Our first day of ministry, Andrew (whom I have renamed Andres while in these Spanish speaking countries) and I were assigned to the task of cleaning out the tilapia tank. Well, this tank is about 15 feet deep, and about 12 ft long on each side and is SICK NASTY dirty. We're talking all kinds of algae, rumors of flesh eating bacteria, dead fish, fish poop and lots of trash kind-of-dirty. Our task was to empty the last 2-ish feet of liquid in the tank, remove the rocks and refill the tank. Since the pump was broken, the cleaning of the tank had to be done by hand. We put a ladder into the tank and down I went- complete with pink rubber gloves and a trash bag around my legs. Afraid of flesh eating bacteria, I was very careful to not come into contact with the water-like liquid. Andres lowered the bucket, I filled it and he lifted it up… but not high enough. About half of the contents of the nasty bucket came pouring back onto my head. YUCK!! I scurried my way up the ladder and probably yelled something about “there must be an easier way!” While Andres claims I chose joy in that moment, I was pretty upset. He started laughing… typical. We then attempted to fix the pump, which was most unsuccessful. After that, I decided I was over the tilapia tank and wanted nothing to do with it for the rest of the day.
Fast forward one week.
Our awesome and beautiful squad leader, KK, was visiting and led our morning devotional time. Her daily challenge to each of us was from 1 Corinthians 13- the chapter on love. We each identified one area of love we needed to grow in. I choose irritability/annoyance.
Andres, Meg and I were assigned tilapia tank task again. This time, thanks to some of the girls at the girls home and my other lovely teammates, there were only about 8 inches of water left in the tank. Today was the day to remove the rocks, trash, dead fish, frogs, etc. Meg and I put the ladder back into the tank, crawled in like champs (me still with the trash bag around my legs) and started picking up rocks and launching them out. Andres stood above, watching us and standing right in the path of my flying rocks. One of my rocks accidentally grazed his ankle before landing on the ground. “Owww,” he joked. “That's what you get for just standing there! Why don't you get your ass down here and help us!!” I yelled back. Wowwww. I don't even know where that came from! That was the first time on the Race I had cursed at anyone or even gotten angry to the point of yelling. I apologized shortly there after and told him that I had greatly failed at the challenge to love people without irritability/annoyance. He extended grace and forgave me instantly, laughing it off. (Now, he may tell that story a little differently, and if you wanta hear it from his perspective, check it out on his blog –> andrewwalberg.theworldrace.org)
I tell that little silly story to say that God has really been working on my heart and teaching me what it means to love my teammates well. It is HARD living in community 24/7 and for 6 other people to see your faults, your good times, your struggles, EVERYTHING. But at the same time, it is SO good. I have a whole new level of love and appreciation for each of my teammates which I'm sure will continue to grow stronger over the next 9 months. Seriously, they're amazing. They love me selflessly, graciously and push me to be a greater woman of God each and every day!
P.S. as soon as I have more functional Internet I'll add a pic from the tilapia tank. But in the meantime, please be praying that Meg's and my fungus fingers will heal soon!
