If you know me very well, you know that my favorite Christmas movie is The Grinch with Jim Carrey, and I can be caught quoting that movie for the whole month of December, which usually spills into January as well.
“Oh Martha, Oh Christmas!”
In The Grinch, each year, the Whos from Whoville nominate one person to be the Holiday Cheermeister. In the movie, the Grinch is nominated by Cindy Lou Who. After going back and forth about whether to go or not, he finally puts on the best outfit he can find, a yodeler’s outfit he stole, and heads down to Whoville for the Whobulation (excuse my spelling, I’m not a Who, just trying my best).
At the Whobulation, the Grinch gets carried around going from Who to Who being fed ridiculous amounts of food over and over again. As the Holiday Cheermeister, he MUST say yes to all the food and try each and every thing that is put in front of him. He must say yes to compete in the sack race, dance in the Conga line, put on the goofy Christmas sweater, and continue eating. Essentially, the Holiday Cheermeister must have a “Yes Spirit” as the World Race likes to call it.
We entered into this adventure with a Yes Spirit. This month, my team and I decided to make a conscious effort to have a Yes Spirit all month long, pretty much meaning we will say yes to just about every opportunity, especially if it puts us out of our comfort zone. Well, we have been at ministry for 2 days and have been saying yes quite a bit.
Let me start off by telling you our hosts do not speak much English, so we usually exchange a few words and smiles, but definitely no deep conversations and no way of asking questions or getting answers. Day 1 of Ministry we put on our most beautiful culturally appropriate clothing (not quite a yodeler’s outfit) and climbed into a safari looking truck and headed to the village. We had no idea what we were doing, no idea what ministry would look like, no idea what would be expected of us, basically we knew nothing.
The first evening of ministry we unloaded at a church, met the Pastor, got fed a banana (even parts of that were quite confusing), loaded back into our vehicle and pulled away. Unaware of what was about to happen, we just prayed as a team that the Holy Spirit would show up and lead us where He wants us. We got to our first house, and that is where the Holiday Cheermeister duties began.
In Indian culture, when a guest enters into your house, you serve them. Our ministry involves going from house to house praying and sharing testimonies about how God is working in our life, so what that means is we get served a lot. Sometimes we get served cookies, sometimes snacks, coffee, chai tea, and sometimes Badam milk, which tastes like liquified chunky sour cream. However, we always say yes because of our Yes Spirit and because it is rude to say no. In the past two days, we have also said yes to leading worship in church and even performing a skit of the Christmas story, which was completely improv.
What I have learned about saying yes is that God uses it each and every time. When we say yes to eating unknown foods, we get to experience more of the culture, we get to submerse ourselves more. When we say yes to leading worship, people step up that might not normally lead worship, but if you do it with confidence, no Indian will know the difference and God is being praised. When we say yes to performing a skit, the story of Jesus was shared, obviously in an interesting way that included lots of mess ups and giggles, but the Indians did not care, and hopefully what they heard is the Gospel.
God calls us to many things. He gives us all sorts of opportunities, and all we have to do is say yes. I have tried foods I might never see again, I became a worship leader for a night, I became part of a drama team, but I believe each time that maybe I looked silly or goofy, the Lord used it for His glory. He has also called me to share my testimony with Hindus, and while I may not see the fruit of that, the Lord called me to do it for a reason, maybe just planting a seed for someone else to follow up or for the Lord to work in other ways.
Most of the time, after ministry, we take our 40 minute ride home so full of food we don’t want to move. We have visited 4 or 5 homes and then had dinner on top of that, but that is not what I will remember in a year from now. What I remember is being full, not off of food, but of the Holy Spirit. The Lord has already used our team in so many ways, and when we say yes to Him, He fills us up. So, I will continue to say yes all month long, all race long, and for the rest of my life because God always uses us when we say yes to obeying His call for our lives.
