Humility

Hola!

This week has been so busy and full. I get home at night and I’m pretty wiped out from classes and walking. However, the classes (especially in the morning) are just so interesting. I love them so much. Yesterday we had a man who lives in poverty come and talk to us about living in poverty and what it was like. It was so moving and so humbling. This man just has an incredible story. It was so humbling and eye-opening to hear a first-hand account of what it is like to live in poverty. We talked about his life, where he came from, what he is doing now, and his faith in God. Right now he is a painter, a poet, a writer, and a security guard. Even though he has an incredible story, it does not end in a fairy-tale, happy ending. The reality of poverty is that it is incredibly difficult to overcome. Even despite all Elmer has accomplish in his life, he still lives in poverty. As a security guard, he works for 36 hours and makes $24 American dollars in that time. Doing the math, Elmer makes about $ .67 per hour. For those of you who are interested in Elmer’s story, I would love to share more. :)

I feel very blessed to have heard Elmer talk, and I think one of the most important things I took away from his story is that I need to work harder at breeching the gap of rich and poor. I have a question for each of you to think about: Do you personally know someone who is poor? This is humbling for me to consider, and I realized that I honestly do not personally know someone who lives in poverty. The easy thing to say is, “Well no, but I live in a rich community where there are not a lot of poor people.” I don’t believe that for a second. I feel personally challenged to be more intentionally about meeting people who are poor and building a relationship with them. I do not want to be friends with them so I can give them things and give them hand-outs. I want to talk to them. Ask them what their name is. Show them that I care about them. Listen to their story. Let them feel dignity and respect because they too are a child of God.

So that was part 1 of my humility lesson. Part 2: I really need some prayers on my physical health. Honestly, I have not been honest about this at all. Every day since I got here, I have had very intense pain in my left shoulder and neck. I thought it was from sleeping in a new place, or maybe from stress. The problem is that it is not going away, and it is only getting stronger. I just ask for your prayers that God would heal me and not let this be such a strong distraction for me. This is a humbling thing for me to ask for prayers about because I hate complaining about physical pain. I just want to suck it up and deal with it. Well, I´ve been trying strategy of dealing with it myself and keeping it all inside for over a week now, but I have not experienced any improvements. I´m still in a lot of pain. I actually get up at least 15 minutes early in the morning to stretch out my neck because I cannot move otherwise. I take Advil all day long, and yesterday I took a muscle relaxant. So I just ask that you would please pray for healing with me and please pray that it would not be a reoccurrence of shingles (which I had right before I came here). Please pray that this will not distract me from the things God wants me to learn here in Costa Rica.

Thanks for your prayers in advance.