I’m not going to lie, there are times on the Race where you reach a limit, and you are just over the ministry task which you were given. Unfortunately, this happened quite often this month. I cannot say if it was just the humidity that caused me to sweat like it was going out of style, or if it was just my poor, sour attitude…alright it was most definitely more of the latter, but I’ll blame some of it on the uncontrollable sweating. So, now you are probably wondering what this month entailed, and why it was so “awful” that I just couldn’t “bear it anymore.” Well, it was not that awful, but it was indeed hard at times. This month my team (which was rearranged for this month), was partnered with the ministry Casa De Los Ninos, a daycare for children ranging from infants to about five years of age. Our host family, Franz and Daisy, live on the compound where the daycare is at, and so did my team this past month. When we first arrived in Rurrenabaque, Bolivia and walked into the place we would call home and be doing ministry at, it was a cute little courtyard with three main buildings. Yes, they were rundown, paint was peeling off walls, and the place wasn’t “daycare” themed, but it was still beautiful. Our task this month included A LOT of painting…no joke. Daisy and the lead teacher at the daycare had many dreams and visions for the outer courts of the daycare, and it was our job to make those dreams come alive, and we did just that. Our first task was sanding and painting an outer wall that is about 25 yards long, and then painting several types of murals that would also teach the kids their numbers, alphabet, shapes, etc. Seemed legit and I was so excited to do this, until we started. First, let me explain to you that paint in third world countries is nothing like paint back home. It is either watery and takes a thousands coats to see a hint of color, or it is mixed with gasoline and runs/bleeds like crazy, or sometimes you just don’t even know what it is and pray that someday it doesn’t give you cancer. In the midst of us working on our first task, my team decided that we should get the ball rolling on some other tasks, since there was enough of us. That task was painting the fence along the entry way. Seems easy enough, but we had to sand and scrub each nook and cranny of the fence before we could paint it. It took us a few days, and in those few days we ripped out overgrown weeds and plants that surrounded the fence wall, replaced rotten wood with new pieces, sanded fence posts that were covered in mildew, fire ants and the worst…spiders. Yes, I know how this all seems…I am complaining, but in order to “paint the picture for you” ( this is what my teammate William always asked us to do), you need to hear all the details…good and bad. Enduring the humidity, my team pulled through day in and day out of scrubbing the fence and applying numerous coats to the wall. Our two projects began creeping to a finish, so we decided to start yet another task, and that was the stairs. Oh these stairs…haha. These stairs were covered in moss, the pillars of the railing were intricately designed and the designs were coated in dirt and spider webs and there were a lot of railings. We began by sanding all of the stairs and removing the moss off the steps, the caked-on dirt and the spider webs. Once again, we got every nook and cranny, even the pillars – I despised those pillars. Once that was complete we could begin painting. Say wha?!? More painting, yes more painting. So, we rotated between painting the murals on the 25 yard long wall, sanding and painting the fence posts and sanding/scrubbing the stairs and painting them as well. To sum it up, we had enough work to keep us busy from 7 am to 6 pm (we took a siesta from 12:30-2:30, like everyone else in Rurrenbaque). There were several other tasks that my team did throughout the three weeks: yard maintenance, which consisted of pulling down massive tree limbs, cutting up tree limbs, raking, painting tires with gasoline paint, cleaning out a tarantula-infested storage shed (I did not participate in this), painting activities on the courtyard ground, teaching the daycare kids lessons (I taught them the song, ‘ Clean Up’ and then proceeded to teach them how to pick up their toys, which was a hard lesson for them), playing with them throughout the day, and much more. I’m telling you all of what we did because, one, you probably want to know, but two there is a huge theme here that applies greatly to ALL of our lives that God has put on my heart to share with you. This theme is Restoration. I just finished reading Exodus and Leviticus this month and time and time again we see, along with the rest of the Old Testament, how God creates a covenant with Israel, they abandon the covenant and God, and then God chooses to restore them back to Himself! It really is beautiful and crazy all at the same time. Every scenario Israel is faced with, God already knows the outcome. They will fail and He will chose to restore them back to Himself. Don’t you find it odd that Israel could not learn from their mistakes? It wasn’t as if God gave them no punishment – because He did, but overall He gave more mercy over judgement. Even today, the nation of Israel still struggles with following God. I actually had the opportunity to spend time with several Israelis in the Pampas of Rurrenbaque a couple weekends ago. I was able to talk with three of them in-depth and one of them doesn’t believe in God at all, but sees “religion as a tradition.” The other two believe it, but find it “restrictive” and even then they did not believe Jesus was the Messiah. God is refining and restoring the country of Israel still to this day. This theme is also evident in my own life. I have this everlasting covenant with God, and time and time again I find myself not walking in it. The beautiful thing, that I will never be able to grasp, is that God remains steadfast in His patience, love, and mercy toward me. I do not deserve this, but He is more than glad to offer it to me. We are told multiple times within the New Testament of the hardships that will come, and rightfully so because we live in a fallen, sinful world. These are the moments we dread facing, but a part of me thinks these are the moments Our Father looks forward to. Sounds weird, but hear me out. In those moments when we face hardships, confusion, healing or just plain take steps away from God, those are the moments in which God can refine us. Every time Israel screwed up, God showed them what they did wrong, and how they could live closer and become more like Him. Every time we are struggling, God reveals something to us so that He can refine and restore us to be closer to Him. Now, this is not always evident in the moment, but I challenge you to go back and reflect on those hard or challenging times in your life and see how God has refined or restored you closer to Him from it. Mind blown, right? He is always, as the Skit Guys would say it, “chiseling” at us and removing the ungodly parts from us. For me, this process was happening in the previous month, I just didn’t fully see it in the moment. It hurts, a lot, and sometimes it is a long process. In the moment, it is hard for us to see the finished product, but once it is done all the “chiseling” was so worth it. In Jeremiah it is written, “So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and then he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. The the word of the LORD came to me: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the LORD. Behold, like the clay in the potters hand, so are you in my hand, O Israel.” (Jeremiah 18:3-6) This month, I was struggling to see how God was using us to rework and restore the daycare. Yep, I missed the lesson and it took me all month to figure it out. Hopefully one of these days I will catch it before the month is over…hopefully. But now when I walk into Casa De Los Ninos, joy fills my heart because I see the visible evidence of God’s hand. I see the impact it has on the daycare, and how it benefits the children’s growth. I wish to see Godly fruit, and the sweetest moments are when you see the moms and dads walking in with their children singing the alphabet, counting numbers, and reading the Bible verses painted up on the walls. God took a place that was already beautiful, but He restored it to be more beautiful because He refined it at the hands of my teammates and I. As Mother Teresa said, “I’m just a little pencil, in the hands of a writing God, sending a love letter to the world.” God leaves His mark wherever I go, I just have to allow His hand to rework, refine and restore me, so that I grow closer to Him and know His plan and desires for me to live out and walk in.
