Chicken Foot Soup for the Soul

The Psalmist writes in Psalm 51, "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me." As I mentioned in my first posting, some of the ways that God speaks to us is through our circumstances, the church and the Bible. As I reflect about the activities of the day it is this scripture, Psalm 51:10-12, that reaches into my very soul and speaks to me.

Today we were involved in food ministry hosted by Primera Iglesia Evangelica Bautista de Cochabamba (AKA First Baptist Calama). Two days a week the church opens its doors to the immigrants of the Andes Mountains. We arrived about one hour early to help prepare the soup for the day. One of the Pastors invited us to listen to the Word, in the Quechua language. Most of the people that had come were sitting on the concrete floor of the open air sanctuary. When we came in we headed toward some risers in the back, but immediately I felt compelled to go and sit with the people.

I just want to share some of the things that I observed while sitting on the floor and how God spoke. There is a man to my diagonal right dress in an old pair of tennis shoes that are missing the shoe strings, corduroy pants, a worn out mock turtle neck sweater and and a jacket. His face is dark brown, rugged and worn. The man has a sweet smile and a genuine concern for the people who are coming in to the area. As a lady walks in she doesn't notice that she dropped some Boivianos on the floor, but the man sees it and instantly arises to get them for her. After he hands them back to her, he then goes over to a plastic pan that is full of water sitting on top of a bucket. He dips his hands into the bucket and meticulously washes them off in the water. He then grabs a coca cola plastic bottle full of water and rinses his hands. As he is taking his seat, he removes a rag from his back pocket and drys every part of his hand. There were several things that I observed about this man in a short period of time. One, he cared for people and second, he cared for himself. That is a simple lesson of life, before you can treat others with respect, you have to respect yourself. The large area is full of 35-40 people ranging in age from two-years-old to maybe 60 (It is hard to tell the age of a person because of the shorter life expectancy of the people). I see a young boy who is eating a piece of bread that his mom removed from her shoulder sack. He is dressed in an dingy looking sweat shirt and sweat pants that are too big for him, but he doesn't seem to mind that the pants are riding him like a plumber. A lady who looks to be elderly sat down in front of me and for a half hour she sat on her folded under legs. I see a blind man and I watch a man struggle to walk with two home-made crutches down the wide hallway, up the ramp and to a bench. He has to walk on the tips of his toes and essentially throw his hips side to side to get his legs to move. When the time comes to serve, Melinda, myself and my family get up from the mist of the people and head toward the table where the soup, hot-tea and oranges are. We have not understood any of the message, but I observed hope in the eyes and posture of the people. Before we get to the table, the Pastor has said something about us and all of the people light up and start waving their hands welcoming us and showing their gratitude. My heart is overwhelmed that I am getting to share this with my family. Once the soup was served, we were invited to eat with the people. As the soup was handed to my wife she noticed that there was something unfamiliar with the contents; a large chicken foot protruding from the soup. It was here that Psalm 51 was fitting, "grant me a willing spirit to sustain me." What was unfamiliar and unappealing to me was lunch for the little boy across from me who was sucking that foot for every juice that he could get out of it.

So, today God used a chicken foot (circumstance), a mountain man (His church) and His word to speak to me. Seeing God at work never ceases to amaze me. And tonight my prayer is that my heart will be steadfast to Him for my entire life.