God has been teaching me the meaning of being content in all circumstances and learning how to serve his kingdom when I have to do it in ways I don’t like. Yesterday I woke up to my fourth day with pink eye and my teams’ first order of business was to shovel trash at our compound into a truck. It wasn’t too difficult of a job until we realized a lot of the trash was used toilet paper. A few minutes in one of my teammates may or may not have had poop on her arm but we kept shoveling until the job was done. As we started heading off to the dump I jumped on the back of the truck and fell to my doom. I stumbled into the trash as the truck headed off when I was barely on and scraped my knee from one side to the other. Once we got to the dump I got out and fell to my doom again. I slipped on cardboard and my hand fell perfectly into a puddle of pee. Then we headed back to the compound in order for a part of my team to travel to the supermarket where we waited for twenty minutes for transportation as a bus and several taxi’s pass us. Then as the day progressed and so did my new sunburn, I tried to look at the day positively but instead, failed to do so. Soon enough we headed to the village of Bethel in which I was not only handicapped by bad attitude but also more noticeably the limp I had from falling in trash that morning. Later my team and I attended a youth service for 5 hours. That’s about the same time that my knee started to swell up and I sat there miserably. When I went to fall asleep in my bed last night my knee swelled up enough for me to not be able to sleep on my left side without being in pain.

            The one moment amongst all the terribleness that ensued yesterday that made my whole day worth it happened a little after I slipped in the pee. One man who lived at the dump helped our team unload the truck and we had the opportunity to bless him a little bit financially. Not only that but we had a chance to lay a hand and pray for him (didn’t use pee hand). It was special because the prayer was able to be deliberate. Instead of praying for all those in less than ideal living situations, I had the chance to pray for Francisco for what he specifically needed. 

            God must be teaching me to be content in all situations and instructing me to serve in ways that don’t cater to me.  It’s a hard lesson and yesterday was just a start.