Learning to be a Servant

Today was a beautiful day in Guaimaca. As the alarm sounded at 5:00 am we
made our way to our first cup of coffee. We then joined the children in
several locations throughout the orphanage for "Morning Circle". This
time was quite special as the boys and girls listened to the Word of God
and praised Him for the blessings of life. The staff which leads Circle
gives the guest and residents the opportunity to share what God may have
laid on their heart during the night or even first thing in the morning.
As the circle disbanded, we headed for a nutritious breakfast of pancakes
and cereal. Gary then handed out assignments giving everyone a choice to
use their talents where they feel comfortable. Some of the ministry
opportunities included building fences, scooping cattle poop, working
with special needs children and painting. While I would love to share the
experiences of others, I, unfortunately, was assigned to painting. Now
for those of you who know me, I am NO painter. However, God would not
allow me to abandon this opportunity because He knew I dreaded it so
much. I will end with the spiritual lesson learned at the end of this
journal entry.

Following our assignments, I tried desperately to waste as much time as
possible uploading all the blogs and forwarding my personal journal entry
to Karen. This, of course, did not last long and I made my way to the
first of three painting assignments for the day. With a heart filled with
great disdain, I found myself sitting on the hot cement floor painting a
wall that, in my opinion, could have gone at least one more year before
repainting. As I said yesterday, this place is kept in such excellence
that I was ashamed for even thinking such a thought. I had just sat down
and one of my co-laborers asked Hali if she had initiated me. With great
fear and trembling I somehow knew what was about to happen. Hali made her
way to me with a roller filled with paint and preceded to paint my right
leg a beautiful sea green color. Realizing I had no other option but to
accept my initiation into the club, I laughed and continued painting my
assigned section. It was then that God began to reveal to me that my
hatred of painting had nothing to do with the work as much as it did with
my vanity. Painting can be a very NASTY job. I knew going into the
situation that painters always go home with as much paint on them as they
had used and this was about to be me.

Have you ever heard the phrase, "in for a penny in for a pound"? We
finished our first painting project and began cleaning our brushes for
the next job. It dawned on me that this would be a great opportunity to
take revenge on Hali. Knowing that this was going to open a proverbial
can of worms, I took the paint brush and watered down paint bucket and
slung it on my already NASTY co-laborers. While most escaped, Hali, of
course, was my main target. She then found me with my back to her and she
painted my head with a full brush of the same paint she painted my leg.
It does not take much smarts to know what happened next. Most everyone on
the team joined in and all was covered with paint spattering. What fun we
had and what a great lesson God taught me about being willing to do
whatever was needed even if it was something we despise.

Our second project was painting the bakery. This is a building that was
built to help teach the girls how to bake while at the same time
supplying baked goods for the orphanage. While we were not sure if we
would finish before lunch, the crew set out to accomplish the second
project and we did indeed finish as the dinner bell rang. Yes, we went to
lunch looking worse than any “neglected” orphan you could imagine. It
began with the looks, then the stares and finally the hearty guffaws and
jokes but our team held our heads up high and ate lunch taking great
pride in our accomplishments.

Although I begged Gary to "need" me with coffee distribution, I knew that
the lesson God was teaching was not over. So, with paintbrush in hand and
only half our crew we began our final painting project for the day. Two
of the men, Tim Kerley and Andy Blevins from the North Carolina team were
given the task of mixing paint for the cook house which was our next
project. They did an excellent job. We began painting and had two-thirds
of the outside of the building complete when Cyndal Maddox noticed a
bluish tint in what she had painted. OOPS! Because of the fun we had
earlier, we had failed to wash completely the roller she was using and
the blue paint began to fade into the cream color mixture used by
everyone else. As we paused to determine our next course of action we
could do nothing but laugh and repaint. While we were trying to be
excellent in what we were doing, our resources are limited and we had
to do what we could do. We mixed once again some more paint and got it as
close as we could to our original color. It looks great, but don't look
too closely. We painted for at least three hours until we were asked to
exit while the staff prepared to feed the children.

Heading immediately for the showers, it took me thirty minutes to wash
the dry paint out of my hair while all the time thinking murderous
thoughts toward a sixteen year old. (just kidding D.Ann). I think I now
have a bald spot on the top of my head from the hair lost in washing it
at least four times. Once out of the shower we readied ourselves for the
mid-week worship service in the chapel. Each of the mission teams on
campus along with more than two hundred of the students gathered for an
awesome time of worship, teaching, and praying. This time was incredible
as we listened to both English and Spanish speaking children of God raise
their voices singing How Great is Our God. I have chills running all
over my body even as I think of the beauty of such praise. There could be
no better way to end our day of service to Jesus.

Following dinner we moved to another room for a time to wrap up and
share what God had done in our lives during the day. What I shared was
the spiritual lesson I wanted to pass on to you as I mentioned earlier.

As Christians we can say that we love God and desire to be His servants
but unless we are willing to do even the things we despise or hold in
great disdain, we are not servants at all. We can go on mission trips,
give generously to our churches, love our spouses and children and even
sacrifice something important to serve God but unless we are completely
obedient to Him, we have accomplished nothing. God wants to take us out
of what we are comfortable with and place us in situations where we must
trust Him and be ready to learn whatever He wants to teach.

Steve Dean