Reflection on Serving - Kristel Lundberg

In Mexico, and Everywhere, My Hands are Enough

I have always struggled with the notion that I am enough.  Enough for my family, my job, my friends, my community, my church, my God.  Coming up on our trip to Hogar de Amor in Mexico I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to communicate enough in Spanish, that I wouldn’t be fit enough to offer the kind of help requested, that I wouldn’t be open or spritual enough to receive the lessons I could learn there.

Luckily, I AM ENOUGH!  God found a way to show me in Colima, Mexico, surrounded by His people, living life as He intended, that I am enough for his guidance and his love.

I was on the “sewing team” on our mission trip.  Lucky for me it wasn’t painting, that was some hard work, but I was also a bit apprehensive.  I really don’t sew much.  I learned in junior high and have probably only pulled out my sewing machine once or twice each year since I have been an adult.  

 Our team started with waterproof mattress covers.  All straight lines, pretty straight forward.  The thing is, I have never in my life started a sewing project without struggling with the bobbin, sewing a bit and then having to rip out what I just did because I had missed a step, or started inside out or backwards.  Monday, our first day working in Mexcio, I didn’t have to undo, rip out, or start over on a single thing.  When that continued on Tuesday, I started thinking, maybe God has a hand in this sewing thing.  He could be guiding my hands, helping me to be as productive as possible.  I also kept thinking, yeah right.  My sewing project is the last thing on His mind and I’m just reaching for ways to feel connected to Him.  By Wednesday, I really did feel his presence with me.  I was connected to him.  I was sewing with his Spirit, I was praying for His guidance, I was enough for his help.  

Our week was simply amazing!  In Colima, we took communion and heard a beautiful sermon on unity, we prayed together, we played together, we laughed and we cried together.  I learned more about how to have a relationship with God than I have learned in the rest of my life combined.  I learned about gratitude.  I learned about joy and love.  I made life long friends.  I received and gave more hugs from the cutest kiddos in all the land than I ever thought possible.  

In one of our team devotionals, Kristin Smith asked us to think of something, a memory, something physical, something written down, that we could take with us to remember the week by.  I will always carry with me a bobbin.  With it, I hope I will always remember the fact that I am enough for God.  I am enough for his help, for his guidance, for his love and support.  We are all enough.  These orphans at Hogar de Amor and the caregivers there are enough.  I feel so genuinely blessed to have had this opportunity, and I am so grateful that I am enough!