Paraguay | An Invitation To Rest
Our journey to Paraguay was somewhat unconventional. The night before our arrival, most of us either slept in a police station or in a stranger’s home as part of a Travel Challenge. This time of hitchhiking involved a lot of faith, trust in God and each other, and simply put, fun. There is nothing that bonds a team more than contesting over who can do the best ‘wiggle-dance’ on the side of the road to see who can attract a car the fastest.
Two days after crossing the Brazilian border and completing our first international Travel Challenge, we pulled up to our ministry base in Paraguay, rejoicing from our recent adventures on the road. We’d just seen how God truly does walk with us, both in the mundane and the miraculous, and our hearts were stirred. It wasn’t long after this that we realised God had a gift in store for us in this new place. One that our hearts had been desiring without our minds even realising it. One that came from the Father’s heart.
It was an invitation into His rest. Our whole team felt it within the first two days – that nudge, that pull, from Him as He invited us into something deeper. Something more. Psalm 42 speaks about how “the deep calls to the deep” and this was a prominent verse we felt for our time here. This was Him calling us into deeper waters with Him, but not to test us or tire us out. Instead, these were the deep waters of his soul, his spirit, his presence. This was His invitation for us to enter into the gift of His rest.
Ask ten people what the word ‘rest’ means and you’ll receive ten different answers. We all have different perceptions of it. But when God says to us, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest,” he invites us to find true, pure rest in Him. As we felt Jesus call us into this new space, our team was challenged with how we define and experience rest. While to some, it’s painting and sketching, to others it’s going for walks and worshipping. While to another, it’s a good nap. But how does God define rest? When life is busy and there is no time for a long walk or a painting session, how are we to find that quiet space to recharge? As we soon learnt, God’s gift to us here was His teaching us to find rest, first and foremost, in his presence.
Kids ministry quickly became our main form of outreach in Paraguay. It’s a special kind of ministry because it is, in essence, all about planting seeds. Seeds we will not see come to fruition anytime soon. But it’s also a kind of ministry that requires you to give everything you have. From dance routines and songs to preaching and testifying, working with children is not for the faint of heart, and finding rest in this kind of loud and busy space began to be a challenge.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed when there is no quiet space for a quiet time. But we learnt that in those moments, God’s heart is calm and ready for us to enter in any moment. A quick prayer before walking into a room full of shouting children brings us to that place of stillness. Listening to a worship song on a drive to ministry or giving a word of encouragement to a fellow team member all taught us the power of entering God’s presence, his rest, even in the chaos.
As we became more thirsty for this rest, we began to seek and find God’s heart in those quick moments between events and we began to draw from his waters of love and peace in new ways. We discovered that the fullness of rest cannot be found in ourselves, but only in the Creator of it. Once we stared letting God define rest, we began to receive it in deeper and abundant ways. God knows what we need and He is a good father. He will provide. About a week into our stay in Paraguay, the team was feeling exhausted. We’d been pushed to some limits, but we were pushing harder to keep our focus on God. It was then, in those moments when we were weary, that he sent the rain.
It was supposed to be a manual labor day. We’d been painting church walls, doing murals, sanding down spaces, and working hard for the last few days. But the reality is, though we loved the work, we were tired. We’d been pushing hard since training in January and our bodies needed time to rejuvenate. I believe that God saw this need and because he honours hard work, I believe he sent rain that day so that the work could be finished later and we could have a rest day instead. It felt like a gift. That time of rest. Given exactly when we needed it. Not before. Not after. Perfectly on time.
Our hearts desire should not only be to let God define our rest, but also determine it. When. Where. How. With who. Through this, we give Him total control of our desires and expectations. We surrender our bodies, our work, and in return, we experience His rest in the purest form. The lyrics of ‘I surrender’, a song close to our team’s heart, perfectly encapsulate this feeling:
“Drench my soul
As mercy and grace unfold
I hunger and thirst
I hunger and thirst
With arms stretched wide
I know you hear my cry
I’m desperate for you
Desperate for you
I surrender…”
To be hungry and thirsty for God is the exact space He wants to bring us to, because it is only then that we experience the true filling up of His presence. In Paraguay, we learnt to find rest in God – in his Word, in worship, prayer, fellowship, even in a good conversation. As he opened our eyes, we began to see that it is always there – that invitation – just waiting for us to accept. As our time came to a close there, we celebrated through feasting and fellowship with the local families – people dear to our hearts who impacted us deeply – and soon realised that this gift of rest was beautifully given to us in the form of the love from his people who carry his spirit, all around us, everyday.