The temperature was pushing the high 90s with a thousand percent humidity. We had just finished grocery shopping and were huffing and puffing our purchases back to our home under the unrelenting Malaysian sun. Lindsey and I were approaching our destination thinking only about quenching our thirst with an icy cold coke and cool glass of water when we heard whimpering.
We paused and looked around. Walking up to a storm drain we peered in to find three of the cutest little light brown puppies.
One of them scampered up to us as soon as we came up. Lindsey picked her up and the puppy immediately began licking her face.
“Her name is Matilda,” Lindsey said.
The other two puppies were a little more shy and scared. They sat staring at us from the shade of the drain.
“What are we going to do?” Lindsey asked then she promptly answered herself, “We have to feed them.”
She ran inside and came back with a bowl of water and crackers.
“Puppies like crackers.” This was said both as a statement and a
question.
The puppies actually ate the crackers.
A kind barber and his wife who lived next to us ended up coming out and calling someone who came and picked up the puppies. We assume they were nice people. We even prayed for the puppies before they left. God created those puppies and He knows the number of hairs on their heads; He cares about them too.
You may scoff at this, you may think I am a silly person, you may even say it is not biblical but I am about to tell you about my animal ministry.
Over the course of the last 10 months I’ve had lot of opportunities to love on animals and help them in any way I could. Animals aren’t treated well around the world. Dogs are like squirrels in Asia; they’re kind of just there to get in the way and get kicked.
Animals are a means of making money and that is about it. I have seen an appalling amount of animal abuse while on the Race of which I will not elaborate on.
My thought process for helping these animals goes all the way back to the beginning when God created everything. Because He created everything He has absolute rights of ownership over all of it. God is the owner, we are His managers. As His managers how dare we mistreat what He has given us to take care of. That would be like being entrusted as the manager of a Starbucks but then one day deciding to kick the ten thousand dollar espresso machine to the ground.
The Greek word for steward is oikonomos. Paul uses this word not only when talking about stewardship but also about preaching the gospel. How important than is it to be a good steward? Very.
So what I’m getting at is that stewardship is not necessarily only about the management of our time, resources, environment etc. but it is also our obedient witness to God’s sovereignty. It’s what moves the follower of Christ into action and to do deeds that manifest our belief in Him.
As believers we want everything we do to glorify God and I strongly believe that the loving care of animals is very much a part of God’s intent for us when He told us to be good stewards and is an excellent way to show God’s love in a very different light.
Imagine some of these people groups who only ever view animals as blights or just food suddenly see someone cradling the cat they just kicked or giving food to the dog they just threw rocks at. I have had people ask me why I treat these animals so well and I have been able to tell them about Jesus this way.
So yes, you may laugh at so called animal ministry but if it allows someone to see the love of Jesus through it then I will keep doing it. And if it brings even a little bit of happiness to the animal then that too is a plus. Who knows, maybe someday both a human and those little light brown puppies will thank me in heaven for showing Jesus’ love that hot Malaysian day.
Feeding monkeys in Cambodia
Giving Becky a much needed trim in Thailand
Holding Gretchen in Romania
Maca and her newborn puppies in Serbia
Petting a Siberian tiger in Thailand
