Hang with me this one may be a little long.
Let me set the scene for you. Our last week in Ecuador, we were in a beautiful, small backpacker town called Baños for a first debrief with picturesque views of volcanos, waterfalls, and mountains all around. It was like my little piece of heaven. We were in Baños for just under a week. Then, we leave on a bus and head toward our second country: Peru. This bus brought us over border at three in the morning. When daylight broke, I thought I was in a totally different continent. I look around and all I see is sand. Did this bus just fly us to the Middle East and drop us off?
I told myself going in that I had no expectations for what Peru was going to be like but this was definitely not what I was expecting.
After a few more buses and transfers and 33 hours later, we are finally here. It is hot, like middle of July in the Carolinas hot. We walk through the solid metal door into a gravel courtyard with buildings all around. The guys were told we would be in one building but we could pitch our tents on the roof. I think to myself “Sweet, I get to use my tent month two while sleeping on a roof.”
I get everything set up and come down for dinner and a briefing for the month ahead. We were told not go out after dark, not ride in certain taxies because they are ran by drug gangs, be in a group of at least four anytime, and make sure we are back before 8pm no matter what. Well, that sounds safe and reassuring.
The next day, we have the day off and we head into town. On the way back to the compound, we have a really hard time trying to get a taxi. We learn later that the drivers do not want to come to this part of town. We jokingly started calling this place “The Ghetto Desert” and realize this place is no joke.
We start ministry the next day with English class in the morning, vacation bible school in the afternoons, and some type of service in the evening. So our days are long. There is about 30 kids for English and 43 of us serving here so not everyone had to help with class. The same thing was happening with VBS, 12 kids per group and about 8 people to watch over them; again, not everyone is needed. So, I just took the time as free time. I just walked around and did my own thing checking out what everyone was doing. This continued on through the rest of the week.
At the end of the week, I looked back and asked myself “What did I do to build the kingdom of God this week?” As I thought back, I did not really see anything. I had to ask myself what did I come on this journey around for? Was it to take long naps in a hammock in the Peruvian desert or to serve others and build the kingdom?
So I decided that sometimes ministry will not always be given to me the way I like it or even enough to keep me busy for the whole day but I have to make a choice to find ministry because it is all around me. I may not teach English or even play VBS games. It may be cleaning out a trash pit or helping chop green onions until my hand blisters.
My first week did not suck because I was sleeping on a roof in the Peruvian Ghetto Desert with music blaring from every direction all night. My week did not suck because I was sharing 4 toilets and 4 showers with 56 other people or even that my butt is permanently flat because of the amount of time I have spent setting on concrete. The fact is that I came here to serve and I did not make the choice in my first week to do so. I made the choice to make the first week of ministry in Peru not count. It had nothing to do with what I was given but what I made of it.
So this week, I made the choice to find opportunities to serve, even if those opportunities looked different than my teammates or squad mates. I chose to spend my time chopping green onions, digging in trash pits, and choosing to buy into ministry. I spent this week making the most of the opportunities here in Trujillo, Peru. Those choices totally changed how I saw this country and the opportunities in front of me,
What choices are you making to not see what God is doing? What is your version of the Peruvian Ghetto Desert? Where are you not seeing God move in your life? Is there something that you can do to change that and see the opportunities around you?`
