It isn't as if I wanted to . . .

        

In 1989, we moved to Baja California, Mexico to retire.  It was my husband's greatest desire to retire there near the ocean.  There were plenty of Americans around and a social center which they had formed.  We got involved right away.  I started helping with the little newsletter they put out and we both found the little theatre group and joined.  It was wonderful

We had our own Bible studies and time with the Lord every morning.  A few times, our friend Bill and his girlfriend Lupita joined us.  My Spanish was improving daily, so I was able to help her understand what we were reading and discussing.  We also had a campfire 12-step meeting in front of our trailer every Wednesday. 

One afternoon, one of our neighbors came walking by and invited me to the Bible Study in the next camp.  We knew that the leader was the 92 year-old mom of one of the people we had met at the theatre group.  It took us a couple of weeks to make up our minds, but we finally went - it was the closest thing to church that the American Community had at the time.

In the meantime, the man whose mother was the Bible teacher approached me and asked if I would be willing to take down her poems and make a little booklet of them.  She had been writing poetry since she was a little girl.  She remembered each and every one, but they were in her head and not on paper.  I agreed and got to spend more time with dear Elva as she recited her poems and often told stories about her father who was an itinerant preacher, traveling by horseback to the local towns to preach.  I grew to love Elva as if she were my own grandmother.

Elva's daughter-in-law was also in the theatre group with us and was so excited when we started going to the Bible study.  Our lives were pretty full, we had taken on the partnership of a small pharmacy and I worked there several mornings a week.  My Spanish improved immensely and I was now holding regular conversations. 

June wanted me to come and see the mission that they had built in the town.  They held an outreach and services every Wednesday. I was reluctant to go.  We were so involved!  Bible study, self-publishing Elva's little book, the pharmacy, theatre group, Wednesday meeting, plays, etc., kept us busier than we thought retirement should be.  June kept asking.  Everytime she saw me, she would ask.  I started to be irritated at her.  She was so insistent.  I was just TOO busy.  She wouldn't give up.

Finally one Tuesday afternoon after Bible study when she asked again, I said, "If I go one time will you leave me alone?"  Smiling, she said, "No problem."

The next day, I showed up at the mission.  June walked me from area to area showing me what was done there.  They had classes for every age group and an area for regular services as well.  In the back storage area, they had donated food and clothing.  Each adult in attendance got a bag with rice, beans and some canned goods to take home.  She told me that some weeks a man came fro Los Angeles with day-old bread to give out.  It was a larger operation than I thought it would be.

For the last stop, she showed me an area no bigger than a storage closet.  Crammed inside, with very little walking room was a medical exam table and a nurse and patient.  The nurse had cards with words on them so she could ask questions.  The wall held shelves with donated medicines on it.  She had a few more things in a paper bag.  "This is our clinic and our nurse," said June.  I was thinking they should have stored the food in there - it was such a tiny area.  I began to speak to some of the people waiting for care.  When the nurse heard me, she asked if I could stay and translate.  I said I would.  We worked together all afternoon, patients waiting for a small bottle of pills or a wound dressing while we were packed into that small room.  Toward the end, the nurse gathered some of the women and said it was time to pray.  I translated her very special prayer and felt privileged to do so.  Our arms were wrapped around some very short, very poor and very dirty women.  It was heavenly.  I could feel the presence of the Lord in that place.

The nurse asked me if I would come back the next week.  It wasn't my plan before that day, but quickly my mouth said yes.  June was grinning.  I think even God was grinning that day.  I can only say this:  you are only too busy when God says you are too busy.

I hope my memories of that special day help you to see what happens when you tell the Lord you are at His command and to use you where He sees fit.  I only left that mission clinic when it was His time. . . and by that time, I had 6 little babies under 6 months old living in my little trailer and add-on.

Be blessed in the Lord today,  Penny