Being Present

 “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24

Today our devotion challenge was to be present in what we are doing.  Really putting away our own agenda and being with the people we serve.  Not trying to crunch through the numbers of people in optical, or read as many stories as we can in bible study or even get to as many houses as we can on home visits.  

Today I was able to leave the optical clinic as people were trained enough on the equipment and I felt confident to let them run the clinic.  This was a little challenging for me, letting go of that control and being okay with things possibly going wrong, and me not being there to fix it.  Sometimes I get caught up in the numbers and want to get through as many people as possible, but then I’m reminded that its about the people not the numbers.  We always try to remind ourselves that we need to take time to talk with people and get to know them.   So, while the clinic was running, I went with Kyle and Josie to visit some homes and bring the supplies to them.  

In the morning we visited about 5 homes and same again in the afternoon.  I believe the group yesterday had visited about 10+ homes also.

This is always the hardest and most humbling part of mission for me.  Pastor spends time identifying families prior to us coming that could use a visit and some supplies.  Often its people who have been suffering with illness, loss or just live in extreme poverty - which by itself is not hard to identify.  There are so many people here who live in extreme circumstances.  Often homes without electricity.  Homes that we would not call homes, by “American standards”, homes that we would condemn at home. But, often these beautiful people take pride in what they have and are grateful and faithful to God.  It always blows my mind how committed and faithful most of these people are to God and even in their circumstances are saying “God is good” and they are thankful.  We saw families with physical ailments, lack of basic necessities, and disabilities.  There were two that impacted me the most.  One was a lady and her adult son, (the son had special needs).  Her son had a leg that was turning black.  She said it was an ulcer that he got.  I am not a doctor, but I am fairly certain he has diabetes and that is the result of untreated diabetes.  It was hard to see both physically and mentally.  The second was a beautiful family, momma and 4 children. 10 months ago the father and husband was shot and killed while working.  He was a taxi driver.  They were struggling to make things work, even though they had a nicer home, they still were struggling.  Another family we met had a gentlemen who had a significant physical disability.  He walked crouched down in a squat and that was how he was born.  He got around just fine, and was so positive and faithful.  When we asked what we could pray for for him, he said he was blessed and had no needs.  Humbling and thought provoking.  

Our last family that we visited was across the swing bridge, over the river.  No road access.  Beautiful tropical forested area, but homes in severe poverty.  The family had 12 child rescue and had had a lot of health problems.  Yet still, faithful and thankful.  Kyle spent time with some of the boys down by the river watching them fish.  They built a fishing rod out of a paper clip, old string and an empty water bottle.  

We finished up our home visits and headed back to the church.  People were starting to wrap up for the day and optical was on some of its last patients for the day.  VBS had had tons of kids today and everyone had a great time playing with the kiddos and telling stories.  

Theres a carnival in town tonight and so we walked across the street to a different restaurant for dinner because the town was packed with cars.  We had a great devotion again tonight with lots of sharing and fellowship.  It has been wonderful to see how much this team has connected, especially given that half the team didn’t know each other at first.  I’m so thrilled at the connections we have made.  God is good and he  has brought us all together for a reason.  Can’t wait to see what unfolds the rest of the week.  

Sunday, we head to church for service and fellowship, then over to the new feeding center to do some clean up of the building before Monday when we work in Tocoa.  

In everything we do, we need to remember that we do this for the glory of God not for glorification of ourselves.  

Blessings!

Kyle standing on the swing bridge

Me with Valery 

Couple of the sweet kiddos at one of the home visits

Me with Josie on the swing bridge

One of the church ladies helping out with the home visits

Outside one of the homes across the river

Walking to the homes

In the van with some of the church ladies on our way to home visits 

‘
Ducks at one of the homes

Just a cat hanging out in an oven!  Nothing to see here!

With a family inside one of their homes

Courtney hanging out under shelter during the rain, with the kiddos

All hands on deck taking down the optical mission to move to our next location

Home visit team on the swing bridge

Jorge showed us the inside of an almond fruit

Kyle giving out more stickers!
Kyle down by the river watching the kids fish









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