today i washed and folded a Brazilian man's underwear. i stopped for a second and thought....mikkele, this is your life.
i have those moments often when i'm sitting in a group of people from 10 different countries discussing what superpower we'd want or how many countries we've been to in the last 10 years or how the word "pity" is something that all dutchies use in english but kind of sounds like an 80 year old woman taught it to them. and then someone says, "Mikkele, Pavlos prayed with Peter last night to accept Christ and to feel the Holy Spirit in his life" and then i see him leave the hostel with David, a staff member, to "spread the Word of God," and i think...mikkele, this is your life. you get to see this transformation happen. while people need clean showers to use or fresh sheets to sleep on, ultimately that's not the point. the reason i'm here is for Pavlos, who accepted Christ. i'm here for Thiago, who we showed what it means to actually have a relationship with God instead of just have a religion. i'm here for Raymond, who accepted Christ in immigration prison and has recently been deported to Holland for the rest of his life without his family or friends.
it's not by any means normal, and sometimes i find myself in a basement folding a Brazilian man's (very Brazilian) underwear, but this is my life for now, and i couldn't feel more at peace about it.
here is a picture of Kerry (left) and Pavlos (right) painting the bike Pavlos bought and fixed up for 5 euro:
