Ministry is always right under our noses, the problem is that nobody ever really looks there. While we were in Cambodia (which was, I hate to say…2 months ago) we worked with YWAM and our primary ministry was teaching. We each taught an various classes at a nearby international school three times a week and then an English class every night during the week. Although I never thought that teaching sixth grade math would be one of my ministries on the race, I absolutely loved it. I also taught various subjects in a fourth grade class and level one English at night. And yes, by level one I mean:
“What letter is this?”
“M.”
“No, try again.”
“K.”
“No, it’s an L, say L.”
“Err.”
Awesome? I think so!
I knew that I liked to teach but my time in Cambodia confirmed it in a way that I did not expect. Now it was very interesting to go from teaching at the international school where all of the students spoke English to teaching the local kids who spoke absolutely no English other than “Hello teacher Angrew,” and “Goodbye teacher see you tomorrow.” And no, I didn’t spell my name wrong they called me Angrew and they rolled the r, it was awesome. As different as the two classes were it was a great reminder that with any kids you don’t need to speak their language to show them love or have an impact on them.
Teaching was our primary ministry that month, but Austin and I saw the opportunity for more and we took it. We were in a tourist beach town all month, which meant that there were countless bars and plenty of people to fill them. So Austin and I decided to take advantage of where we were and went out to do bar ministry. This is not something I had ever done but it was definitely something that I wanted to do. And it was simple enough in theory, we just went and started conversations with people where we could.
One night we went to several places and talked to a few people and then decided to walk to a bar that was all the way out on a pier. When we sat down I said a quick prayer and asked that God would give us someone to talk to. The bartender started talking to us and we found out that he was from New York. He asked us why we were in Cambodia so we told him about the race. He asked if we could not talk about Christianity and at that moment I knew that we had something to go off of. We asked him why and came to find out that he was a Christian, but that he was afraid that he would be judged because of where he was working. After assuring him that we were not going to judge him the conversation continued and we learned more about his life and why he was in Cambodia. It turned out that he absolutely hated where he was working and didn’t want to be a part of that scene anymore. However, he was stuck. He was alone, had nothing and this was the only job that he could find. After at least two hours of talking Austin and I prayed for him. We went back and met with him and prayed with him a number of times and by the end of the month he had a new job and was in much higher spirits than when we first met him. It was amazing to see God coordinate our meeting together the way that He did. It makes me think twice about every situation I find myself in. Ministry is always right under our noses, God can use us in all sorts of ways so long as we take the time to look around.
