While at training camp, the staff of AIM told us, with absolute certainty, that we would enter the World Race with expectations. I guess it’s only natural to enter the environment of missions with expectations of “saving the world”. What I didn’t expect, however, is to have those expectations shattered almost immediately.
Upon arriving in India, we found out that we would be working at two orphanages during our month-long stay. However, what we ended up doing for the majority of the month was painting the two homes where the orphanages lived while the kids were at school during the days. It’s true that the evenings were still spend helping them with their homework and singing songs with them, but something felt lacking. I felt like we were supposed to be out there, in the villages, praying for people, healing the sick, and saving lives. That’s what I had expected from the ministry in India. The end of the month came, and we had “done our duty”. We had painted the homes, we had loved the 20 orphanage children, and we HAD gone into the village and done a bit of praying. But we never saw anything significant happen. I was expecting to see blind eyes opened, people come to the know the Lord, and for us to walk away feeling that we had accomplished something. I had expected so much.
Now here we are in Nepal. When we were India, we found out that we would be evangelizing to the people of Kathmandu, and I was excited!! I am excited. We weren’t really sure what sorts of evangelism we were to be doing, but it was evangelism, and it was going to be awesome. We get here, and our contact explains this months plans to us. Sounds great. It’s exactly what I expected ministry to be. However, what ministry actually has been is much different than what I’ve expected.
At training camp they told us not to expect anything on the World Race. Yeah, right. I’ll be honest: I’ve had days that I’ve really struggled with the fact that we aren’t “out saving the world”. I’ve struggled with the fact that our ministry in India was “only” painting, and that in Nepal we’re “only” leading Bible studies, preaching at church, and going on prayer walks. But it’s because it’s not what I expected.
I’ve come to learn in these last few weeks that the World Race is not going to be anything that I expect and it’s going to be a lot of what I DON’T expect. Yes, we have a plethora of down time this month, but I believe that God has us here at this ministry with this contact (Megh) with this much down time because He is preparing us for something much bigger than our minds can expect or comprehend. I believe He is giving us ample time to rest because He has something huge in store for us in the upcoming months. I believe we aren’t doing the ministry we expected because our team needs this time to bond and become more unified than we could ever have imagined had we been with another ministry.
I’m learning that having expectations on The World Race is not healthy. I’m learning that I just need to kick those expectations off the cliff and realize that God has a much bigger plan, and I need to be okay with that plan, even when it doesn’t mesh with my expectations. He’s called us to The World Race, and even though we’re not out doing what we expected to be doing, we are in ministry. Our team is ministry, our marriage is most certainly ministry, our hearts are ministry, and the church with which we are working is ministry. Yes, we will have months that will be exactly what we expected, and we will have months that are not. And that’s okay. Those expectations are kicked over the cliff and forever gone.
He makes beautiful things out of all things, no matter how big or small. We ARE making a difference, even if we can’t see it. God IS using us to change lives, even if we can’t see it. And when we least expect it, He is going to absolutely rock our worlds.
