Art Gallery and Blog

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Surprise!

As we approached the site where we were to build TWO houses yesterday, my heart felt something different. The closer we got, the worse conditions got.

The houses looked shakier and more patched together with whatever was around.

There was more garbage lying around.

The dogs got skinnier.

And mile after mile as conditions grew worse and worse, I felt the vastness of it all.

Each morning when I wake, I walk over to the corner of the plot of land on which our hostel rests; this beautiful  sanctuary we´ve come to call home to our family of 12+...and I pray for this city, and I sing to the God of this city, the God of this world, and I think of the vastness of it all, and I´m awed by it and thankful for it.

But this was so different.

I was accutely, painfully aware of how small I am, and how little I can do. And the tears began, and then the quiet sobs, my face turned as far from everyone as I could. And then suddenly we were there and I had to pull it together...FAST. For there, beside the van was the pastor of these two communities...the beacon of hope and light that God has placed among them, the castle on a hill. And here I was, drowning my light in tears, washing out the land under my castle with floods of fear and doubt.

And then I saw her. Bit by bit I heard the story told around me of the woman beside the van, whose face now was also streaked with tears. It was explained that one of the two lots on which we were to build was flooded out and we would not be able to build there today, but that there was another family in dire need...a family of 8 whose home was falling down around them and who had no hope of anything better...and this lady outside my window was the mother in this family and she had just been told that today we were going to tear down her home and build her a new one. TODAY. She was crying and laughing and smiling and sobbing all at once.

And because Stoneridge loves the people of Ecuador, there was enough money left over that when Carito discovered that their beds were rotten, Pastor was able to get them new beds and bedding, with which he surprised them after he presented them the new house from the church. So they had food to fill a fridge, health care for the sick baby, new beds and bedding and a new house to put them in by 4pm, and as we walked away, more tears streaking down sweaty, dirty faces, we saw one of the little boys sweeping out the area that will be where he sleeps.

And I remembered that it´s not just me, and it´s not just this team. We represent the hundreds of people at Stoneridge Fellowship who give and give and give til it hurts and pray for and deeply love the people here in Ecuador, and it´s our friends and families and colleagues who dug deep into their pockets to give some more, and who are continuing to pray even now for these our brothers and sisters in the Lord. And it´s not even just these thousands of people. It´s the God of the Universe who works in and through us and right along side us.

Maybe the small bit we were able to do yesterday was enough. Maybe, just maybe, the small things accomplished on behalf of the thousands of people we represent here today was enough. Maybe God is big enough. Maybe God really is the God of this city. Surprise.

And I was reminded again of 1Corinthians 15:58, and, yes,  I know I already used that one a few days ago, but it´s in my heart to strengthen and sustain me, and I hope it will do the same for you: Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourself, fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.


1 comment:

  1. Sonya,
    Thank you for sharing. Remember the words of Margaret Meade:“Never believe that a few caring people can't change the world. For indeed that's all who ever have. ”

    ReplyDelete