This missionary life, it suddenly seems like a roller coaster.
The kind that makes your heart beat out of your chest and sends you plunging straight down, weightless for a moment and screaming loud, lungs at full capacity. The one that snaps a funny picture midway down and that causes your sides to ache from laughing at the faces of your friends.
The kind that you walk away from feeling more alive than ever before.
The thing about all of the best roller coasters is the climb. It seems to take forever, and you can hear the clink clink clink noise as you climb the tracks to the very tip top, suspenseful. You pause for just one moment at the very top, long enough for you to draw a single breath that gets caught in your chest, half from the excitement of it and half from the terror. And then you plunge, straight down, arms up, hair flying, screaming from the exhilaration and adrenaline of being weightless.
I love it.
Any chance I get, I am on the roller coaster, waiting for that feeling.
Life in missions suddenly seems to me like a giant roller coaster, the kind that sends you creeping slow. The kind that seems to take forever to arrive at the top. And then, suddenly, the plunge.
We have been in Lima for 6 months. We started off with a whole bunch of hurry up and wait. We had our very own crash course into the Peruvian culture, which we learned is a lot like being on island time! No one is in a hurry and things usually take forever! As frustrating as that was for us at the beginning, we have truly learned to love it. No rush, and no one is ever in too much of a hurry to stop and talk or to go out of their way to help you.
We arrived in Lima having no idea where we were. We explored, a lot! Hopping on the small buses called combis, looking up places to visit and going on adventures, trying a new dish every time we went out to eat (even when we had no idea what it was). Sometimes we felt totally adventurous, and sometimes we felt totally lonely. In the middle of a city of 8 million people, the only other American that I knew was my husband. He was also the only other person that I knew that spoke English or even understood my culture or the things that I liked to eat or the kind of church that I was used to. So we stuck together and figured it out and we had a lot of help from Jesus!
First there was getting plugged into our church, New Life, and getting to know the pastors who we would be working with. Then there was getting to know the Peruvian culture and how to live in a huge city. Street markets, crazy traffic, people constantly trying to sell you stuff in the streets, crowded. Hopping in a bus and going to build a floor in one of our church plants, watching the terrain change outside of my window from busy city to open fields and banana trees. Learning how to be my husbands biggest encourager and to pray for him as he stepped into a leadership role at New Life and started preaching at least one service each week. Encouraging each other and laughing at each other when we messed up while speaking Spanish in front of everyone! Starting the street ministry, pouring our hearts into it, and trusting Jesus that it would grow. And then watching the team step up and give it their all, taking the gospel to the streets. Being amazed at the power of Jesus. Starting a Bible study on Thursday nights for the people that we reach on the streets, trying to create a place for them to enter into discipleship and the family of Christ. Remembering to let Jesus carry this, all of this, and to lead us each step of the way. Learning how to love people despite of, not because of.
Six months of the climb. Working hard, waiting long.
Then, so suddenly, we found ourselves at the top of the roller coaster with just enough time to take that last breath before the plunge.
New baby, Friday night street ministry going in full force, new Thursday night Bible study for the street ministry, leading services at New Life, and it all seemed to happen right at the same time! I am so thankful to Jesus for sending our family to stay with us for a month to help with everything! It feels like we are living in a whirlwind of missions, which is so wonderful because we are living each day doing what we love!
And then, Jesus speaks.
He shows us a need.
He reveals to us the desire of His heart.
And here we go.
Our plans change and become His plans and we react. Surprise, uncertainty at the magnitude of it all, remembering that all things are possible, trust, faith. In exactly that order.
Every Friday night we go out and share the gospel, share a conversation, share a meal with those who Jesus loves dearly. Women who sell their bodies for their next meal. Girls, teenagers, involved in human trafficking. It seemed strange to me that their pimp was also a woman, until I realized that she also was enslaved, just in a different way. The most frustrating part is that there is nowhere to take them, no system to restore them. One girl told us that she couldn’t accept Jesus because that would mean that she had to stop selling herself, and that was her only means of making money.
And so at the top of the roller coaster, deep breath, we plunge.
We are starting a non profit organization that we will call The Lily & the Sparrow, after the vision that God gave us when we first received the call to missions. It is based on the scripture found in Matthew 6:25-33. We are starting The Lily & the Sparrow as a non profit that funds missionaries and indigenous missions.
Our first project will be a women’s shelter. One of the most frustrating problems we’ve encountered in the ministry is where to take the prostitutes once they’ve received Jesus and want to escape a life of prostitution. For this reason, we’ve decided to establish a women’s shelter specifically dedicated to the women trapped in prostitution and their development as women, mothers, and productive members of society. Though there are refuge houses for abused women in Lima, this will be the first shelter reserved specifically for women who wish to leave a life of prostitution (some of which are literally enslaved in sex trafficking rings).
We are taking the first step, knowing that God has led us this far and will continue to lead us the rest of the way! We can only be thankful to be a part of His incredible vision to rescue these women, His precious daughters, from a life of slavery.
Please pray for our family as we start this non profit organization. Please pray for God’s hand to be upon the plans made for the women’s shelter and for his love to be manifested to the precious women that we meet every weekend on the streets. Pray for supernatural provision and for strong leaders to rise from the local church to help lead this ministry. Pray that the indigenous people would have a heart for these women and that this would be a permanent work that would work hand in hand with the local church.
& pray that His will would be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.
“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.”
Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’
And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
-Matthew 25:37-40
