In my last blog I just skimmed the surface of the cooking ministry I had the opportunity to do, but it deserves much more than a light mention. The girls in the picture below are Ashley, (myself), and Caroline- the lovely gals who shared this experience with me. From the beginning of training camp to the start of being in Battambang, I hadn’t really spoken to these girls other than a little small talk, but by the third day, they were the ones I had laughed with, cried with, and poured into. Being randomly picked to serve in this particular area wasn’t solely beneficial because of how the lord revealed himself to us by serving or by perseverance, but also by relationships and what it looks like to carry each others’ burdens. At this point in time, we were under the impression that we would be cooking 3 meals a day for 45 people, cleaning the pots and some dishes before every meal, and only partaking in a limited amount of other ministry with our teams. The majority of the days consisted of waking up at around 5 am (in order to shower, spend time with God, and have breakfast ready by 6:30), we would have some time in between breakfast and lunch (we usually used that time to do a bible study), and then we would have to start dinner at around 5 pm, usually lasting until 9 pm. We did recognize the fact that there was some time for us to do personal things if we wanted to, but cooking and cleaning for the majority of the day was absolutely draining. Not to mention the fact that we had to hunt down & kick out all of the cockroaches and flies that entered our oasis, endure the pains of burning oil on our fingers when someone poured a little too fast, and cry for long periods of time after accidentally burning the noodles.
The three of us agreed that we felt this ministry would be difficult and a time for us to really lean on each other and God. For Ash and Caroline, they felt as if they were missing out on being able to interact with other people and invest their time and energy there, rather than being in a kitchen for the majority of the day. For me, I had a hard time dealing with being away from my team while they were out doing ministry together. The idea of a challenge and being able to grow with two incredible people was unsurprisingly exciting, but I knew it would be stretching and very difficult if we relied on our own abilities to thrive. In just that short time, I was able to see how these girls saw this unique opportunity, acknowledge that it would require loads of endurance, and choose it anyway. To feel as if maybe, this type of thing wasn’t for us, but push against that and choose what the lord had set in front of us. During our time spent in the bible and prayer, it was plain to see how God was testing us, and allowing us to grow when we made room for Him. I think one of the biggest things was knowing that yes, we were missing out on other ministries with our people, but we got to help FUEL the people that were going out as the hands and feet of Jesus. To be able to serve the ones that the lord is using to bring His kingdom is so humbling. The craziest part is that when we really decided to take this ministry as an opportunity to overlook what we wanted, we were told that our ministries would be changing by creating a kitchen rotation- this gave us more time with our teams. The leaders had no idea that we were already being stretched to the extent we were, but I know God had orchestrated that whole chain of events, and what we learned through that time and each other was the whole point of going through that experience.
