Sometimes even doing what you love can be exhausting. After 6 months on the missions field, ministry can feel like work. My only job while I’m here is to do the things my heart delighted in while I was at home, but now I find myself counting down the hours until I can get back to our ministry site and hang out in my hammock again. My heart once was so full doing this work, and now sometimes it feels like an obligation. When did I lose my joy? When did my excitement for serving fade away? In times like this, I need to remember the Lord’s calling for my life.
The Lord called me to the World Race. He called me to life in community. To too much free time. To cold showers and gross toilets. He called me to crazy adventures that don’t end the way I expect. He called me to heartache and healing, to learning and growing. To loving the street children and experiencing poverty. To missing my friends and family, but creating new ones. I’ve been called to to go into the world and preach the gospel ( Mark 16:15).
I remember when I first started considering this trip, it seemed like a distant dream. I was just a junior in high school confused about college, looking for something different. The Lord opened the door inviting me to join Him on this crazy adventure and I dived right in. I had doubts during the fundraising days, but the Lord is faithful. I know I’ve been called to do this work. And now I’m here, living the thing I dreamed about and worked for. I’ve been called here and I want to serve joyfully.
The Lord called me to Love People. I’ve known for a while that my main passion is people, and I want to follow that. Here in the Philippines I’ve had a lot of opportunities to work with people. In Children’s Garden there was always someone around to pour into, one of the boys to hang out with, or a staff member to help. We got the opportunity to impact the lives of families by bringing them food and praying for them. I love it when the street kids flock to us and sings songs with us and play games. I love being able to share Bible stories, and do crafts with girls living in a government facility.
In San Mateo, we get the opportunity to help out Rudy and his family with their business “ The Snack Shack”, where we make burgers and fries galore. We sit at the snack shack for hours each day and smile at the kids who go by, and interact with the people who come to harass the americans. Rudy and his family are so hard working I love that we get the opportunity to give them the help that they desperately need. We’ve also gotten the opportunity to run a camp for street girls who need an escape. We shared Jesus with them, sang songs, took a trip to a river, and just hung out and showed them love.
Being here puts a face on poverty, I’ve seen the houses that they live in, the clothes they wear, and the toys they play with. Despite everything the people here are so kind and joyful and willing to open up and share their heart with us. It breaks my heart, but it encourages me to show them even more love. How blessed I am that I get to be here on the mission field making a direct impact to the needs of the nations. I’ve been called to this work, and I want to serve selflessly.
The Lord called me to do good works. Recently in my quiet times, everywhere I look the Bible says something about good works. We all know 2 Timothy 3:15 “ All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” But it goes a step further in verse 16 and says that scripture is for us to be ready for good works ” that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”. The Lord has been giving me a new passion for his word recently, He’s been using it to “train me in righteousness” as it says in 2 Timothy. He’s been equipping me for the good works that I get to be doing, for working in the snack shack, for playing with the street kids, and for whatever it is South Africa will bring.
Titus 3:1 says to “be ready for every good work”. On the World Race being ready and prepared for every situation is all part of what I signed up for. The Lord wants me to be prepared to drop whatever it is I may be doing, and go play with the kids that show up at our church everyday. Or to stop watching my movie and go sit with my struggling teammate. He has put me in a wonderful situation where there is opportunity to love and serve all around me, I want to be prepared and willing to take it.
1 Timothy 2:10 tells us that a woman shouldn’t make herself beautiful by altering her outward appearance but with “ what is proper for woman who profess godliness – with good works.” This is my favorite verse about good works, it tells me that as a woman I am beautiful if I do good works. I just love that. I want to be beautiful in the Lord’s sight, I want to constantly be doing good works. Instead of making putting on makeup or wearing cute clothes a part of my daily routine, I want to make good works a part of my daily routine. I’ve been called to this work, and I want to serve with a fire in my heart.
There was a joke on team Tetelestai about perspective, and how everything is all determined by how you look at it. But that’s really what I need here. For all the days that I don’t want to do ministry, for the times my heart just isn’t in it and it feels like work, I just need perspective. The perspective of being in awe that this is my life. That my only job right now is to serve where the Lord has called me and to do good works. How incredible is that? I don’t have any other responsibilities except for loving people. Thank you God, that this is where you’ve brought me for this season of my life! Renew my spirit of service, God. Give me a fire for ministry again. Give me a heart that constantly delights in the work I get to do.
