Shelby AKA When Frustrations Become Blessings

Deep Impact, Week 2

We walked into our site this past week to 90 very loud middle-schoolers and their chaperons.  We were not expecting them.  

There was a couple who showed up that needed a room, so our speaker and his wife had to bunk with the staff.  We were not expecting that.

At 11:00 the night before the churches arrived, we received an email that one of the churches was no longer coming, leaving some teams cut in half.  We were not expecting that.  

The day the churches came, as our coordinator was going over the jobs, a children's group cancelled, and we didn't have addresses for a number of the projects.  We were not expecting that.  

A volunteer showed up who criticized everything we did from an organizational aspect, comparing it to a missions camp he had been head over in the past.  We certainly were not expecting that. 

I guess you could say the week started out rough for us.  

But we persevered   Not through our own strength, but through God's.  

I can't tell you how many times the first few days I had to stop for a few seconds, reorient myself to God, and pray for His guidance, patience, and joy.  But pray I did, and He was ever faithful.

I don't know why I was so surprised that God managed to work everything out.  In fact, many of these frustrations and obstacles that we were forced to overcome turned into blessings.

The on-site coordinators at the Shelby Mission Camp are very particular about the way their facility is used.  It's totally understandable, as the camp has been open for a little less than a year.  They do a good job of keeping it working, but sometimes they can be a bit strict about how they run things.  It's understandable, but we as a staff wanted very much to make sure they were pleased with how the week ran so we could continue to use the facility.  

The group immediately before us, the middle-schoolers, were very very loud.  And mostly because of the way we organize things and schedule things, our group of 150 people worked so smoothly and were very respectful of our space.  Not that the group before us wasn't, but the quiet and peace seemed to be a relief to the on-site coordinators, and they left the week very pleased with our leadership and the attitude/actions of the campers.  

Since Jason and Allison, the speaker and his wife, were bunking with us staffers, we got to know them both much better.  We built closer relationships than we might have because of the extra time spent with them in our respective rooms.  

Because the church cancelled, I bonded very quickly and got to work soon with Dollie, our coordinator.  We worked hurriedly together to reorganize the teams and to work out transportation.  This not only grew Dollie and I closer together, but it also taught the campers the necessary life lesson that in missions, as with everything in life, we must be flexible.  

The Children's team who's job site got cancelled ended up being a "Miscellaneous" team, that did odd jobs throughout the week.  They all had such a good attitude and in themselves became a blessing to us because of their willingness to do whatever they needed to do.  One day, they installed smoke detectors.  They met an elderly man who's wife had recently passed away, and, due to odd circumstances, had no pots or pans to cook food in.  They brought him food and took up some money to get him kitchen supplies so he could cook food for himself, a need that would not have been realized if they were working with Children.  

And finally, the volunteer who criticized our team actually ended up bringing us closer together.  His sarcastic and biting remarks were hurtful, yes, but partially due to our pride.  We learned to set aside our own pride and make rational, God guided decisions even if we were personally affronted.  We grew closer to each other and to God.  We even learned to love someone sacrificially, sacrificing our own emotions and pride to pray for a man who hadn't been godly towards us.  

It's funny how the things that seem the most troublesome, burdening, and frustrating can turn out to be blessings in disguise.  Only God could take annoyances and frustrations and turn them around.  

And surprisingly, at the end of the week, I found myself thanking God for everything we didn't expect.  Because hand-in-hand with the unexpected bad, God always seems to provide some unexpected good.  We just have to look at situations through His eyes.