Update 4: Equipped or Not, Here I Come.

Today we had the opportunity to visit Guarari, and help out with their kids club for a few hours. When we arrived there were a few kids running around, but it didn’t take long for the room to be filled with yelling, frisbees, flying soccer balls, jump ropes, and children running into just about everything. And on top of this, all these children spoke a language I am not very familiar with. I’m going to be honest, at first it was a little overwhelming and I wasn’t really sure how to jump in. What if I started a conversation that I couldn’t continue? What if they asked me something that I did not understand, or didn’t know how to respond to?

This got me thinking. I was in no way equipped (or so I thought) for this. And maybe partly I wasn’t. No, I couldn’t sit and talk with these kids the whole time. But I could smile at them, ask them their name and how old they are, I could tell them my name, dance with them, jump rope with them, laugh with them… This made me realize that often times I put higher expectations on myself for a situation than others put on me. I learned that these kids weren’t expecting me to tell them my life story, or ask about theirs, but they did expect to be picked up and paid attention to.

I also realized that God has equipped me for areas that make up for where I lack, for example, I ended up playing soccer with one boy for a good 20 minutes after camp was over, Instead of dwelling on the fact that I am not able to fully verbally communicate with these kids, I can focus on the things we have in common, such as a love for playing soccer. Along with this, God has also given me two teammates (Clara, & Leah) that have a much much better understanding of Spanish than I do. Today, we were able to come together with our different abilities to love on these kids.

In the end, the day was filled with dancing, piggy back rides, playing soccer, singing, jump roping, kids giving me hair dos, playing frisbee, laughing, and mostly them stealing my heart. And believe it or not, not a single kid complained about my lack of ability to speak Spanish.

To pull this all together, my experience today made me wonder how often I stay to the side or not do something because I don’t feel equipped enough to do it. How often do I talk myself out of serving someone because I put unnecessary expectations on myself? Expectations that would never even cross the other person’s mind? How ignorant of a thought to think that I know if I’m equipped or not for what God has planned. Who are we to put limits on how God can use us? I have a good guess that God will probably not change someone’s life through something I say in Spanish, however I fully believe God can use my willingness to serve, regardless of if I feel equipped or not, to impact someone’s life.

“But God doesn’t call the equipped, he equips the called.”