Matt’s Story
As told at our Praise, Worship and Communion Service on January 29, 2009…
Hey my name is Matt and I was asked to come down and tell you a piece of my story today. For some reason my story always seems to have a good experience and a bad experience when ever I learn something in my life. Today I will share with you the latest thing that the lord has taught me. The lord recently choose to work with me on my pride. My pride in that I can fix just about anything, from cars to houses. Over the years I have been a little bit of every thing. I have been a mechanic, a carpenter, an electrician, and a plumber. So there is not too much in the realm of necessities that I can’t fix.
Recently on a trip to Honduras I got to see just how far my pride would take me. There was a small group of us that went. We all had our reasons for going. Mine was kind of selfish maybe even a little high and mighty. I had hoped that some how I was going to be able to fix all of Honduras problems in the short week I was there. Kinda lofty I know, but hey dream big right? I was going to show those Honduras how people in the states work and where they went wrong. I would be the one to shed light to the Hondurans. This mind set lasted about 2 hrs after we arrived in Honduras.
As we pulled in Choluteca I could feel my heart begin to sink low into my chest. I looked up and down the streets and everything I saw just made me sad. The first thing I noticed was the trash and litter that was everywhere. The second thing was all of the run down looking houses and cars. Came to find out this was the typical middle class there. So my spirit had been crushed without ever getting out of the van. That was kind of depressing for me, for there was no amount of work that I could do that was going to bring this community around in a week.
That was my Saturday. Sunday was pretty mundane I was left mostly to my thoughts. On Monday I was in good spirits. We were at the Day Care playing with kids and having a great time. We served them lunch. They sing us a couple of songs. One kid even recited us all of the books of the bible. I was just amazed by the joy I saw on these kid’s faces.
Then we took a short drive across town. We went to visit a woman named Carla. The first thing we saw when we arrived was her kids they were sorta happy to see us, but it was not like the sheer joy that the kids over at the day care had just shown us. We made our way past the kids and went to say hi to Carla. Carla was a 30 year old woman with 2 kids. She had contracted HIV some time ago and now was in the final stages. 1 of her kids is 10 the other is 6. The 10 year old also has HIV. The 6 year old is clean. The 6 year old is extremely lucky to be HIV free, but Carla is 8 months pregnant. With her body in the shape its in….well this c section is going to be risky and nobody is sure weather she will make it or not. So the only thing we can do is pray.
These sorts of scenes just kill me in side. I enjoy fixing things but, at this time, there is not a thing in the world I can do to help her in this situation. God does have a plan though. For me it was he had to break me of my pride. This pride that I can fix anything. He wanted to show me how to love and care for people. Breaking of my pride accomplished in 2 days. Job well done. Now for the fun part. He gets to fix me.
Well since my arrival in Honduras I had been in a sort of depressed state, but a little bit of hope was living with me in the house that I stayed. This little bit of hope was named Samuel. Samuel is pastor Giovanni’s youngest and he does not speak a lick of English and my Spanish was no where near good enough to attempt to carry on a conversation. Even with the language barrier he still taught me something. Every night we would retire to our houses and Samuel would want to play cards. The only game we could play with out words was War. So every night we would play war, I don’t think I won a game. Over the course of the week we became friends, and in some ways I consider him a little brother. Now I see some of you asking what are you getting at.
Well, here is the link. A 6 year old taught me that all I had to do was be there. I didn’t have to talk . I just had to sit, listen, and pray. The same applied to all of the people I had seen and shared the gospel with all week. Yes the work was fun, (for me at least) but all of that will be wiped away the next time a disaster like hurricane Mitch hits. But if I cared about the people and tried to help them find Christ. No disaster is ever going to remove that. At the end of that week that is what god had taught me. I cant fix everything that is wrong in this world, but if I quit worrying about the material things and focus on the people and their spiritual needs. That is where I can make a difference and no matter how bad it gets. They can and will always have that.
So that got me thinking, if I am so comfortable help people in another country couldn’t I do the same here. One great way I have found to reach out is through TQG, but TQG only meets on Monday. What about the other six days of the week. I would bet I could find a lot more people that are in need of God’s love. I could start by looking to people who are close to me, and other people that I interact with on a daily basis. I probably won’t start pounding scripture down peoples throats, but if I just listen and care that just might make a huge difference in somebody’s day.
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Matt,
Thank you for your transparency…many times, our Father’s most lasting lessons are of the surgical variety. Like Ken says, “If it doesn’t hurt, we’re not doing it for the right reason!”
Dios te bendiga!
Penny (and Ken) Taylor
Weston, Ohio