THE MISSION:
“Pick a person whom God has laid on your heart. Someone you met this past week, and think of what God would want you to with them or for them.” After a couple days of thinking about this and remembering all of the 20 or so homes that we visited in the last 3 days, Abby and I decided to visit “The Cat Lady” whom we met on our first day of ministry. For two months, she's been unable to even pick her body up off the ground. She's old. She smells. Her house smells like urine. She is dirty. She moans and complains. She is a woman who simply wants to die. (I know this because I heard her say it.) No one comes to visit her except a neighbor or one of her surviving children in the morning to make sure she has a cup of water next to her straw mat that's spread on the floor that she lays on. All day and all night she just lays there, not moving. And besides the time someone helps her to the bathroom if they come in the morning, she is left sit in her own waste the rest of the day as it soaks into her clothes and mat. Hence, her 10×10 foot, dirt floor, mud built home with a tin roof and door home smells awful. As we visited with her, I think we came out of there smelling like urine. But instead of being upset (which would have definitely been the case back at home), I was fine with it. My heart went out to her more than I wanted to be clean and not smell like urine when I left there. But the urine stench it was. (Side note, I was thinking of things I would love to turn into perfumes such as a loaf of freshly baked Pau from the bakery here… the smell of her home is not one of them.)
We saw many people that needed our serving that day but we just couldn't go to them all so we went with the one God placed on our hearts… her. So we set ourselves out, along with Weldon our translator, to go the “Cat Lady's” home… and do her laundry. God told me, “Clean for her. Do something for her that she can't do for herself.” Now I must admit that I didn't want to. I wasn't even excited to be going back there because I knew the smell and self-pity that we'd be facing by walking in there again. But God reminded me, “She is My daughter and she needs you. She is a reason I've sent you there. Go.” Though inside I was cringing at the thought of doing her laundry, I outwardly expressed that I wanted to go to her to serve her in that way. We obeyed and set off for the home of stench. I didn't want to and I wanted to all at the same time.
THE DETOUR:
Now I have come to terms with the fact that often times, God changes our course of action. As we have plans, He surprises us with a detour. In this case kids. (For many women, they would say this meaning they were pregnant and their lives are about to change… uh, no.) But kids showed up. They saw us walking… and we were lost in joy for the next hour taking pictures with them, playing games, and I even became a human jungle gym to at least 10 little boys and girls. They were so dirty and I kept thinking, “I am going to really smell at the end of this and they are getting me soooo dirty”… but that was just a good preparation for what was in store for me.
PRESSING ON:
So with all of the kids now in tow as our fan club, we finally made it to her home and we sat next to her frail body on her mat in her home. Abby held her hand as I rubbed her shoulders. We let her just talk to us. We listened. I prayed silently for her the entire time. What else could I do? After about 30 minutes, she finally allowed us to take her laundry to a nearby well so we could wash it. I was in for another surprise when the kids who followed us continued to the well with us and wanted to show us how it was done! Step one: stomp on the clothes. Imagine the I Love Lucy episode where she's stepping on all of the grapes and running around in the large vat to do so… that was what the kids did to her clothes in the small bins that we had. And immediately, brown! Brown water from the collection of dirt for who-knows-how-long started splashing out of the bins. I'll let you think of your own worst reference you could think of for something brown and liquidy and you've got a good idea of what the water immediately looked like! It was disgusting. Through army marches, dancing, and jumping in excitement, the kids stomped as much dirt out of her clothes as possible. We then did the actually scrubbing and such. It was one of the grossest things that I've done in a long time. One of the grossest even on the race. But it was worth it.
THE FRUIT:
I was tested and was grateful to have obeyed… “Will you do My will, or not? Will you put this woman above yourself, or not? There's no middle ground. You either do what I say, fully, or you don't? You must choose. I know that you don't want to do what I'm asking you to do. Yes, it is disgusting. But you are there to serve the least of all people, walk in humility, and practically help the lame and unable. So choose what you will do.”
God also put kids in our midst, by which I was tempted to stay and just play with them the whole time because we easily could have and said we were serving them and called it “God's will”. I wanted to use them as an “out” to what I really didn't want to do. It was an unexpected way that we were called to love people that day, but He never communicated that the rest of His plan was now null and void. Simply because He added to His plans for us that day unexpectedly did not mean that He was canceling the rest of His will for us as well. No, we were to do it all. The detour just became an addition.
The joy on The Cat Lady's face when we returned was priceless. When was the last time someone helped her in this way? When was the last time, if any time, that someone did something for her that they didn't have to? When was the last time she did anything like this for anyone else? I don't know and none of those things really matter. We returned and hung up her clothes outside for her then entered back into the stench zone. She was smiling. She was grateful, and she was smiling. For the first time in who-knows-how-long. She didn't complain. She didn't moan. And she only talked about dying once 🙂 We made a difference in her day. We didn't do anything big, just something different. I am finding that this entire trip is not about us doing anything big, just different. Just not about ourselves. Just being willing. In the community and the culture that He's put us into at that moment. When I go home, it will be in America, but for now it's Africa. “Will you do My will or not? Will you listen to the Spirit, or quench it? Will you walk in humility, or prefer yourself?” Every day we all have to not only answer these questions, but are tested to actually live them out. I realize that it's almost easier to serve others here because I don't have the daily demands of life as I do back home that you all do now… appointments, work, plans. Here, my only plans are to be willing and giving of my time. But He's reminding me that location does not influence if I'm supposed to give this much, like this, all the time, just the place in which I am to do it. Sometimes I fail to do what He asks. I tell Him I don't want to and I don't do what I know I should. And He convicts me each time, in a good way. (Those things just aren't the topic of this blog.) But this time, I did. And it was good.
(sorry no pics… third world country internet :/
