When you think of international missions, what comes to mind? If you’re like most people I’ve spoken with, it probably looks like a few things on this list:
Bible Study
Preaching sermons
Leading worship
Prayer walks
Teaching English
Working in an orphanage
What if what you’re doing doesn’t fit into any of those categories? Is it still ministry?
This month our ministry has looked a little different, and I’ve struggled with it a bit. While other teams on our squad are working in orphanages, with villages, and teaching at bible schools, our half of the team is working at a hotel. Is this ministry?
We deep clean, trim overgrowth and dead leaves from plants, develop menus, deep clean, create signage, implement new policies, build relationships with our guesthouse staff, help with day-to-day guesthouse operations, deep clean, build relationships with guests, teach English to our staff, battle ants/mosquitos/those-who-must-not-be-named, and did I mention deep clean?
During one of our recent team times I mentioned that I was really struggling with seeing the fruit of this month. I mean, I know that we’ve been able to relieve stress from Scott (WR Alum, current manager of the guesthouse), and provide a little bit of a break for the staff who had been running the business for a few months on their own until Scott took over the business from the previous owner. I can see those things, but I guess selfishly, I was hoping to see/feel more, and was starting to feel disappointed.
Then God started revealing some beautiful fruits to me. I mentioned Vic in my last video, and really I could write a book about this kid. He has brought so much joy to me and my team this month. When we first got here, my teammate Alysse tried to hug him. He reached out, stopped her arms, said “no, no” and reached for his necklace. As we looked closer, we saw that it was a Buddha necklace. With his very limited English, and our basically nonexistent Khmer, we had to make a few assumptions here.
Last month we learned that Buddhist Monks are not allowed to touch women. Women are considered dirty, and even the slighted contact must be confessed and “treated” with a day inside the temple for the monk to be cleansed. As Buddhism is the primary religion in Cambodia, and education through the Monkhood (becoming a monk) is one of the only free options for education and learning English, we figured Vic was planning to become a monk, and already starting to abide by their rules.
We respected this, and didn’t try to hug him anymore, but then something crazy started happening: Vic started INITIATING hugs. When we praise him for doing well in English class, hug; when we have a silly dance party in the kitchen, hug; when we’re cleaning the 4th room of the day and still have 2 more to go, but we have laughing fits over the most random things, hug. Melts my heart each time.
Vic also loves to draw, and he is very talented, though sometimes I wonder if he has ever been told how good he is, because he is very shy about showing his work. When he does find the courage to show it, he usually says “no good” and quickly puts it back in his backpack. Periodically through our English lessons I’ll look over and he’s doodling in his notebook. Typically he draws Buddha, or something related to Buddhism. A few times he drew a cross with Jesus on it, asking if we loved Jesus. Alysse and I both said yes, but then he said “no love” and drew a candle burning underneath it. We didn’t really understand what was meant by the candle, but figured it probably wasn’t necessarily good.
During a recent English lesson I caught him doodling again in his notebook. Jesus on a cross. Once again he asked if I love Jesus, and as I always will I responded that I loooove Jesus. You’ll never guess what happened next. Vic didn’t draw a candle under the cross. Nope. He drew a heart around Jesus. A HEART.
Vic has this intense desire to learn. Throughout the day he asks “vat is eet?” (what is it) Once he learns the English pronunciation, he repeats it to himself throughout the day. He randomly goes through lists of English words he knows: “thank you, you’re welcome, Thailand? let’s go, I loooooove eat, so sweet, sister (pronounced seeestah), omelet, one, two three, four, five…”
A few days ago, Alysse had a brilliant idea: what if Vic attended the Bible college where the rest of our team is working? Suddenly I had an epiphany: maybe this is the reason our team was split this month. Adventures in Missions knew that both ministries were important, but God knew that they would be the most fruitful if there was a connection between the two groups working in each. Would we have known enough about the school to recommend it had it been another team on our squad working there? We really only know about the school because we visit it during our free time, and our team shares what they’ve been doing. Our God orchestrates some powerful plans, but sometimes we have to live through them to truly understand their significance.
Since we mentioned the idea he’s talked about it everyday and invited Emily Rae and I over to his house to discuss it with his family. Although we didn’t have all of the information, it was encouraging to see not only his enthusiasm but his family’s as well. They are all really excited about him continuing in school, and didn’t show any concern over it being a Bible school. Taking full advantage that Vic’s brother-in-law spoke English pretty well, I asked him to let Vic know how special he is to us and how much we all enjoy working with him. Vic got a big smile on his face and responded that he wished the three of us could be his sisters. Emily Rae called him brother, and he got up to give us both hugs.
Ok. I got it God. You’ve got a plan. Let me live in your will and find comfort in that.
So back to the original question: if ministry doesn’t look like our preconceived notion of what ministry should look like, is it still ministry? Without a doubt, yes.
