So I apologize for the lack of blogging that has been happening on my part lately. Our internet broke and was unavailable for the last week or so of camp. We are now in Bucharest, Romania with the entire squad of 53 and doing some much needed interacting and resting up before the next ministry assignment in Romania. The time here has been great as we have really only met our entire squad during training camp and we are still trying to get to know one another. Given that we are trying to create a large family of smaller families this time was most important. After this month we’ll have another chance to continue building on those bonds during The Awakening gathering in Dublin, Ireland.
I haven’t written much about the last month in Ukraine, mostly because I was processing an overload of information and doing camp work for most of the waking hours. These last two days have given me a chance to process in a restful state, pray and better understand what that time meant. Without recapping the entire experience I have concluded a few things. First and foremost my team is an amazing group of people and we are able to laugh even during challenging times (once I have pictures I’ll introduce them on my blog). Next, the challenges we will face will most likely never come in a form that is expected. This is tough, but a very important factor in growth and understanding what God wants from us. Then again looking back at the last year the questions I’ve had, the answers I’ve received and the confirmations I was given for going on this journey were not in any way what I had expected.
More specifically on that same topic I really kept wondering why the challenges we were facing looked like they did. I really didn’t understand why we were out scraping sand out of toilet rooms and other fun chores and not knowing how this translates exactly to ministry. Additionally my team was fresh out of the gate and ready to run-amuck doing all kinds of ministry – but toilet ministry was not something people usually list when recruiting for missions! Anyways, after the first week was over we had some time to look back and realize how much of a ministry it was to those kids to have a clean camp everyday, nice food to eat and be able to have a full camp experience. Some of those kids don’t get those things every day and that is ministry – it just doesn’t look like the pictures in the brochures!
One other thing – and really the most important thing I learned during this last month was who I am actually working for. I came into this thing thinking we were going to be a blessing to our contacts and hopefully the people we would encounter. That still is my hope, but I learned a very important thing last month: we have been called to minister and work for the Lord in His work, regardless of what that is. If we work with the hope of obtaining praise or worth or identity from others because our work we will be continuously disappointed. So, during times of struggle with shining porcelain and clearing kitchen sink drains and trying to communicate with kids through a language barrier, with only the encouragement of your team members beside you, we can know who we are working for and why this makes since in the larger realm.
So, today it is off to Targu Mures, Romania on a 9 hour overnight train ride through Transylvania. We really don’t know what kind of ministry we will be doing, but hopefully the experiences of last month will translate to a better understanding of identity in Christ, the real value of our work, and understanding who we are actually working for.
