anticipation

June 7 2015

Have you ever stepped outside and felt the weight of the dense air bear down on your shoulders and refuse to enter your lungs regardless of the effort in an attempt to suck it into your lungs? Such was the greeting Managua gave us as we left the safety of the airport. Across the street we ventured, preparing to head across the city where, I am certain we will find, all bets are off.

Poised are we on the cliff of this week; giddy with excitement juxtaposed with trepidation of the unknown and unpredictable. From many different parts of the United States we have come with our talents, gifts, expectations, and nervousness sprayed down with a healthy dose of Deet bug spray. The rain has come and gone, leaving us hot and humid.

After church this morning we ventured to a space in the city where Jesus would have spent most of His time if He were walking the earth today. He sent us to carry His love, grace, sacrifice, and salvation. As we trudged up the mud covered, cabbage lined, cement patchwork of a street to the first house of prostitution, the discomfort and heartbreak were palpable until her hand touched her shoulder and the warmth of life seeped across the skin reminding us her heart still beat with the same yearning for life. The crevice of poverty creating a gaping human divide was bridged, even negated in the touch. And we made our way from house to house along an ally way, climbing over baskets of cabbage and dodging trucks in search of hearts wanting to be captured by Christ, and in so doing we found treasure to store up in heaven.

Are we blessed or have we come to be a blessing? Is it, perhaps, both? We were reminded in the service this morning that our life picture is comprised of hundreds of thousands of momentous dots, captured one moment at a time and brought together to make a masterpiece yet unfinished, but well on its way. What moment are we dotting today? Tomorrow? “Good people bring good things out of the good stored up in their heart and evil people bring evil things out of the evil stored up in their heart. For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” Luke 6:45. Out of the abundance of the dots that have thus far made up our lives we enter this week with great expectation, and if we pay attention, we will find the blessing in this place.

Each team member arrived as did all the luggage. We’ve managed to mostly be on time to each location thus far. This evening we counted out medications and vitamins into small portions and set up our exam rooms. We shared American style pizza cooked and delivered to the House of Hope - provided by a generous donation from those Stateside- and broke bread, as it were, with the women and children who have bravely left the life to which they were once chained and now find freedom in the peace of this countryside compound. Tomorrow we start the work for which we were called.