On Tuesday we met Wanda on the metro in Madrid. We were tired and on a time crunch. Isn't that the way it always happens? God is about to blow our minds and have us operate out of our weakness, just for kicks I think. So here we are... and Wanda is really struggling trying to get directions from someone who speaks only Spanish, and she speaks only English. So she asks if we speak English and we say yes and that our friend is really good with the metro system. Erica begins helping her understand the metro and where she is going and she begins to tell us how she was supposed to meet her sister but couldn't find her. And then she mentions her husband, but in the past tense and very randomly thrown into conversation. So I ask about him. A few years ago I began to realize that people are more likely to answer personal questions than we are to ask them. So I started asking personal questions. And to this day I have never had someone tell me that it's none of my business... not that I can remember anyways... I usually get answers, really good answers. As Wanda answered my question, I began to see that God was up to something. Wanda and her husband had planned their trip to Spain together. They were supposed to be there together, but recently Wanda's husband of 20 years decided he couldn't be married to her anymore, and he left her. And here was Wanda, in her 50's, on a metro in Madrid by herself. We helped her with directions and we prayed with her before we parted ways. She was a Christian, but in desperate need of encouragement, so we became that for her. And I learned some things from Wanda:
-We don't find our value or identity in our job, our friends, our kids, or even our spouse, but in Christ alone. He is the only one that can give us our true identity and life's purpose.
-Life doesn't stop when something bad happens. There is always a reason to continue. Wanda was telling us that she works with special needs kids in the states and that she might come back to Spain to live and teach if there is a program like that. She could've stopped her life and focused on her problem, but instead she chose to focus on the fact that God had a promise for her, still.
-With God's strength we can push through even our greatest disappointment. I believe that God sent Wanda into our lives because he loves her, deeply, and she needs his help. And he wanted to use us to help her and use her to help us learn those life lessons that are so easily forgotten.
So, praying big buff angels around her and that she has the time of her life... go, Wanda, go.
