
We enjoyed those tamales for lunch.
We enjoyed the fact that somebody else took the time to pour love into us.
We needed to be recharged like that today with an unexpected gift from God.
And now we will go forward and finish this World Race strong.
