Falling Down - Changing Course

We planned for months.  I worked extra to have enough time to take off. Then we went to the meetings, packed all we thought we might need and headed to the airport at 4 in the morning.  It is one of our favorite weeks of the year.  It is the week we go on a mission trip to Honduras.  A lot of hard work is planned around cement bricks, shoveling dirt, sand and gravel, hauling buckets and bricks.  It is wonderful.  Staying at Baxter Institute with students from all over the Central America and the Caribbean, is the best. Work and sweat through the day, eat the food at Baxter, sing and pray in the evening then repeat the next day.  You would be amazed at how much a group of 50 or so can get done in 6 days with everyone pitching in and working hard.  You actually feel significant, like you are doing something that matters and you can physically see the results right before your eyes.  I love this week. I had it all planned out. And then I fell down, literally. 

We finishing a clinic and started working at a church site on the side of the mountain.  I slipped coming down the hill and landed none too gracefully on my face. My nose, lips, chin were full of gravel, scratched and bleeding.  My hands, arms, elbow, knees etc bruised and hurting. Yes it was one of my finer moments.  But my friends helped to clean me up and put ice on the rapidly swelling lips. My husband ran to my side.  Everyone was very kind, I was frightful looking.  The rest of the week children would ask what was wrong with my face while adults would  stare at me or apologize for my injury, lovely.  The worst  came the next day when I could not go back to work with the rest of the group. But don't you see, I had it all planned out.  How hard I would work and then come back dirty and tired each night.  Now I could no longer contribute, this was all wrong.  I felt worthless. I tried to take pictures of the rest of the group, post them on line, be the unofficial photographer.  But it did not feel the same. So I felt sorry for myself and more than a little let down by my circumstances.  It just wasn't so posed to work out this way. Thankfully, I was invited to go chapel with the students and having  "nothing better to do,"  I went.  I went in late and sat down on the back row noticing that I'm the only female in the room -- awkward.  I  asked the man next to me if it was OK if I was there, he said yes but I might like to go to the  Ladies Chapel that day (yes I might).  So I made my way to room 4 and slipped in late taking the last chair left open.  Only to find I took the speaker's chair --awkward again.  She said it was OK, she was going to stand in a moment anyway.   She speaks, then a lovely lady offers to translate the lesson for me.  It was about controlling our tongue and our attitude, a wonderful lesson.  She then asked if I would please pray for them in English.  I was so honored to go to God for these dedicated women, I was moved and humbled. We prayed together,  me in English and them in Spanish. Afterward they told me there was a women's Bible study the next day and asked if I could come and give the lesson.  Again the lovely lady would  translate for me.  What a gift they had just given to me. Without knowing, they gave me purpose and direction. They didn't feel sorry for me, they filled a void.  I spent the next morning in study and prayer.  I stayed on campus and had opportunity to visit with more students.

That afternoon  I went with a friend and together with women from Honduras, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Cuba and The Dominican Republic we studied God's word.  I was blessed beyond measure. I thought I had my week planned, I thought I knew how and where I would serve. I almost let self pity and disappointment rob me of the best experience of service. It was there for me, just not where I was looking.

Are we so focused on what we think we are so pose to be about that we miss opportunities passing right in front of us?  Pain, loss, rejection, injury, illness-- keep naming those things that get in the way of our plans. Those things that cause us to fall down.  You can stay down, stay injured and feel sorry for yourself or get up and accept some help.  You are not alone, some one will run to your side.  There is a place you need to be and a job you can do. You just have to be willing to change course.