God sure had something up his sleeve when He made man.
I sometimes wonder what His reason was to make men and women so different. How are there some days that we work together so well but others that we can’t see eye to eye on anything?
Over the past 3 months God has sweetly been showing me qualities of men that I admire and greatly respect.
It started in Nicaragua when I became sick and needed a little extra help to recover. A man named Scott was put into my life. Scott is a long term missionary with his family at the AIM base in Granada. He so graciously took me under his wing to make sure I got all of the care I needed to recover. At one point in his life he was just a normal man from the US with a family and belief in God. A few years back Scott and his wife felt like they were being called to the mission field in Nicaragua. And they went!! They left the comforts of having a stable job, family, and English speakers to move to a completely different country. I learned from Scott that it is okay to be uncomfortable and take risks. It is also possible to make home in people and not necessarily a place.
That same month I also got to see a side of my dad that I had never seen before. He arrived to Granada and it was one of the happiest times I remember seeing him. That week we laughed together, cried together, and prayed together more than we had ever before as a family. He taught me that week to take advantage of the time we have together as a family and to push each other closer to God.
Then came team changes at the beginning of Costa Rica. I had NO clue I was going to be put on a co-ed team. I really had to take time with God and ask Him why I was with a few of our men and figure out what ways they were going to help me grow.
God was so kind when He put me with these three. Ryan, Jacob, and Theo have become the Godly examples of men I didn’t know I needed in my life. Each one of them shows me a different way to walk with the Lord and how each part in the body of Christ can work together.
Ryan has taken time to show me how to prepare sermons and challenges me to study the word without even vocalising it. He and I did a teaching together on Esther and Mordecai in Nicaragua. If I had to choose someone who displayed characteristics of Mordecai it would be Ryan.
Jacob shows me how difficult men are to understand. I really thought I understood them until I met Jacob. He is constantly learning and seeing the people who everyone else misses. Jake is a man who is calling everyone around him higher as he is learning new ways of being called higher himself.
Theo. This dude can literally talk to any person he meets. He has such a passion for the backpacking community that he spends all of his free time finding them and ministering to them. I think it would be cool to time him and see how fast he can share the Gospel with someone who had never heard it before. He is so passionate about that community and constantly invites you into what he is doing within it.
In Costa Rica, we partnered with a couple who runs a church and had a ministry that will soon become a missionary school. Tony, the husband, is a God fearing man. He shares a Bible verse with everyone around him before every meal, then prays and jumps around praising God before he eats! His relationship with his wife taught me what it realistically looks like to put God first in a relationship, push each other in their faith, and invite others into their walk. They are so in love and truly want the same for each person they meet.
Shibu–our ministry host this month. Shibu is originally from India but now lives in Panama with his wife and three kids. There is a large immigrant population from India and Southeast Asia living here in Panama that he wants to reach. He constantly works to find ways to talk to that community, build relationships with them, and invite them into his fellowship. I am currently learning from him that we were born into a specific country for a reason. We were born where we were to reach people that others around the world can’t reach. He is an Indian living in Panama to reach Indians in Panama. I can be an American living in a different country with the purpose to reach Americans in that country. Ministry can be done anywhere. We just have to find the community we have a passion for and the best way we can serve them from where we are at.
Thinking about going home soon sure starts to put things into perspective of what I want my home life to look like. Right now all I can do is be praying that I can find a community to become apart of when I get home that can teach me and push me to grow just like each of these men have done.
