Being in Haiti and Dominican Republic I have noticed that ministry is not what I am use to. I like getting to know the person I am working with or when I do run into someone I want to know something about them before I talk about the Gospel. Since I don’t speak the language in Haiti and Dominican Republic I can’t just go up to someone and share. Even if we have a translator it becomes a difficult task to share the translator between five others. I have had to rely on the few words that I have learned but nonverbal communication becomes your fall back when trying to talk.
I felt that I could not be myself as we went and did door to door ministry or just walking around the village in the Dominican Republic. I could not stop thinking that if only I paid more attention in high school during Spanish class. If I did then I would have no problem speaking Spanish and could do ministry everywhere I walked. I prayed about it day and night that God would just grant me the ability to just speak and hear Spanish as if it was in English. God had to remind me that those thoughts about not being able to do ministry or that I need to speak the language was from the enemy.
God had to keep telling me that I did not need to worry about speaking the language. It’s not always about how good a speaker you are or how much experience you have of sharing the gospel. It’s all about how you live out your faith. This has become more evident here in other countries because when I worked in Haiti I became friends with the workers and got to tell them about the World Race. God blessed me and I was given joy when they started to call me friend and brother.
God has been showing me that I don’t need to have my focus on how many people I talk to or needing to know every language. If I seek Christ with all my heart and it’s my main focus people will come to talk. During Jesus’s ministry he always had a crowd following him and were intrigued how different he lived and spoke. People are attracted to the love that was flowing from him and because of the attraction people were willing to listen to his teachings. This revelation that was shared with me has freed me from so much. I no longer worry about having to speak the language of the countries that I will be visiting. With my new focus God has increased a desire in me to learn more and has filled my little brain with so many ideas. I don’t even know where to begin but that is part of the fun.
It seems to be the talk of the town about what I will be doing after the World Race and I have no idea. I do know is that I will seek the Lord and give 110% in any job I obtain. Since I am seeking the Christ I will still be able to do ministry in any job I have and change the culture that way. I want to challenge you and in this that whatever your job may be at a desk, yard work, housewife, construction or at factories seek Christ as your up most priority. In turn you will be changing lives as people see you living out your faith and wanting to know why you are this way. Over time you will have changed the floor you work on or the block you live on and start a movement that will change the world.
