Thoughts on the Journey

Yesterday was Saturday, which means hiking!  We’ve found a new favorite place, a small community called Guarey.  To get there takes around three hours of mountain trails.  Some parts are steep uphill, others down.  We hike through fields, on barely-there tracks, on dirt roads, through mud and undergrowth and loose rock, over (or under) barbed wire fences and wade through streams.  

In Guarey.  Can you see why it's our new favorite place?!

Even though there hasn’t been significant rain in the past week, parts of the trail were still essentially little lakes.  Little water- and mud- and bug-filled lakes. 

Some parts of the trail were partially dry, but the clay-like red ground was treacherous.  Even our hiking boots had trouble finding traction.  Other parts were dry, but the mud had dried churned up by cows and horses, making the going pitted and difficult.

All of this made me think of us on our journey of becoming more Christ-like.  Each of us is like that trail.  When we are exposed to the Son, the broken, yucky stuff of our lives begins to ‘dry out’.  But, it doesn’t all happen at once.  Parts of our lives seem easier to get into step with God’s will than others.    

As broken creatures living in a broken world, we will continue to have areas of struggle.  Like the ‘lake’ parts of the trail, even after we’ve allowed the warmth of the Son to penetrate our lives, there can places that will take much time to be totally restored.  Am I patient with myself, with others, in this process? 

what a Creator!

God is so merciful to us.  As we grow in Him, the Holy Spirit reveals areas of sin and brokenness.  If we will take the time to go through things as He guides, He will increase our stamina and endurance, enabling us to tackle larger issues down the trail.

For me, the most dangerous is when I’ve begun to be ‘dried’.  Like that super slick red clay, I appear to be on safe ground, so I stop being as careful.  I speed up my pace, not taking time to stay in step with my Savior.  Suddenly, I find myself sprawled out on the ground.  It’s humbling, and it can hurt.  A lot!

Knowing this about myself, I need to keep one eye looking up ahead.  When I see that red clay coming up, I need to slow down a bit, reminding myself of the danger.  In these times, I need to focus more intentionally on the Holy Spirit, allowing Him to set the pace so I get safely through.



Issai enjoying a sweet mango fresh
from the tree.  We had a challenge
eating around the worms! Ick!!

We hiked for six hours in the gorgeous Dominican sunshine.  Parts of the journey were difficult, causing us to breathe hard, our legs protesting.  Making our way down (and up) steep, pitted ground didn’t always allow for looking up! 

And so, as we went, we stopped along the way to look for yummy sweet mangoes, discover a little church, to drink in the beauty, to inhale the delicious scent of orange blossoms.  We made sure to stay hydrated, drinking water even before we were thirsty.    

That’s sometimes how working through the stuff of life feels, too.  It’s necessary, but can be exhausting.  So, we need to build in times of rest.  Time to stop and look back at how far we’ve come. 

Lovely church in Guarey

Time to allow ourselves to catch our breath – and then lose it again as we behold the beauty that our generous Father provides.  We need to be intentional about staying saturated with Living Water, with the Bread of Life.

Notice how many times I’ve said “We”?  When we hike, Issai always leads, as he knows the area well.  He also has a knife and brings banana bread.  Carlos carries all our water and other food, and helps me cross rivers.  I bring peanut butter and make sure we’re drinking the water. 

In our lives, too, we are not meant to journey alone.  God is so good to us, and He gifts us with others along the way.  Others, who help us through the rough areas, but also celebrate with us as we move ahead. 

God's amazing gift of beauty.

Each one of us can be a part of another’s journey.  What an honor and privilege!  It’s going to mean getting tired and muddy, but it’s also going to mean seeing amazing beauty as God works in us and through us. 

I pray that as we go, we will go in the confidence and assurance that the Creator of the universe goes with us.  That He will never leave us or forsake us.  I pray that as His children, we will join in others’ journeys, too.  It’s not all quick and easy, but, oh, Vale la Pena!  It is so worth it!!

Defiant Hope

The Sunday after the shootings in Connecticut this past December, I was in my dad’s church in Michigan.  His pastor talked about the tragedy and our response as Christians.  He used the phrase, “defiant hope”.  Hope which stands in the face of disaster and says, I will still believe.  That phrase continues to resonate with me. 

Defiant: marked by resistance or bold opposition, as to authority; challenging

Hope:  desire for something and the confidence that it will be fulfilled; trust, belief

Being defiant may seem out of character for a Christ-follower.  After all, we are called to love.  But, as I reflect on the life of Jesus, He was defiant.  His life was marked by resistance to Satan and his temptations. 

Jesus boldly opposed the brokenness of the world, breaking in the Kingdom of God through casting out demons, healing diseased bodies, snatching people out of the clutches of death.  He stood against the authority of this world.  He challenged those who thought they had it all figured out. 

We say we hope in God, and that is good.  But, we also need to be defiant.  So often, I say “my hope is in the Lord” but it’s a weak statement, born more out of desperation than out of defiance.  When the world feels out of control, I want to curl up in a little ball, protecting myself from the pain of it all.

Defiant hope means we stand, even as the earth crumbles beneath us.  It means we refuse to be silenced in the face of injustice.  It means we dress each morning for battle.  Ephesians 6 tells us that we battle, not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers and authorities of the spiritual forces of evil. 

We are not defiant just to be contrary.  Our defiance is centered in our hope.  Our hope, our desire to see God’s Kingdom come.  Our confidence that in Christ’s redeeming work, all that He has promised will be fulfilled.  Without hope grounded firmly in that Hope, defiance is just a lot of noise.  Little kids banging plastic swords. 

Yesterday I received an email from a dear friend who has been blindsided by devastating news.  Many other loved ones are struggling with loss.  The little bit of world news I get down here is bad, bad, bad. 

It’s easy to want to lie down and not get back up.  To just turn away from it all.  And this is when we need each other.  We need to point each other to the cross, and to our Savior’s cry, “It is finished!” 

What better example of defiant hope do we have?  Beaten, tortured, spit on, mocked, rejected, stretched out, gasping for breath, Jesus broke the bonds of the ‘authority’ of death.  Dying, He trusted that His Father would fulfill His purpose.  When all seemed lost and defeat assured, victory!   

Defiant hope does not mean that the pain is not real.  It does not mean that we can always see the way.  It isn’t a magic trick that fools us into thinking bad is good. 

Defiant hope does mean that we will boldly stand in opposition to the spirit of fear telling us all is lost.  It means we will challenge the lies of Satan, who says this pain and brokenness is all there is. 

It means we live in anticipation and expectation of the fulfillment of God’s promises.  In confidence that He is at work, and that in Him, all things… ALL things, will work for our good and His glory.

Today, I need to show the world hope. Defiant hope. Hope that proclaims God’s goodness in the midst of the bad. That claims peace in the midst of conflict. That says Yes in the midst of the deafening shouts of No. 

Hope that may do no more than crawl, but holds fast to the promise that one day we will dance.   I need to raise my voice, crying out for those who can barely breathe through the excruciating pain of their brokenness.   

Defiant hope.  Let’s live it.  For ourselves, for each other, for our world.  For the One who conquered death and makes hope, defiant hope, possible.

What's That Smell?

On Thursday afternoon we were meeting with our Pre-teen girls at the Site.  One of the five students serving with us was sharing her testimony and I was translating. 

All of a sudden, the most horrible smell wafted in.  “Look!”  A couple of the girls pointed out the window to the field next door.  Men were dumping a sand colored substance on the ground around the banana plants growing there. 

It brought me back to my days in the pig plant in South Carolina and the one time I had to go into the Rendering Plant.  Rotting, leftover bits of pig (hair, offal, carcasses) ‘cooked down’ into a meal used in dog food and other products, including fertilizer.  For the rest of that day, everything I ate, including a plain, dry bagel, tasted like that smell!

I don’t know what was in the stuff the men of El Callejon were using, but given the number of chicken houses and chicken slaughter places in the area, I have some ideas.  All I know is, it was stinky with a Capital S!!

Yesterday when we returned to El Callejon, the fertilizer – and its pungent smell! – greeted us once again.  It was a sunny day, after many filled with rain and clouds, and the warmth intensified the smell.  

We did our best to ignore it, and were still able to have a really awesome final morning together, sharing and praying.  Every so often the wind would blow in just the right (or wrong!) direction, and we’d get a super dose of stink.  Whew!

Why would they pour that horrible substance on those banana plants?  All of us, even folks raised in cities, know the answer: Fertilizer helps plants grow stronger and be more fruitful.  The banana plants will bear more fruit, not in spite of that stinky stuff, but because of it.

It got me thinking.  We ask each student to share part of her testimony with us.  It’s a way to learn more about them, to hear how God is at work in their lives, and also a way for them to practice sharing their faith. 

As always seems to be the case, these beautiful young women with their smiles and eagerness to serve, have stories filled with pain.  There is beauty and growth, but God forms it out of brokenness.

I remember my old boss at the chicken plant.  (I worked in both pork and poultry!)  When everyone would scrunch up their nose at the awful smell coming from the Rendering Plant, he would say, “Do you know what that smell is?”  The responses would be words like, Gross! Disgusting! Sick! 

“No,” he would reply, "that’s the smell of money.”  He meant, of course, that we took the undesirable, seemingly useless waste, and turned it into products to sell for a profit.

Each one of us carries our own stinky stuff.  Some days, we can almost forget it, but then things heat up, or the wind blows, and it’s right back in our face, inescapably pungent and awful.  It’s easy to think of it as nothing but undesirable waste, not worth anything. 

But, like that fertilizer, so often we grow, not in spite of the stench, but because of it.  That’s certainly been true in my life. 

Our best and first example, of course, is Jesus Christ.  Our salvation and freedom from death did not come in spite of the gore of Calvary, but because of it.    

I believe the world is looking at Christ-followers to see how we live, how we respond, in the midst of the stink.  We need to be real in our struggle.  Not ignoring it or pretending there’s nothing in our lives that is downright awful.  But, we also need to let them see we have hope and confidence that God is at work in those very things. 

Will I ever get to the point where I can view (or smell!) the pungent rotting stuff of life and say, "Ah, that's the smell of growth in Christ!"?  I want to, but it's so hard! 

That's where we need to lean into the Holy Spirit.  Only through His redeeming work, can the stink of our lives be transformed into a fragrant offering.  

I pray that as you face your smelly stuff today, you, too, sense the presence of  the Holy Spirit in you.  That you will have our loving Father's assurance that He is at work, and that by remaining in Jesus, there will be fruit, much fruit, because of it.