In the morning the Pastor comes to pick us up in his truck. He loads up all the food packages and gringos into the bed of the truck and we head for the mountains. We race down the highway and the wind rips through our hair as the bumps in the road rip into our behinds. We ask the Holy Spirit to give us a message to deliver along with the food. Often times we pull up to a run-down shack in the middle of nowhere when the Pastor tells us to keep walking past the shack to find something that resembles a home dwelling but you can’t be sure until someone walks out to greet you. We greet the ladies with a hug and a kiss on the cheek as the pastor translates to them we are here to give them food but to also give them a message of Hope.
My favorite people to minister to are the people with the “stink faces”. You know, the face that seems to be permanently stuck in a stretched frowning position. They are the ones who make you want to tuck your tail and run back to the truck. You would think that they are about to run you off their land but we tell them about the mystery and beauty of God’s love for them anyways. As we lay hands on their shoulders and start to pray you can feel something deeply spiritual break in the room. Tears start rolling down their cheeks and we embrace them with hugs and blessings from the Lord.
As we get back in the truck I ask the pastor, “What happened in there!? All we did was give them some rice and beans and pray for them!” The pastor smiled and told us that no one comes out to the ghetto to see these people… especially gringos…. So to them, God has sent you as angels at their door in their darkest hour.
Sometimes the most spiritually significant thing you can do is something that seems manufactured or mundane. We come from a culture that celebrates the elaborate decorated things in life. But are they truly the most significant? The God of the universe does not always reside in the “spectacular things” with its bells, whistles and parades. I find that my God resides most in the simple things that every man is capable of giving and receiving. He is in the midst of bread, wine, water, rice and beans. “Go, take in remembrance of me.”
