As I shoved the last handful of chocolate rice krispies into my mouth Sunday nite, it was then that I heard a voice inside of me say "Do not worry about life, what you will eat or drink or your body what you will wear...."
On a normal basis, these would simply be inspirational biblical passages to warm my heart. But out in the middle of Latin America with barely any money left, those ancients words were food for my soul that would be the only thing I could cling to for survival day to day.
What an interesting few days it was. Thursday winning a free burger at
The Office , then Saturday visiting a friend who ended up taking me out for food. The burger from the office gave me enough strength to make it to Saturday and my friend taking me out for food gave me enough to make it to Monday.
Savoring the last bits of chocolatey cereal Sunday nite, something inside of me knew that it would be OK. After getting robbed, I had obeyed God and not called out for help but instead chose to wait and see him come through. And what went through my mind Sunday and Monday was that one of greatest miracles since the birth of Christ is that I have next to nothing left and here I stand, well fed and ready to go on a Monday morning.
In terms of there being anything left for breakfast, my cupboards were bare as Old Mother Hubbard. With a sip of a half empty bottle of coke, I was on my way to the school via subway. While on the subway, I got a last minute text from one of my students that she wasn't able to come and she wasn't sure if the other person could come either. Regardless, I decided to show up to the school and wait and see.
The other lady didn't turn up either but the truth is that God had me at the school for another purpose....breakfast. In the teachers lounge there is free maté, cookies, tea for the staff. As I sat there in the staffroom seeing if anyone was gonna turn out, I realize that breakfast was served. A few minutes of scouring through the cupboards turned up a small "feast". Some leftover cookies, coffee grinds along with milk that I had found in the fridge. And then there was the ultimate prize.....a huge piece of leftover chocolate cake in the fridge. It looked like someone had a party and just had put the last piece for whoever found it and wanted it. And that whoever happened to be me :)
I left the school building with a full belly and a heightened spirit! Even with next to nothing, I've been eating decently for a 3 or 4 days now. And the days where I didn't eat didn't matter because I had been feeling tired and sluggish with the loss of appetite due to the cold, winter weather and just rested my body taking tea and water.
Understand that my faith level is no better or worst than any other person. The first time that you're in an unfamiliar circumstance, it is indeed scary and you may be tempted to take a shortcut. But honestly, none of the blogposts you just read in the past few weeks about how God came through would have happened if I had taken the shortcut and sent off an email begging for help. If i had done that, I would have received money and my level of faith stayed the same. And I would continue to live with the fear of what would happen if my card got lost.
One fine morning, 2 wks after getting robbed...it was finally then that I felt the the OK to finally ask for help with funds from my family abroad. But during those two wks between getting robbed and asking for funds, I had the most amazing level of growth. At the end of the day, I'm kinda glad that eveything panned out the way that it did. As life goes on, it is getting easier to trust God. Now if that situation ever happened once more where i ended up in a foreign country with no access to funds, I wouldn't worry. I'd just sigh, roll my eyes and chuckle "Mama Mia! Here we go again...."
