Meeting With the Elders at the Feeding Center

Our team rode for an hour and forty five minutes until we reached our destination. We entered a small cement building with red dirt in its surface, there were no tiles, or wood and carpet for the flooring like there is in the states. The room was full of elderly women and men, i was initially blessed by their diligence.

I recall thinking to myself, wow…all  of these elderly people are packed in this building an hour before the service started ready to receive from God. It made me stop and reflect on my own life, how there are times when I am thirty minutes early for church or five and other times i show up a few minutes late. Why do I show up late, how could I show up 5 mins before praise and worship starts? But there they were sitting in this small (hot) building with their hearts prepared to hear from God. Their commitment opened my eyes to see how easily we take for granted the opportunity we have to meet with God, how church has become a recreational activity in the U.S, where people are moved by the titles and roles they have within the church more than meeting with God, communicating with Him. 

Thankfully we serve a relational God, who longs for us anyway whether we serve Him or not, He loves us enough to create us in His image, sent His only Son as a sin offering for us that we would be forgiven, transformed and reconciled unto Him. One thing I will never forget from this particular service is the way the Spirit moved. There was no denying that the presence of God was there before our team arrived and as the service progressed it only grew stronger.

I was moved to tears as our team made our way around the room to pray with every individual. We laid hands on them as we prayed and they touched us and interceded for us as well. As a team, I am certain there are several people in our lives such as relatives, friends, coworkers, even our pastors and members of our churches who believe we are the answers to someone’s prayers by doing missionary work in another country, and serving those who are living in poverty and struggling, but that concept is not always accurate. 

For an example, the men and women that we embraced there were the answers to my prayers. I longed to grow deeper in my relationship with God and being able to connect with them has stretched me for the Kingdom of God. Not even a “language barrier” could rob us from what God had in store, none of the elderly people understood english and I am not fluent in Spanish but the Spirit moved the same. I walked away enlightened, realizing that their expectations from God wasn’t based on tangible things, though we served them spiritually and physically by providing food for them, they hungered and thirsted for God and He filled them. I want that same hunger and thirst for God. I pray that we all will desire that hunger and thirst for righteousness, Jesus is enough for us. He should be our only expectation.