Thursday

Thursday was our first day of “work”, although the meetings didn’t actually begin until Friday. It was a day of easing us out of the vacation mentality and into the mentality of hard work. In the morning, we went to a meeting at the hub church where we met the people we would be working with for the next two weeks. The meeting went well enough, and after it was over, we headed across the parking lot to the conference office for lunch.

After lunch, one of the conference leaders began telling us when we would be picked up and who would pick us up that evening for our first site visit. It went something like this, “He will be by to pick you two up at 4:30.” And then, with a gesture toward another driver, “And he’ll be by between 5 and 5:30 to pick up you three.” When he got to me, he sort of waved his hand and said that I was close and someone would be there. Then he started to move on. “Wait… no wait…” I stammered, “What do you mean? Who am I going with? And… when should I be ready to go?” At this, he turned to the men next to him and they began to speak in Tagalog. After some discussion, he turned to me again and said, “Yes, you’re close. There will be a driver there to pick you up.” Reading my expression, he smiled and said, “Don’t worry! Someone will be there.” “Okay… well, what time?” More discussion. “Sometime between 5:30 and 6:00.” I was a little disappointed that I wouldn’t be driving with anyone from my group. I was already nervous about the site visit, and I wanted the comfort of driving at least partway with someone I knew. It was only later that I became thankful for the arrangement.

As I waited for my ride that evening, I grew more and more tense. All the other members of my group had already been picked up by about 5:30, and there was still no sign of my unnamed driver. I waited and waited for what felt like an eternity. Finally, an elderly couple approached me from within the hotel – I was waiting out front – and asked if I was with ShareHim. Relief washed over me and I excitedly said, “Yes! Are you my drivers?” To which my dear new friends replied, “No. We’re assigned to another site.” “Oh,” I replied, trying not to let my fear or disappointment show. I felt so lost. “What is your site name?” they asked me. “Um, well, I don’t really know what it’s called… Maybe it’s in my folder!” I pulled out the folder of information I had been given. “No, it’s not in here.” They looked at each other, then back at me. “Who is coming to pick you up?” “Well, you see, they didn’t give me a name…” “Did you get a phone number from anyone at your site? You know, at the meeting?” “No, I didn’t,” I answered, feeling very embarrassed, indeed. “What time did they say you would be picked up?” “Between 5:30 and 6:00.” They checked their watches; it was 5:50. “Well, they still have 10 minutes.” They didn’t know what to do with me, so finally the woman took out a piece of paper, scribbled down her name and phone number, and said “Call me if no one comes.” I thanked her, and then they were gone.

A long twenty minutes later, my driver pulled up. There was another young man in the front seat, and my pastor in the backseat. They were friendly and jovial and made conversation throughout the 10 minutes that it took to get to the site. I tried to relax and enjoy their company, and during the short ride, I finally began to feel at ease.

The purpose of the site visit was to make sure everything was ready for the first meeting the following night; everything was supposed to be set up as it would be the next evening. We were supposed to test all of the equipment and go over an incredibly long list of questions to make sure the first meeting ran smoothly. As a result of filling my head with notions of “running smoothly,” I was not prepared for what I found. I could go on and on about what was not there and what was not set up. We had a tent, and we had seating. And that was about it. We had a sound system, but no sound cord. And the answer I received to most of my questions was, “…tomorrow.” As in, “We’ll test that tomorrow. We’ll have that set up tomorrow. We’ll bring the extension cord tomorrow. We’ll have lights tomorrow.” I prayed earnestly and tried to believe them.

That evening, back at the hotel, we swapped stories of our site visits. The question, “Was everything set up at your site?” was voiced countless times, and was usually met by a chorus of emphatic “Nooo!”’s. Ah, so I wasn’t the only one. This comforted me, perhaps too much. Because, instead of staying up to go over the 3 sermons we would be preaching in a span of less than 24 hours, instead of getting on my knees to pray that it would all come together, instead of spending my time asking God for His blessing on the meetings, His guidance, and that He would draw in the visitors that needed to come, instead of immersing myself in His Word and filling my heart and mind with the promises that would get me through the next couple of weeks…I wearily crawled into bed and fell asleep.