Once again, time has flew by, and I am sitting here at debrief reflecting on our month in Peru.
This month has been a little different than any of the others.
Our time in Tumpa and Musho was spent working together with the entire B squad of 26 people.
We all had the same focus of going out in the communities, meeting people, evangelizing, and starting a church headed by a pastor in a local community.
We started out strong, meeting people, making connections and friends, and feeling like we were accomplishing something.
After the first week, our small team pulled away, and went to another community about an hour away for a week to encourage a church that was having conflict.
It was a great week, where we quickly learned the valuable lesson that even when it feels like our labor is fruitless, God is still working in his own timing.
When we arrived back in Musho, our team suddenly felt lost in transition.
Our new job was to go out and find people others had already made connections with and invite them to come to a cell or church group.
We spent our days walking around aimlessly, trying to find people we had never met, and when we did find them, feeling like there was no connection there.
Luckily, we were able to come together as a team.
We decided that even though this was not our ideal ministry, this was the job set before us, and this is the job we would push through until the finish.
It was amazing to see the transformation the days we went out with positive attitudes.
More than anything, I found that there is a ministry in everything we do.
We may not be able to speak the language enough to have an intimate conversation, but there is intimacy found in helping a family in their field.
There is friendship found in sitting with a group of ladies, laughing at one another for not being able to understand what each other is saying, helping an elderly woman shuck corn.
Joy is found in playing a game with a child.
There is life in holding a baby in your arms.
As I reflect back on this month, I can see that much of my time was wasted worrying about what it was that I wanted to do, and what it was that I was supposed to be doing.
Often, when we are given an agenda, we focus so much on what the task is that we miss the important things along the way.
God has given each of us specific gifts, talents, and abilities.
Above all, we learned as a team over this month that although we are given certain jobs and instructions, our work is meaningless unless we are each able to work in the ways God has designed each of us to work.
We learned that even in the times when we feel like we are doing absolutely nothing to help, God is always working behind the scenes.
Looking back over my month in Peru, I have realized that it is not about what I think things should be like, or how I think things should go.
It’s about God, about his timing, and all we can really do is wake up every morning, willing to take on the task set before us, willing to make plans and let God wreck them for his purpose and will.
