“Are you leaving?”

My team went to Los Pinos on Tuesday and Wednesday. Los Pinos is a colony on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa. It is extremely dangerous and very poverty stricken. As we walked through it we saw boys high on paint thinner, talked to a woman who is afraid because people keep trying to break into her house by prying the walls off from the outside, saw Genesis who is back with her foster mom and is extremely sick, and raced down the cliffs trying to outrun the flood waters rushing down the mountains when it started pouring rain.

Los Pinos is a hard place. There is a lot of darkness in that place. But we found strength and peace in the fact that God is present in the middle of the darkness. What I failed to realize was the way in which He was present. I was reminded of that by a two year old girl.

This little girl was standing in the road watching us and I started to approach her to talk to her for a little while. Before I said a word she looked straight at me and said,

"Are you leaving?"

I was a little startled. So I asked her to repeat what she said.

"Are you leaving?"

I wasn't sure quite how to respond so I asked her, "Do you want me to leave?"

"No."

I talked to her for a few more minutes she told me that she was two years old and that her name was Pina Colada. I believe that she was two; I'm not so sure that her name was really Pina Colada, but then, you never know.

As my team continued on through the day I really didn't think about her again. I didn't think about her until I was praying during worship and God reminded me about our encounter. And then He said this,

"She wasn't talking to you, she was talking to Me."

Yes, Jesus is in Los Pinos. But God is in those impoverished places because His sons and daughters are there. We are the hands and feet of Jesus. The Great Commission, Jesus' example, the commands of the Bible, all of these point towards the idea that God sends His children to do His work. God works through His followers. That is why we need to go. That is why we go to the nations. That is why we walk across the street. Ministry is simply doing life.

My ministry right now looks like talking to Herman about problems and choices and looking through his scrapbooks of his memories on the property and assuring him that no matter how many times he falls, God is always there to pick him up. Or holding a sick baby and making sure that she gets her medicine even though I know that she is going to go back to the place that made her sick and then walking into that place and taking her back, again and again. Or painting fingernails and braiding hair and baking a birthday cake.

Your ministry might look like a coffee date or a phone call. It might look like helping with homework or a letter. Ministry is simply doing life. I'm doing life in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Wherever you are doing life, look out for the people to live life with.

Then God asked me something,

"Nikki, are you leaving?"

I could have chosen to check out when I went to Los Pinos. I could have chosen to put up walls, to look at the hopelessness and give up. I could have thought that there was nothing I could do. I could have given up. I could have left.

And God knew that, so He asked me, "Are you leaving?" I decided not to. It was a good decision. It was the right decision. The next day I walked back into Los Pinos. Herman wasn't high and I got to talk to him for a long time. I got to bring Genesis back home and get her medicine. The first day I saw despair and hopelessness. The second day I saw light and peace. Los Pinos is changing because God's children are walking into it and declaring victory over it. And they are not checking out. They are not leaving. That is powerful, not only in Los Pinos, but in every corner of the world. God's children need to walk into whatever country or city or neighborhood they are next to and declare love and peace and victory. We're fighting a battle here.

And so, what about you? Have you made that decision? Look around you and consider how you are impacting the people in your life. Then answer this question:

"Are you leaving?"