My very first mission trip was at Wisoncsin last year. A friend of mine and I signed up because one, we decided to answer the call and go out and serve and two, because we thought it was exciting to be able to minister to the native americans, specifically the Ho Chunk tribe.
Long story short, we didn't get to minister to the Ho Chunk as much as we wanted to. We did a clothes drive for them our second to the last day at Wisconsin, and not a lot of people came. I was a little disappointed, but I was also glad that we were able to minister to other people while we were there.
We were able to do the prayer walk around the entire city of Wisconsin Dells. We did a door-to-door ministry where we shared the gospel to people and invited them to our DVBS classes at the city park. On top of that, we did our hotel ministry (my favorite!), where we just hung out and brought food out to the international students who were there for the summer, and show them the love of Christ.
So all in all, it was a very good week. But nonetheless, I felt a little bad that I didn't get to do what we set out to do, which is to be able to share with the Ho Chunk tribe. The pastor that we were working with said that they're still very unreceptive of the Gospel and they made one believer after years of having a relationship with them. Pastor Jay also mentioned that every since Joe (the now Christian member of the tribe) became a follower of Christ, their relationship with them has not been very good.
A year later, we received an email from Pastor Jay. Here's an excerpt from that email:
What a fantastic reminder that "some prepare the soil, some plant the seed, some water the seed, some sow the seed, and others reap the harvest" we just never know exactly how our actions and willingness to serve Jesus will be used in the process.
We also were approached to assist in a Ho Chunk booth at the Pow Wow coming up Aug. 10-12 at the Ho Chunk Nation. NOw they are coming to us and asking us to partner with them!
Praise God for you Marty, and the team God assembled to minister in the Dells. HIs work has just begun and the Kingdom expands!
Pastor Jay
I was greatly reminded of the verse from 1 Corinthians 15:18, " Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain."
I don't know what God has set out for us to do next year as we minister to the 11 countries. We could be reaping the harvest, or we could be preparing the soil for others to work on. But whatever it is, we hold on to the promise that our labor for the Lord is not in vain.
