I've had quite the year. It's been a journey into discovering myself on a deeper level than I have ever before. Ultimately, it's been in Him that I've been finding myself. With the help of His grace, my faith has been, slowly but surely, strengthening. I think that the moment I really started to understand this was when I came back from the Peru mission trip last August. It was a trip that I can only feebly attempt to describe in words. It was an experience that wove this rich fabric in my soul, filled with intricate designs, embroidered by His grace. My eyes opened to witness a world I had always known existed, but was afraid to enter into. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to touch the Peruvian people's lives, and in turn, have them touch my life in a way I never knew was possible. The people in Piura have little material things, and yet the love in their hearts - the love they uphold for their family and community - gave them so, so much.
On my flights coming home from the mission trip, I remember having this burning desire within me to stay in Piura, and to live amongst the poor there. I didn't want to come back home to North America - a lost, materialistic nation governed by narcissism and greed. But then, one day, I happened across some words of Blessed Mother Teresa's:
"Stay where you are. Find your own Calcutta. Find the sick, the suffering, and the lonely right there where you are — in your own homes and in your own families, in your workplaces and in your schools. You can find Calcutta all over the world, if you have the eyes to see. Everywhere, wherever you go, you find people who are unwanted, unloved, uncared for, just rejected by society — completely forgotten, completely left alone."Find your own Calcutta. Upon reading these words, I knew, with a sudden urgentness, that I am called to stay right where I am. Perhaps, some day, I will again journey out to the third-world as a missionary, if He wills it. However, for now, I know that it is here that He wants me to spread the glory of His Word. Here, in a country starved of Love; or rather, a country that has starved itself of Love.
