Ministry by definition is: a person or thing through which something is accomplished.
In Christian missions, we talk about ministry a lot. What we do in ministry, what is being accomplished through ministry, how many people have professed their faith, how many are being served… the list goes on. But the most important part about ministry isn’t the numbers, the results or the physical labor; it’s the furthering of God’s kingdom. Sometimes we forget this fact and we get caught up in other things, but just imagine if we didn’t how many things could be ministry if they didn’t have to have a quantifiable conclusion…
Cooking a meal could be ministry.
Coloring a picture could be ministry.
Holding hands with a child could be ministry.
A game of basketball could be ministry.
Doing laundry could be ministry.
Singing a song could be ministry.
A hug could be ministry.
A listening ear could be ministry.
Any of these could be ministry if we look at them with the sole purpose of furthering Gods kingdom. This is not always quantifiable…
This month, I have really tried to shift our view of ministry from an act or service to a life style. As I go, I am constantly seeking the Lord and any opportunities he might have for me. Sometimes they come from a “hello” and a handshake and sometimes they come in some more obvious ways.
Here is a bit about what ministry looked like in Manzini, Swaziland (from the end of our first week there):
We’ve spent one full week in Manzini, Swaziland and this place is BEAUTIFUL. We are working with an AIM office here that has partnered with Children’s Hope Chest out of Colorado Springs, CO. All over the country, they have what are called care points. In these care points, they partner with the community to make positive change. They often provide one meal a day for a large number of children, they sometimes have preschool services, they provide church services, they have music ministry… the list goes on. Ultimately, their goal is to empower the community to better provide, cultivate culture and thrive. They have over 30 care points and are working on numerous projects throughout the country as well. Because this ministry is so vast and has so many different things going on, the 3 teams here (about 20 people) got split up and could do a number of things. I ended up on the manual labor team… surprise surprise! But seriously, I love to pick up heavy things and put them down, so it works out.
The first two days this week, we visited a care point and raked grass to use as compost in what would eventually be a garden, but on Thursday, a cyclone storm moved in, making it difficult to get to that location, so we went to another, closer care point. In that place, ministry looked like a GIANT hole in the ground. We were given a hole that was originally intended to build a toilet over, but the project had been changed. It was over 5 feet deep, 20 feet long and 10 feet wide… No exaggeration. Our job was to fill it with dirt.
The day we arrived, we started right away. We had 5 shovels and a pick. Simple enough right? Until they asked us to pull out the ladder that was buried in the bottom of this hole… the 7 ft ladder. Thankfully, they decided the almost completely buried ladder could just be completely buried without being missed. So we got started. One swing of the pick and one shovel scoop at a time, we began to take one this monstrous task. Generally we work from 10 am to 4 pm, but this day we got started a little late. Around 2 pm, our ministry partner and host Xolani says “the rain is coming, we should go!” and just takes off running. Lesson number 1 in Swaziland … If a local says the rain is coming, RUN! It poured down rain for the next 30 minutes at least. We waited under a covered area and that was the end of day 1.
Now here, their rain days are kind of like our snow days, kids don’t go to school, some places don’t have work, people have trouble driving (I’ll get to that in another post), the list goes on. So, many of us didn’t have ministry the following day, but the manual labor team, we go hard or go home! So, back to this hole we went. All day, in the hot sun, we picked and shoveled, picked and shoveled. It’s amazing what some hard work will do for team bonding and community, but again… in another post.
That day, ministry looked like a big hole in the ground … or at least we thought. On our drive home, in the rain, already soaking wet, we didn’t get far from the care point when it began to downpour again. Just like anywhere else, in Swazi, when it rains, people get crazy. Not even 5 minutes down the road, we saw a car in a ditch on the opposite side of the road. This car probably could have fit in the hole we had filled in already that day, but we all agreed that we needed to stop and help them. Ultimately it took about 15 full grown people, a truck, a tow rope and a complete stop of traffic but we got the car out of that ditch and sent them on their way.
That day, ministry looked like filling in a hole in the ground. That day, ministry looked like pulling a car out of a ditch. That day, ministry looked like not missing an opportunity for Christ. I pray that each day from here on out, provides even more opportunity to grow the kingdom than that day.
