John Benner: I have often heard the expression that ‘90% of life is showing up, standing up and speaking up’ As this was my first mission trip, I really didn’t know what this trip would mean beyond the ‘showing up’ part. However, my heart was open and I decided to leave the rest in  God’s hands. What I have found are many opportunities to ‘stand up’ (by volunteering), and  help ‘speaking up’ in ways I never anticipated. Let me tell you about three experiences.

1. I led a team of children competing in our Wacky Olympics. Four older boys and a younger girl were on my team. As we ran around to our different events, I needed help telling everyone where we needed to go and keeping everyone together in all the excitement. Somehow, the younger girl picked up on this. She figured out what needed to happen in spite of my very, very basic Spanish. She told the older boys where we were going and brought everyone back together at several points. Without her help, I wouldn’t have gotten there.
2. I saw the children (girls and boys) liked to jump rope. As I walked up to join in, I relied on lots of smiles, pointing and a liberal dose of ‘I don’t understand’ in Spanish to make my way through. We got the rope going and I started to count in Spanish how many times they jumped. As it turned out, only knowing the numbers up to 20 was all I needed. And, one of the children started counting in English. At the end, we all had a great time counting, laughing, and perfecting our jump roping technique.
3. Last night I helped get a group of the younger boys ready for bed. It would be impossible to fully describe getting 20 boys showered in 30 minutes. Whirlwind comes to mind. I was in charge of shampoo and handing them a small sponge soaked with soap. I finally figured out near the end that the incredibly efficient room mother meant ‘leave the shower’ rather than ‘wash up more’. I probably put a lot of extra soap and shampoo on those precious boys. When we finished, I felt like I helped in at least a small way.

And what do these three experiences have in common? I have learned in an irrefutable, first hand way (I can be pretty stubborn) that if I show up and have my heart in the right place, God will help me with the  ‘standing up’ and ‘speaking up’ in unexpected, amazing ways.