So Will I.

 

“If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.” (John 13:14-15)

I sat at the edge of the dock, took a long deep breath and stared upon the horizon as my legs dangled above the peaceful sea before me. I sat in awe. Completely amazed at where the Lord had placed me. I adjusted my head towards the sky, softly shut my eyes & began to thank The Lord for choosing me to be His hands and feet. Thanking Him for giving me these amazing opportunities to serve His people. The opportunity to be thrown into new communities and love on those who are a part of them. 

Rewind: Our ministry in Bocas Del Toro looks much different than anything we did in Costa Rica. The first couple days at our new ministry was hard. Nothing we were doing was physically difficult, but it was hard to not be doing hard things. Now as I sit here at my new ministry hours away and I begin to reflect on my time there; I feel such a special feeling in my heart for that place.

Majority of our time in Bocas was spent on the YWAM (Youth With A Mission) base that we were staying at. Each day for my team looked pretty much the same as the next. When we arrived at the base there were already two other YWAM groups that had been living there. YWAM is similar to the WorldRace except before they launch to the field, they go through a six month discipleship training program with less time abroad versus our few week training camp with more time abroad. Due to them being present on the base, our ministry was serving the groups around the base as they do their outreach. Serving the YWAM teams meant doing various cleaning duties, cooking meals, & investing in the people around us as our ministry.  

I was on the cleaning team because the Lord knows I would mess up every meal if I was in the kitchen. Each morning the three of us cleaning gals would divide up our duties, and get to work. Then once we were done cleaning we sat. My daily agenda became clean, rest, take a swim, then anything else I wanted to do that day. As each week went by I became more irritated with the fact that I felt like I wasn’t doing anything. Until the day came when my frustration got the best of me. As I was walking over to a shelf in the corner of the room to grab my rags to tidy up the bathroom; I looked my teammates in the eyes & yelled “I don’t want to clean anymore, I’m tired of doing nothing!” Part of me wished I was kidding, but the other half of me was just over it.

Later that same day, John 13:1-20 was highlighted to me. The passage of Jesus washing the disciples feet. A reminder of how servant-hearted Jesus is, and how he wants us to do the same. Jesus shows us that there is not one person who is better than another. Jesus lived to serve His people. He didn’t stick His nose up. He didn’t look up to God & say “ do I have to?” He just did it. He set the example. He did it out of the goodness of His own heart, and didn’t expect a single praise in return. As I thought about that the entire day, that is when I found myself at the edge of the dock, thanking Jesus. 

On this race, I have been learning and diving deeper on how to be like Jesus. It seems like every month there is always a new characteristic of Christ that is revealed to me, and God is like “Okay, now you try.” Ya know, when you have a role model or someone you look up to when you’re little, and want to be just like them; that is what Jesus wants from us. He wants us to be just like Him. It makes me laugh sometimes when I say I struggle in serving others, when I set out on the race to do just that. However, last month was such a learning experience on how different serving can look sometimes. 

(Side note & a total full circle moment), the YWAM Maui team surprised us with a foot washing “ceremony” our last night in Bocas. Where they read verses from John 13, worshipped & thanked us for serving them. They wanted to serve us because they were overflowing with gratitude about how we served them the entire month. How sweet!