Whoops…this blog was from the very beginning of the month on our travel day–better late than never!
It’s early morning on a Monday morning as Amy and I are walking through the JFK airport terminals, sleepily browsing through stores as we try and recover from just having spent the night on the floor of the airport. We casually look in a candy store, and stare lovingly at the Nutella stand next to the cash register, wishing we had enough money to buy some. We say sad goodbyes to the Nutella and turn to the cashier, a middle-aged woman who is busy texting on her cell phone and ignoring us. We strike up conversation with her and ask her about her day and she immediately begins telling us about her day, her life, and allows us to pray for her wrist, which is in a brace.
Megan and I are waiting to check in our baggage. There’s a man working for the airline company who yells grouchily at us for not moving fast enough in the line. He’s been staring us down almost the whole time. But it’s not just us he’s yelling at. We watch as the man gruffly barks at other groups of people to move their luggage quicker or stop blocking the flow of traffic.
Someone call up Sesame Street cause Oscar the Grouch escaped and started working in the JFK airport.
So Megan and I decide to play a game. We spend the next few minutes waiting in line trying to make this man smile. We try to strike up conversation and end up having some awkward dialogue for the next few minutes, wish him a good day yet still get no smile from the man.
Our flight’s been delayed for four hours so I pass out in the terminal. Waiting is something World Racers experience a lot of, especially when it comes to waiting for transportation.
I wake up a few hours later to find out that we’re boarding and grab my backpack to get in line for boarding. Megan is excitedly pointing at the front of the ridiculously long line. Our friend the grouch is the one checking us in. He makes eye contact with us and a huge grin spreads upon his face—he remembered us! As we’re nearing closer to him, he starts conversation up with us again, this time a completely different person, as he seems interested in our World Race journey as he asks us more and more questions. Finally it’s time for us to pass through and we say goodbye. He tells us his name is William and thanks us for the good conversation. Megan and I high-five as we enter the plane, knowing that God completely blessed our interactions with William because there was no way we could take credit for the complete turnaround of his persona.
Most of the time it’s easy to define our ministry. It’s where we live and work and sleep. Each month we work with a different ministry, working in orphanages, evangelizing and doing physical labor. It’s easy to think that it’s our sole ministry though but it’s not. Ministry isn’t just doing the job we’re given for the month, done a few hours each day, then not thought about until the next workday. Every second of every hour that we're alive is a ministry day.
Ministry is simply living life in a way that brings glory to God.
In doing life with a team of six people and listening to each other’s walks with God, that’s ministry.
In chopping wood for 90-year-old ladies, that’s ministry too.
In meeting other believers and inviting them to dinner as you share testimonies, that's powerful ministry.
In sitting on a train, striking up conversations with other passengers about their day, that’s ministry too.
In celebrating teammate’s birthdays with crazy photo scavenger hunts that involve people from the village and being ridiculously goofy, you better believe that’s ministry.
And how do travel days happen on The World Race? Check out the video from our adventure from Nicaragua to Romania!
