** so in Africa, we learned a song that goes…. “Touch my body. Touch my soul. Touch my spirit. Make me whole.” …. Yes, I giggle every time I hear it. Yes, I understand I am immature. **
During our second week in Odessa, while doing one of our Insanity morning workouts, I tweaked something in my back. Now, this isn’t a rare occurrence for me. I have had some issues with my back for the past 5 years. No big deal.
My team and I debated whether or not I would be able to make the 1.5 mile trudge to First Step. I finally decided that I did not have a legitimate reason to stay behind, and it was only our 2nd day there, so I went. Yes, the walk did hurt my back even more, but I was okay. I was going to pretend to be “tough.”
Carmen & I went into an empty room so that she could try to massage my back just a bit in order to allow me to be in a little less pain for the time we would be at First Step. One of the staff members walked in, asked a question in Russian, and then left. A few minutes later, the First Step cook, Leida, came in and motioned for me to follow her.
Apparently, Leida has a gift when it comes to medical issues. She gave me a full massage — which put me in more pain than I would have imagined, but she definitely knew what she was doing. After the massage, a translator let me know that Leida wanted to see me again in a couple days to repeat the process.
After a few sessions with Leida, my back is almost back to 100%.
Alright… the purpose of this blog is NOT to talk about my back pain & all that jazz. It’s really to discuss something I have been learning consistently over the past 10 months.
I am learning about The Body.
The Body of Christ.
I am learning just how cool the body is. Seriously. How awesome is it that the day I have terrible back pain, we discover that the cook at our ministry site just happens to know how to fix it?
Or what about the teams I have been on? —- I love that JD loves to preach & is awesome at it. I love that Sarah is the best storyteller on the planet, and Laura is a phenomenal musician. Those are things I cannot do — but when we come together as The Body, we are able to minister in multiple ways.
The Q has people who love healing ministry, people who are awesome with kids, people with a passion for women’s ministry, people with a passion for men’s ministry, people who can preach, sing, dance, perform dramas, people who have gifts of encouragement, intercession, administration, hospitality, and so on. Individually, we cannot do much, but together, as one body in the name of Christ, we can do so much for the Kingdom.
Ahh. I absolutely love seeing more of how the Body works and all the different parts of the Body. God is good. His church is good. His Body is good. I am thankful to be a part of the Body.
