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Mario, Martina and Making Things New
7/30/09
We left Mokattam.
We landed in Mexico City and started our debriefing. We talked about culture shock and how people might not care that much about what we did this summer.
The most significant part to me was this thing they do every year at the end of the Global Urban Trek. They ask if anyone wants to commit to serving two years among the urban poor. I was freaking out about it. I kept asking God for a clear sign I was supposed to do it.
On the last night our sister Helyn stood up and told us a story. First she told us about her niece and how much she loves her. She passed around a picture. The little girl reminded me of my little sister when Helyn talked about how much she loves her niece, I thought about how much I love my sister. She said she would commit heinous crimes for this girl and I figured I would do worse for my sister’s sake. Seriously. I love Rachel. I’d die for Rachel.
Next she told us about a little baby named Mario she met in Honduras. He was lying in a pool of his own vomit and diarrhea; she got him to a hospital and stayed up through the night. She seriously considered staying there but eventually decided to go back to the U.S. and she doesn’t know if she made the right decision. Maybe Mario is dead now.
She said what made the difference was when she realized that Mario was the same age as her niece. Her niece is what lets loose the compassion she has inside of her. I’m kind of the same way. I’m pretty cold and uncompassionate until you bring my beautiful four-year-old sister into the picture.
Once she said that, I imagined Rachel in Mario’s situation and I lost it entirely. I cried a lot. I imagined Rachel in Martina’s situation. I cried even more.
Next we had a time of mourning. Helyn played a variety of music to help us mourn and played a slideshow of images that each team had picked out to represent sadness in the communities we were in.
One of the songs played was Sunday Bloody Sunday and just as the words, “We eat and drink while tomorrow they die,” played, the picture of me holding Martina came on the screen. The song went on and the slideshow went on. These were the words I’d written concerning leaving Martina. I figured that was as clear of a sign as I was going to get.
When they asked who wanted to commit two years after graduation to living among and serving the urban poor, I didn’t hesitate to stand.
Nine others on the team took the call. We laid our hands on each other and prayed. I cried many tears of joy. There had been lots of tears of sadness before this. I’d been overwhelmed with how messed up we’ve managed to make the world, but when we were all praying and being anointed and sent out, I realized we’re turning the whole world upside down.
All of creation is falling apart, but we, the Church, are pulling it back together and binding it with the love of Jesus. We’re bringing heaven to earth. Now it makes so much sense that at the end of the Bible Jesus says, “See, I am making all things new.”
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