After we arrived in Chimaltanango, our host told us that part of the ministry my team would be participating in was teaching art lessons three days a week. (I originally thought we would be working at a school, but we actually were going to be working at a library.) I’m not an artist by any means, but thankfully one of my teammates has a degree in art education and she used to be an art teacher. I planned to go with the flow and help in any way I could. Then our host told us we would just be doing crafts with the kids at the library, which I was confident I could handle. I love doing crafts and I love kids!
On the first day of ministry, we showed up at the library, and we found out that there are no activities for the kids until November when they are on break from school. Kids do not come to the library during September due to all of the festivals and celebrations for Independence Day. So, I thought, “what are we going to be doing???” Patty, our contact, told us that the library needed help with making new decorations. They wanted to redecorate and reorganize the library in preparation for when the kids would start coming back. I thought we would be coming up with new decorations, drawing them, and then painting them. But in reality, the decorations were already drawn; my team just needed to color them. You will never guess what characters we colored! <drum rollllllllll> THE JETSONS! I was shocked for sure! I don’t know if I’ve ever even watched an episode of The Jetsons, and I definitely didn’t think it aired in Guatemala. But apparently it does.
This was definitely not what I imagined doing while on the World Race! God has been teaching me a few things through this. One thing I’m learning is sometimes ministry looks different than what you imagined. You may not always be working in an orphanage or feeding the homeless or preaching in a church. You may not even be teaching English in a school. Sometimes, ministry looks like coloring pictures of the Jetson characters, because that is what needs to be done.
Ministry does not fit in a box. Ministry is simply serving people in any way they need or want to be served at that time.
