What does a successful ministry day look like for you?
Despite the straightforward nature of this question posed by Dan Lewis, a missionary at Campus Outreach in Chiang Mai, it was a loaded one for my team. A question we’ve spent much time struggling with over past weeks of letting God fully lead our days with no set ministry or agenda. Who are we actually impacting? What are we really doing here? Likewise, for a ministry like Campus Outreach that typically doesn’t see the fruit of their work for quite a long time, it’s a question they’ve struggled with, too.
Campus Outreach began in the 1970s in the States and is now serving on college campuses throughout the world. College students, they believe, are at a pivotal point in their potential faith journey. First, they are incredibly opened minded at this point in life, each day soaking up new knowledge and new relationships that are most likely outside of the paradigm they grew up within. Second, they are about to use that new knowledge and leverage those new relationships to influence the world when they move beyond college.
Campus Outreach is not the only ministry to focus on this demographic, evangelical organizers like Campus Crusade are also shoulder to shoulder with college kids, providing opportunities learn about and experience the love of Jesus. At Campus Outreach though, the true mission goes much deeper. Their vision is not simply to enlighten the minds of the kids they work with on campus, but rather, to foster deep relationship in community while discipling them. To live life with a small group of them and teach them what it really looks like to be a Jesus follower. From cafeteria conversations to theological discussions, from movie nights to soccer leagues, from English language courses to Bible studies, Campus Outreach aims to pour deeply and pour well into small groups of young adults.
Campus Outreach’s ministry takes place over years, what appears to be painstakingly slow. Some of this pace is intentional since building true community and relationship takes time, and some of this pace is unique to the Thai culture. Dan tells us that it’s not difficult to convince Thais of the majority of Jesus’ teachings, they simply add them to the list of Buddhist teachings they follow. But to convince them that Jesus is the human manifestation of the one true God, and that he alone is worthy of our adoration and praise is another thing altogether. You see, to be Thai is to be Buddhist. So to renounce Buddhism is to renounce your culture, to renounce being Thai.
Then, if a Thai person does take the crazy step of becoming a Christian, the honor-based value system characteristic of most Southeast Asian countries makes it nearly impossible to have deep truth-in-love conversations so important to discipling. They would do anything to avoid another person feeling shame, even if that means watching their fellow Christian brother/sister struggle in iniquity he/she may be blind to. However, as Dan further points out, this value system makes the Thai people unmatched in their ability to do just as Jesus did, show the utmost respect and honor to everyone that they encounter.
Cultivating the trust and true relationship to impact a Thai person’s life, any person’s life for that matter, takes intentionality and deep patience for God to do heart work in his timing. Which makes seeing the fruit of a ministry’s work difficult. We’ve heard this from many missionaries in our time on the Race. How do you report back statistics to your home church and the people whose support keeps you in the missionary field that it takes years to impact a single life? But that life, that person, is worthy to have years of love devoted to him or her.
Which brings us back to the simple question, “What does a successful day look like for you?”
Love. It looks like love.
It doesn’t look like ‘ministry’ and it doesn’t look like conversion to Christianity. It looks like coming alongside people, loving them where they’re at and living life with them. It looks like keeping your heart open to whomever God leads into your life that day. It looks like grace and kindness and breaking bread (or pizza) together. And sometimes the person you love on is yourself. You preach the truth to yourself that He is redeeming all things in your life and He is faithful to complete the work in you. You sit in the Fathers love and rest in the stillness. And when He blesses you by showing you the fruit of that labor, you celebrate with deep joy.
To my friends at Campus Outreach, your devotion to the Lord and his people inspires me, and your heartfelt prayers for my team was the Spirit speaking through you directly to us that day. Thank you for pouring your love out on us. We are praying that God fills you up with new grace each morning and that as you shift into the busyness of summer, you continue to do what He designed you to do – love well.
To my friends and family back home, if you would like to learn more about the work that Campus Outreach is doing in Thailand, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me and I’ll get you connected with Dan. You can read more about their mission and meet everyone on their team here. I pray that each of you finds ‘success’ today – to take in the Father’s unchanging, never-ending, unconditional love for you, and when you can’t contain all that he’s given you, share it all. He always has more waiting for you.
