Not Alone

I just need to write really quick about possibly one of the most traumatic experiences I've ever had. I spent a good part of the day with Pastor Banuel's family, which always has a huge level of being awkward because its just difficult when the majority of the time they're speaking in a language I cannot understand! (Its challenging me to learn Tamil, though, that's for sure) So I get home from their house around 8:30 pm feeling kind of emotionally "blah" just because it was a little discouraging as far as connecting to them. Its just a slow process. The first thing I notice when I turn to walk upstairs is a HUGE spider! I'm not being dramatic here. It really was the size of a tarantula. I started bawling. Crying my eyes out. I told God that I was officially done. Its hard enough to be surrounded by people who I have trouble communicating with, but then I see this massive creature, and there's no one else here to kill it. I just couldn't take it. I told God that He has to let me go home. It didn't cross my mind to try to kill it. I literally would pass out if I got close to it. So I go upstairs and decide to ignore it. But of course the thought of it crawling around all night made me panic a little. (I legitimately have a fear of those guys). Then, suddenly it dawned on me that I could go back to P. Banuel's house and get someone to help me. Weird that it didn't cross my mind at first. I was telling God, "You made me come here all by myself. Its hard enough to be an extrovert and have to spend so much time by myself, but now there's this huge spider and there's no one here with me to kill it. I just can't take this anymore..." And then it was this nudge from the Lord that I'm not alone. Two houses down there is a family that I'm slowly, slowly connecting to. They love Jesus and are dedicated to serving Him. They're as much my family as any American believers. We just share a different language and culture.

So I traipsed back down to their house and Allen, their son, was just getting home! I told him about the problem, and he heroically came to kill it.

Its really interesting how much this situation changed my outlook on that family. I've had the mindset that I'm basically doing this alone with the support of everyone back home. But because of that stupid spider, who I'm sure God sent to teach me this (He works way out of the box haha), something in my heart concerning connecting to the Banuels completely changed. I realized I'm not doing this alone. They're here.