Every day I’m learning more and more about what ministry is and is not. And what it is isn’t what I expected. Cleaning, teaching, helping- I expected all those things. Discipling, planning, and believing- never saw it coming.
Discipling- Ministering to other believers is kind of how I define it. How this definition came to be? I was talking to a couple of my teammates about how anxious I was for ministry. Not anxious excited, anxious stressed. They talked me down and pulled out the real reasons I was nervous. I was ready to rely on my own abilities (which I knew were not good enough, thus the anxiety).
What’s more, because of sharing that, my teammate shared her reservations about singing on the squad worship team this month. It was an incredible, Spirit-led conversation. Jesus showed up in that conversation to completely assuage my worries and encourage her to worship Him.
Planning- Would anyone ever think that ministry is making plans for ministry you may or may not get to do? A teammate and I have been writing an assessment for orphan risk in Xenacoj. Maybe we’ll be able to implement it this month, or maybe other missionaries will carry it out. Regardless, sitting down, discussing and researching aren’t quite what I had in mind for World Racing in Guatemala.
Believing- Seems simple, seems obvious. Maybe I’m a bit slow on the uptake, but going out with the Lord ready to be available for His purposes was not my practical definition of ministry.
Pay attention, this is more than a definition; this is ministry. It’s when you have no clue what ministry will be tomorrow. It’s when prayer for a contact thousands of miles away suddenly becomes your ministry that night. It’s when fundraising for ministry while learning what ministry is turns out to also be ministry. It’s when you’re “ministering” without a clue of what you’re doing. It’s when a conversation about your anxiety for ministry turns out to be ministry.
It’s about being present, being available, and being ready for anything.
-Sorry if this posts multiple times. It´s been doing that recently.
