dirt and sweat

Question
"dealing with lost people will cause us to get our hands dirty and sweaty just like tending to yard work. Part of evangelism is to clear up misconceptions and misperceptions people have about the gospel. Dealing with with people and evangelism is often messy." Discuss your reaction to this statement as it pertains to doing real evangelism in a contemporary world.

Answer
It's hard for me to believe that you haven't felt dirty in a literal or metaphorical way if you are a follower of Christ. I went to Nicaragua this summer and it was a life changing experience. I have so many stories about how sometimes you have to get dirty to show the love of Christ, but one in particular sticks out. We traveled to an Indian village called Krin Krin. It was a four-hour bus ride and a six-hour boat ride up river. Once we arrived in Krin Krin you could see the immense amount of joy and excitement because the gringos had arrived. Once we entered the village we as a group could tell that this village had many needs. All of their crops had been destroyed from too much rain. They were all hurting and looking for someone to come and take their mind off of the hurt. We were there for two days and on the last night we had a huge concert/party and invited the whole village. Everyone knew that we were going back the next morning and many were sad to see us leave. I was holding one of the girls who was probably six or seven years old and was talking to her through our translator Sheldon. She told me that she wanted to go with us to Puerto Cabezas in the morning because she needed to learn Spanish. I asked Sheldon how I should respond and he said that her family has probably seen a lot of poverty and knows that if she was to learn Spanish she might survive. I was literally at a loss. The fact that a six or seven year old understood they needed Spanish to get a job and be able to eat and survive astonished me. I held her as we talked through the translator and as I began to get more and more of her story I understood how much hurt she had. At one point during our conversation as I held her up on my hip she began peeing. At first I thought "€œoh my gosh she is peeing on me." Then I thought to myself if I put her down and shun her for this she will not see my testimony, but she will see in me what she has most likely seen her whole life.

Whether it is a metaphoric or a literal dirty, why do we always hesitate to get dirty for something we claim to believe so much in?