Grace in Polish Plumbing

This summer has past by in one huge blur. I am still on the recovery from our two week long missions trip to Detroit with our High Schoolers. Our team devotionals were focused on the book of Galatians  and our VBS program for inner city kids in Detroit taught on the Fruit of the Spirit.

Apparently God had a plan in place, one we were unaware of until we were in the thick of it. Little did we know that God was going to teach us to live out the lessons of grace and fruit of the Spirit. It was humbling and growing. God moved in awesome ways even when Satan assaulted us from every angle.

Our home base was a very large, very old, very unique Polish Community Center that is run by Detroit Love Inc. So Saturday July 13th 50 warm bodies settled in and began to take over this poor old Polish building. The first thing to go was the plumbing. Unfortunately 50 people using plumbing all at once caused a rare phenomenon to occur in which water going down the drain caused the septic to overflow into the basement. Here is where grace and humility made their intro. We had groups down in the basement scooping, shoveling, and moving poop water. Plumbers were called and still the problem stood. At first the issue was minimal with our team of 50 sharing one shower, one toilet and two sinks. The amazing thing was there was little to no complaint. Wet wipe showers, sink hair washes and roughing it did abound within the hallowed halls. We stunk as a team, but Fabreze and wet naps kept us together.  The second plumbing appocolypse hit us a tad bit harder. This time there could be nothing going down the pipes or else we would find ourselves scooping it out the next morning. That meant no showers, no sinks, no toilets and a whole lot of holding it. Again grace and humility happened. It was a lot like camping indoors. We had our wet wipe showers, Fabreze and portable bucket toilets. The next day four of our guys humbly and quietly shoveled and scooped the basement clean. These guys faced the filth and even worked through a meal in service to the group. There is no dignity in scooping poop, but the humble quiet leadership they showed placed them in high esteem. Some days serving and leading will look and smell a whole lot filthier than we would like.

While the lack of facilities was inconvenient it was the least of our worries. There was a sense of weariness hanging over the group within the first few days. While it was not an overly physical trip it was draining in various ways. The first week news came of the passing of a student back home and the second week news came of a tragic accident that claimed the life of another student and the critical injury of two others. News like that carries a weight all its own, but God is good and fellowship with the Body of Christ enabled the students and staff to continue living in grace, love, patience, kindness, gentleness, joy, peace, goodness, faithfulness and self-control.

We were not perfect and there were several spats and altercations. Grace in community and fellowship does not abide in the lack of turbulence, but rather in the moments after. While there were relational differences and arguments, they never lasted more than a day. Conflicts were addressed and resolved with patience and maturity.

The second week held more interesting times and adventures in navigating missions. Part way into the week we experienced a small lice outbreak which caused us to take over a strategic attack on the tiny mites. The organization of the plan was ridiculous. We had a team in charge of laundry, vacuuming, hair care, sanitization and continued construction on the building.  Ministry looked less like VBS, work projects and public outreach and more like tending to the Body in 4 hour long sessions in which hair was picked through and cleansed. Grace abounded! We had no complaints, no blaming and no arguing. The Body was the Body in all its multicfacitated glory.

Grace abounded even more as the week went on and staff started dropping. We had several staff members come down with migraines, sickness and exhaustion. When holes were left in staffing they were filled. Our students stepped up and led to help with the slack. Leadership was found by pure desperation, but it was not desperate in its nature. God had been preparing them for moments like these and the investment showed.

That investment blessed not only the individuals themselves, but others around them. Let me explain:
I had a bad attitude one morning. I felt like we were behind and needed to get a move on it. Discussion was flowing around a tough subject one particular morning, but we were running behind schedule. As I sat there I battled with the frustration of wanting conversation to continue and wanting to get going on our ministry outreaches. I half prayed for patience and grace to be my mindset. I was feeling justified in my angst, but knew that I could easily be squashing the work of the Spirit if I wasn’t careful. When we were all loaded up in the vans two of the girls on my team noticed that I was frazzled and asked if I was alright. I explained my juxtaposition and my lack of willingness to change my attitude. They asked if they could pray for me. Ah, there it is. The solution we all need but so seldom run to because we want to do things our way. How could I say no? I agreed and further explained that my attitude needed some serious reconstructing as I was perfectly content in being upset. The girls prayed and I prayed alongside, this time not half heartedly even though my attitude conflicted. The frustration continued until we began our walk. As we walked God slowly peeled back the layers of my “justified” annoyances. It was a humbling and beautiful moment. Not the kind of beauty we all like. It wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t pleasant. No, it was a lasting and enduring beauty that caused my outlook to search and find beauty in the struggle. It was a grace filled beautiful struggle.

I was not ready to leave Detroit. I’m not sure any of us were. It had been a rough trip, but I wouldn’t trade any moment of it for a calm saturday on the beach. Conflicts, frustrations, pain and hurts were sewn throughout the trip, but true growth became the result of all that unpleasantness. The Fruit of the Spirit was really being lived out in our interactions with each other and with the people we came in contact with those two weeks. It is hard to leave a situation like that. So many of our students head back to homes in which the Spirit is not invited nor is He wanted. As tough as it is to walk in the Spirit through trials and struggles it is doubly difficult to walk in the Spirit when there is little to no encouragement or companionship.

At times it felt like our team was experiencing relationships similar to the early church. We were living in true community. Yes we were living in a commune type facility, but the way people treated and served each other revealed characteristics of the early christians more than our physical situation. So if my caricature of our trip is accurate than the departure from Detroit would be similar to the expansion of the church. Our students lived with the Body for two weeks in an intense fellowship and at the end they went off to their personal mission fields.

Let that be our mindset always. May we see great value in the importance of fellowship and may we return to our jobs, neighborhoods, families and friendships with the understanding that those areas are our mission fields. May we all walk in grace and in the Spirit despite the frustrations of old Polish plumbing and spiritual attacks. May we keep the faith no matter the situation.