Small Things

Where to even begin?  I’m not really sure.  I guess I’ll start by saying that I believe everyone should take a trip to a place they have never been, and intentionally make meaniningful relationships with people who live there.  My view of the world has become much bigger in the past few weeks, and I am realizing more than ever just how important the small things are.  Things like a smile.  A hug.  Holding a hand.  Giving away a t-shirt to someone who has doesn’t have one.  Taking note of the needs of others, and meeting those needs without being asked.

This week one of our assignments was to find a street family to serve and minister to over the next five months.  For street ministry, we are in teams of 5 to 6.  On Tuesday we were bussed to the slums, each team dropped off in a location.  We had about an hour to walk around, talk to people, and identify a family that we would come to call our own.  My five teammates and I began to weave through the homes along dusty pathways, greeting the people we met with smiles- excited, but unsure of our final destination.  One of my friends said, “I guess we can’t get lost if we don’t know where we are going”.  We all laughed because it was so true.  With this in mind, we simply kept on walking, open to whatever we were headed towards.  After a ways, we came to a road.  As we looked to our left, we saw a group of children.  My teammates asked them where they lived, and we ended up off the road just a little ways, meeting the parents of four beautiful little kids.  After just a few minutes, the father invited us into their home.  With two of us sitting, and the rest standing shoulder to shoulder, we crammed into the dimly lit room and the father began to pray for us.  I don’t know what all was said, only the bits and pieces that were translated for me.  I won’t give all the details, but after learning about the man’s beliefs and values from my classmates on the walk back to our bus, we were unsure whether or not it would be wise to go back.  We were scheduled to visit again on Wednesday, so we decided to go again and then make our final decision.  After our second visit, this time with one of our class overseers in tow, we concluded that we would not be able to stay with the family.  This was hard, because I had already fallen in love with the children, and the needs of the family were obvious.  Please keep them in your prayers.  We may visit them again eventually, but they will not be our main focus.  Even though we won’t be able to see them every week, I have faith that even the little moments we were able to spend with them had an impact somehow.

After we decided we needed to look for a different family, our team was behind the rest of the class by a day.  So on Thursday, we headed back to the slum while the rest of the class planned what to purchase for their families and went shopping.  We were bussed to a different area than we had been in before.  After walking (wandering) in a big circle and talking to several families, we met a lady with two small children.  She doesn’t speak much English, so again, everything had to be translated for me.  As my classmates spoke with her, it became evident that this was the right family for us.  The mother is almost thirty, her daughter is between 2 and 3 years old, and her son is just 2 months.  The 2 month old was a twin, but his sibling died at birth.  We learned that the woman is married, but her husband is absent.  She has no way of supporting herself, except for a boyfriend who shows up on occasion.  We weren’t able to stay with her long, but left eager and excited to help her in any way possible.  On the bus ride back to the church, we made a list of the things we wanted to purchase for her, and budgeted according to the amount of money we had available.  As soon as we were back at the church, my team split into two groups and headed downtown to purchase the items as quickly as possible (by this point it was getting late in the afternoon, and most of our classmates were just about finished with their shopping). All I will say about the shopping excursion is that it was an experience all on its own.  I’m seriously thankful for awesome teammates who make me feel safe 100% the time.  They are the best!! 

Friday, we were able to deliver the items we had purchased- things like rice, tea, clothes for the babies, a mosquito net, and washing soap.  Small things to some of us.  Big things to a family in need.  Again, we weren’t able to stay for long, but the mother (whose name I cannot remember, and it’s driving me crazy) was happy when we arrived.  She didn’t go through the shopping bags while we were there, but she was thankful just to see us again.  Some of my teammates held the baby, and we debated over what his English name should be, which had his mom smiling from ear to ear.  We prayed with them before leaving, and let her know we would be back in the coming weeks.  I look forward to going back and seeing her and her precious babies again. 

P.S. I posted links to all of my international classmates blogs on the right side of this page.  So much awesome stuff is going on all the time that I cannot possibly get it all in one post, but between the eight of us everything gets covered pretty well.  Check them out if you haven’t yet!

Love Always.