Well, folks.
God continues to just blow my mind.
And I am going to tell you why.
So, if you read my blog about 3 posts back,
you learned about our friend Nigel.
Well, it had been quite a long time since we had last seen him…..over 3
weeks. I had pretty much given up hope
of seeing him again. I figured he had
gone north like he was planning to and just didn’t tell us. But also, last week one of his friends here
named Juan told Latte that Nigel had thrown up blood (at least that is what she
thought he said……he is normally intoxicated and has a very heavy accent as it
is), so I just did not have a good feeling about ever seeing him again. I still prayed for it to happen and asked all
of you to also pray with us, but it was more out of desperation than
anything.
Well, yesterday, Nicky and I were walking to
intercambio and talking like always when all of the sudden I looked over to one
spot where he used to sit a lot (a habit that I just couldn’t give up, even
though I never expected to see him) and wouldn’t you know……he was there. I just stopped and gasped. Seriously.
My heart was SO happy! Nicky then
whipped her head over, and we immediately crossed over the street and went to
talk to our good buddy. As we were
crossing the street, I told Nicky that we are most definitely taking a picture
with him. That is one of the things that
I regretted the most when I thought that he was gone, because I would have no
way of showing you all back home this man that has taught me so much without
even realizing it.
So we got over to him and quickly figured out
just why he had disappeared. Turns out
the guy has tuberculosis. Yeah! Kinda a big deal. He had been in the hospital 3 weeks, and they
released him because he is no longer contagious….as long as he keeps taking his
medicine…..for the next 6 months.
Yup. 6 months. This means a couple of things. Nigel MUST stay in Granada because he has to
pick up his medicine daily at the hospital, and if he doesn’t, the police will
be notified because he could cause an outbreak of TB. It also means that Nigel MUST stop drinking
for the next 6 months or else the medicine will not work and he will die. …….let us just all take a moment to realize
how AWESOME our God is. I actually
teared up when I put all of this together (and you know how big of a deal that
is). This whole time I was so confused
with God for letting Nigel “leave”. Turns
out He was just making it a necessity for Nigel to stay with us the rest of our
time here and do it sober.
Now I know most of you are thinking that a
drunk like him cannot just give up drinking like that and be fine; I thought
the same thing. But, he is doing
it! He says he has done it many times
for months at a time, and now that his life depends on it he is for sure going
to. He’s quite stubborn and smart. He drinks water, Cocacola, juiced mixed with
water, or this “beer without alcohol stuff”. But I have witnessed him every day for the
past week almost……he is not drinking. He
has not had a drink since March 17th actually. That is another thing about Nigel…..he has an
amazing memory. He remembers our names
(or the nicknames he has given us) and even remembers my friend Rachel’s name
from the one time he met her. He is a
very intelligent man.
Basically, I just can’t get over how awesome
God is. I don’t know why I always forget
to just trust that He is doing the absolute best thing. He is SO much bigger than I can even
fathom…..nothing is random.
Nothing. He has it all planned
out. I love it. So far I have talked to Nigel quite a lot
since he has been back. He actually
played his guitar for me the other day…..it was awesome. And he is a lot happier now that he is
sober. He doesn’t believe us when we
tell him that, but he really is different.
Just please keep praying for him.
I think God is working on his heart, and he is just fighting back for
obvious reasons. The good thing is, God
has made me LOVE loving Nigel. So glad I
have more time to do it.
On a different note, life here has become
home. Now, Mom, please don’t freak
out. Listen to what I mean. It’s just normal, you know? Like, we walk down the street and see people
we know and stop to talk to them. That is
COOL. I love it here! I love that we have to walk and then by
walking we see friends. It always goes
in my book of happys whenever that happens.
And I mean, we got the opportunity to go to a birthday party for our
friend Marta who turned 18. What I want
to know is why birthday parties in the states are not like the one we had a
blast at. They had youtube songs going
pretty much the entire time, starting out with Disney songs, and mics to sing
along with if you wanted. And there were
snacks, fun dancing (which I mainly just watched), lots of pictures being taken
and many more laughs. It was just so
good! And it just really made me realize……this
is my home right now. Now, home will
always be Ohio in my life. Always. It’s where I’ve grown up. A large majority of the people I love live
there (although that majority is growing less major the more people I meet in
other places around the world too). And
I mean, cmon…..I’ll be a buckeye until the day I die. But, for now, I am very grateful for this
home as well.
Now, let me again just jump topics and tell
you about last Tuesday. Nicky and I had
the opportunity to help out with the food distribution through our church
again. It was so good! I enjoy it a lot. Doing stuff like that reminds me why I am on
this earth. I love being able to bless
people. There was one family in
particular that I really enjoyed helping.
While the mom was getting all the information squared away, I tried
talking to her daughter who was quite shy.
Her name is Sabri, and she was just so cute. I couldn’t get her to say much, but I tried,
and she enjoyed it. I found out that she
was 12 years old, and guessed that her favorite color was pink (since her
shirt, pants, AND shoes were that color).
And I just talked to her about bracelets and movies and things. So we loaded up all of their food, which was
QUITE the load, and it became very obvious that they were not going to be able
to get it all in one trip. I asked if
they lived nearby and the mom (whose name starts with an N but is Moroccan, and
I can’t remember how to pronounce it) said yes.
So I asked if I could help them transport it. She was hesitant at first, but I insisted,
and she agreed. Wowzers. It was a BEAUTIFUL day out, but also very
hot. So I walked for about 7 minutes or
so with them to their house. They were
SO grateful. She offered me up to their
place to rest and have tea, but unfortunately I had to decline and get back to
help the other families. It was such a
privilege though! So I got back to the
church and was waiting for the next family to come through, and all of the
sudden I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned,
and there was sweet Sabri, holding out two of her rubber band bracelets to
me. I told her that I would just take
one, but she insisted that I take them both.
Seriously…..my heart just melted.
I gave her a hug and thanked her, and then, she was gone. Just like that. It still makes me smile just thinking about
it. I am so stinking blessed.
Are you all confused yet on where I am going with
this blog? Because I sure am. There are just things that keep popping into
my head that I want to remember. For
instance, yesterday we had a silent retreat day that was just so good for
me. I finished the Old Testament! And I slept, started the book called Don’t
Waste Your Life by John Piper, and just had a really relaxing day with Jesus. He showed me that I really do worry an awful
lot about the future but also reassured me that I don’t need to….He’s got
it! Silly, Kirsten. Always assuming the worst. Anyway, the silence was supposed to go until
10 pm, so I started to make dinner. I blockaded
the kitchen with chairs and our super obnoxious tree plant thing. Mom, you would be so proud. I made our delicious meatballs and a small
salad, and then whipped up some chocolate chip cookie dough to munch on while
we watched Frozen after dinner. I can
only think of a handful of times that I have made any sort of food just because
I wanted to bless people, and I have NEVER made a meal. And while this meal wasn’t intense at all, I
was still excited to do it for my girls.
I love them a whole lot. And it
was a great night indeed. Watching
Frozen in English made it 1234098 times funnier. Olaf is my favorite obviously. Great, great night. And today has also been great. I even gave in to the pleadings of some and
allowed us to watch Frozen yet AGAIN while we ate lunch today :]
Basically, God has just been showing me how so
often I ruin stuff by worrying and expecting the worst, when really He has it
all worked out. I just need to be
patient. Even my Spanish teacher has
scolded me for being so impatient with my Spanish skills. While they are not nearly as polished as I
would like, I HAVE learned stuff and grown in my communicating. I just need to do a better job of enjoying
the journey that I am on instead of regretting things from the past or thinking
over the future all the time. I wanna
live presently. I wanna love
always. And I want to love better. It needs to be my goal always. It’s the only Thing that matters.
A fun fact for you all before I sign off…….nuns
can be angry. Luckily it was not the Hermana
Antonia that we have grown to love. No….this
was a different nun that was having QUITE a bad day. Yes, folks.
I was scolded by a nun. How many
people can say that? Heehee.
So my challenge to you all is to go love. Whether you are irritated with your kids’
whining, your friend obsessing over their boyfriend/girlfriend, a nun having
quite the grumpy attitude, your neighbor asking to borrow yet another tool, the
girl walking down the streets in shorts that could be substituted for
underwear, your waiter that STILL hasn’t filled up your drink, or the cashier
who is taking forever because she is flirting with the customer in front of
you, remember……you have a choice. You
can show your irritation and most likely make the situation worse OR you can
shower that person with the Love that you have been given and remind yourself
that you may be the only person that day to do so. Think about it. We don’t deserve Love, but we were given It. Do that for others.
Love you guys!
Please continue to pray for:
-
Team unity…..we want
to finish out strong and not let our own relationships slip by being “too busy”
to be intentional
-
Nigel
-
A focus on the NOW and
the love that we can give
-
Granada in general as
the Easter festivities have begun and are quite……interesting (more on that in
the next post)
-
Cristina, our friend
that we help with English
Thanks!
Have a fantastic week! Remember
what Love did for us and why we celebrate Easter!
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