this is an answer from the Q&A blog. feel free to ask more! 🙂
Question: In what places/ways do you think you made the most impact, even in just providing some much needed food, and in what places do you feel more defeated than content with your contribution?
Answer: I think that's pretty dependent on what you mean when you say "impact."
For example, in India I was able to connect (via the blog) a local lady with some women back here who were able to support her and her new baby.
In Romania we helped build houses for former orphans (and on one of my favorite days artfully rearranged piles of wood).
In Thailand, there were women that came into SHE because of contact they'd had with people on my team.
In Australia, we estimated to have saved COC some tens of thousands of dollars in labor that they were able to instead use to fund pastors and missionaries around Asia.
But for every day of "impact" came days that I wondered if we were doing more harm than good. Did it help when we carried bags of dirt from one end of a field to another? What good is street ministry when the most we do is… nothing? How much good can you do when you forget the basics of ministry? Were we a blessing on the days we were tired and didn't fully engage in where we were?
I think the real impact we made are the prayers we prayed and the stories we shared. And to be honest, I don't think we'll see the results- at least, certainly not in their entirety- this side of heaven.
But we walk by faith, not by sight, and we serve a God who works all things together for good… even on the days we weren't our best, or in the countries that didn't seem to need us.
