Today, I stepped way out of my comfort zone. I entered the door that Christ opened for me ages ago and couldn’t be more glad to have finally gone through. Once I started, I realized that I had never felt more willing to serve than I ever had before. And the best part was that once I got there, I was not more eager to dive right in.
We started the day off by doing a devotional. It was mainly about feet and focused on how they are made for serving and how they all have a different story behind them. One of the verses represented was John 13:14-15: “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” I first thought that it was a cool verse, but I didn’t expect it to apply to me since I wasn’t too excited for the day. Little did I know that this verse would not leave my mind throughout the whole day.
As we were riding in the tap tap up to the homes of the elders to do the work of Jesus and wash their feet, I kept thinking to myself that I would just hangout on the sidelines and silently pray for them as I have never been the type to feel comfortable around elders. I never liked volunteering in nursing homes during my Girl Scout days, and ever since I was about ten, I even felt a little distant from my own grandparents due to the age difference. In general, I just never thought I could connect with those who lived a life so different from mine when they were my age. I’ve always been more fond of serving children and was honestly excited for the elder visits to be over so we could go Grace Village and play with more kids.
This all ended up changing once I stepped into the home of the first elder, Dieufort. Once he saw me, he instantly shook my hand and said hello with this huge grin on his face. I couldn’t help but notice how welcoming and kind he was even though it looked as though he had nothing more than an empty water jug to sit on and a tiny, damaged, stone home with nothing in it. One of the goers, Kyle, jumped right in and began to wash Dieufort’s feet. Then one of the leaders asked if anyone wanted to put lotion on his arm and I thought to myself, ‘why not? This seems to be what God wants me to do.’ So I volunteered and began rubbing his arms with lotion and giving him a hand massage.
Then came the hard part. We started asking about his family, life, and health and he explained that none of his family ever visited him, he had many aches and pains, and part of his house had collapsed causing a large crack in the wall. He also explained how he loaned his domino set to someone and never got it back. This especially hurt me because Dieufort loves to play dominos and someone stole that joy from him. After hearing all this and seeing the hurt on his face, I decided to start massaging his shoulders to hopefully help him relax and show him that he is loved by myself and many more people. I felt as though this served me more than it did him because it brought me joy to be able to serve the people of Jesus. We then sang, prayed over him, gave him a hug, and headed to the next elder. Although I was happy I was able to serve by washing the feet of the next elder, I so wish I could have spent more time talking to Dieufort and learning about his story. Hopefully I can next time I’m here.
Once all of the elder visits were over and we were riding to the next stop, I realized how comfortable I had been the entire time we were with the elders. Even though I had never met or seen any of these men and women before, and I didn’t speak their language or could connect to their culture very well, I felt more comfortable around them than I have ever felt around any other elders before. They taught me so much about having so little, yet still being contagiously kind, grateful, and joyous. Although I was majorly rethinking my decision to come in the beginning due to the intense heat, I couldn’t have been happier that I came on this trip and decided to dive right in at the first elder visit.
Lily
