However, my skepticism and insecurities were quickly dispersed upon hearing the grateful praise of Guadelupe, the cook, and Anyelka, one of the girls at the orphanage. I really enjoyed talking with Anyelka and teaching her some English as she put the dripping dishes away in various crags and corners. What was the first thing she wanted to learn to say in English?
“Can I help you?”
And as a follow-up phrase for after serving….”It was a pleasure.”
Here at Casa Betesda, the kids have a daily list of chores that involve much sweeping, tidying, running errands to the market as well as helping the cooks prepare and serve the meals to first the missions teams and then the rest of the kids and staff. It’s amazing to me how quickly the door was opened to relationships with the staff and children here at the orphanage once we started intentionally serving with them in their daily schedules.
Scrubbing dishes with Katy!
Living here for over a month at the orphanage has given us the unique opportunity to observe and partner with the ministry of several week-long missions teams from the United States. It is amazes me how entitled people from the U.S. believe themselves to be. (I won’t say Americans because people from Central America call themselves Americans.) Obnoxiously loud and full of obvious questions, the short-terms missions groups often unknowingly tread on the toes of the very feet they seek to wash.
Good intentions clothed with insensitivity often hurt more than they help.
I used to shake my head in mock disgust at the blunders of the teams until I realized that that was us our first week here at Casa Betesda as well. We expect to know what’s going on at all times. We expect to know what we’re eating for dinner. We expect to know the what’s, where’s, when’s, how’s, and why’s of ministry each day. Even though we come to serve, our unspoken expectations and unconscious personal demands sometimes exact as much service as we seek to give.
“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)
The other short-term mission teams come with all-out agendas for their ministry, and partnering with them has sometimes felt like we’re just getting in the way. It’s humbling to realize that God’s perfect plan for ministry might have someone else in the spotlight. But when you’re on center stage, it’s hard to see those hiding behind the curtain. The lonely little girl or the sullen teenage boy are often lost in the mass of faces. As we’ve humbled ourselves, God has opened our eyes to His lost and lonely people–the unloved and forgotten–hanging on the outskirts of the crowd. As we’ve loved on them, danced with them, listened to them, and prayed with them, I’ve learned that oftentimes it is the outcast who best relates to those on the outside.
“To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.” (1 Corinthians 9:22)
Praise:
- Thank God for Veronica–my new sister in Christ! She accepted Jesus as her Savior at one of the youth outreaches last week!
- Thank God for an awesome English class with the kids this morning!
Pray:
- Ask God for His Presence during our girls’ night with the young ladies at the farm this Friday night. We will be sharing our testimonies and the Gospel as well as hearing about their stories and struggles.
“May your company be of humble insignificance; may your weakness be your only source of pride. And when you look upon the broken, may mercy show you what you could not see.”
