God Takes Us On A Journey

Wearing my “Diana Run” t-shirt in Peru, remembering the friend who helped guide me down this road.

When I was sixteen years old, I learned a difficult lesson. That was the year that one of my closest friends passed away in a car accident. She had just returned from a Mission Trip to Mexico, and it was clear that the trip had forever changed her. During the memorial service they showed a video of my dear Diana. In this video she said something along the lines of, “I get it now. I understand why we are here on this earth: to help each other.” These words lived in my heart and grew and blossomed for ten whole years before I finally attended a Mission Trip of my own.

In 2012 I went on my first CBC Mission Trip to Piura, Peru (I went back to Piura again in 2015). Like Diana, I quickly learned that we cannot make it in this world without helping one another. However, there are several other lessons that have shaped the way I live my life since returning from my mission:

• “God does not give us more than we can handle” is so much more than a cliché

• God will use our gifts in ways we never expect – only He knows why He has endowed us with the gifts He has.

• We live our faith through our relationships with others.

One of the great things about CBC’s trip to Piura, Peru is that you get to participate in a wide variety of service projects. Between both trips to Peru I have done everything from packaging and delivering food, to delivering clothes, to cooking in the orphanage kitchen, to building homes, to teaching at the school, to teaching bible school, to working in the hospice center.

For me, the thought of working in the hospice center was the most terrifying of all. I am a teacher – I know how to work with kids. I love to cook! I love to talk to people! All of the other projects seemed just right for me! But the thought of working with the elderly, bed ridden, and those close to death was petrifying. Regardless, each night I prayed and I could feel the Holy Spirit pushing me to go. So, finally, I volunteered to spend a morning in the hospice center. Those who’d been at the hospice center the day before had helped bathe individuals, shaven some of the men’s faces, clipped toenails, and given massages. The thought of doing any of these things had me literally shaking and taking deep cleansing breaths on the truck ride over.

“God, give me strength to do Your work,” I prayed as we entered the hospice center.

Low and behold, our job was to wash all of the patient’s windows. I was so relieved; I don’t think I’ve ever scrubbed a window to sparkle so strongly in my life. Afterwards, we cleaned the chapel. There was not a bit of dust or spider web in any corner of that chapel by the time I was through.

And yet, God takes us on a journey that is His perfect design for us – because when I went back to Peru in 2015, I volunteered for Hospice again, knowing I was ready for more. This time, I spent time talking with the patients, and giving them massages. As I massaged their feet, I couldn’t help but truly feel I was massaging the feet of Christ, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” I quietly said a prayer of thanksgiving for how much stronger in faith and trust and love I was than just a mere three years earlier. I never felt so sure that I was following the road God had laid out before me.

God will use our gifts in ways we never expect – only He knows why He has endowed us with the gifts He has.

I teach music and theatre. I had accepted a job at a new school just days before leaving for my second trip. I left for Peru uncertain as to whether I had made the right choice, and anxious about the new challenges and stresses I knew lay ahead. And while I was certain that my ability to work with children would come in handy in Peru, I never once imagined that my specific skills with music and theatre would be something I would use while there.

However, I actually had the opportunity to teach two voice lessons. I don’t really speak Spanish, and yet during the second lesson there was no one there to translate. I’ve never worked so hard to teach in my life. It was a mixture of demonstrating, and pantomiming, and God’s grace helping us to understand one another. And it was incredible. I could actually hear the girls getting better despite all the obstacles between us. Best of all, I got to sing with them at mass later that week.

My gifts for music and theatre and to work with children truly come from God, and I know I am doing exactly what He wants me to be doing. It was also a comforting reminder that if I could get through a lesson in these circumstances, then certainly I could handle whatever my new job would throw at me.

We live our faith through our relationships with others.

This lesson I learned most strongly upon returning from Piura, rather than while physically there. When I returned home to NoVA, I was so aware of my isolation. I lived in a one bedroom apartment, just me and my beta fish. I didn’t know the names of any of my neighbors. I never felt more alone. In Piura the sense of community had been so much stronger than I have ever witnessed here in the United States. If I can’t greet my neighbor, am I really living Jesus? If I don’t offer a smile to those I pass by, how am I spreading the joy of God? If I don’t pray with others, how will my faith ever deepen beyond myself? These were all questions I asked myself when I returned home.

Within the year, I had moved to a new condo and vowed it would be different, and it is. Several weeks ago I watched as my neighbor and her husband struggled to carry a bulky (but beautiful!) new dresser into their home. I stopped and offered help. Just two days ago, my dog was very sick, and this same neighbor helped me get him to the car; yesterday I left her a small plant and a thank you card outside her front door. These things might seem small and insignificant – but they are not. And if the people of Piura, Peru, living in poverty, can smile with one another, openly enter each others homes to lend a hand, and sing of the Lord’s goodness in their small village chapels, then why can’t I bring just an inkling of that into my own world?

Will I ever go back? I hope so. I have had some people ask me why I don’t want to go somewhere else, or find something new to try. And I am sure that someday, I will. However, upon returning from my first trip I heard a homily about “finding your own Calcutta.” Piura feels like my Calcutta. I’m not ready to say goodbye yet. I have a family there who I support, and now my parents do too. I pray for the girls in the orphanage regularly, and I keep in touch via e-mail with one of the women from the church where we stayed. Piura, Peru holds a huge chunk of my heart. Someday God may lead me to serve somewhere else, but for right now, I am quite certain I am following the road that God has laid out just for me.

The magic of the internet and Google translate lets Alcira and I communicate.

by Elizabeth