To all my supporters:
I want to give a special thanks to all of you who partnered up with me to bless others around the world! I am now FULLY FUNDED for this race and wow, I am mind-blown, grateful, and blessed! This wouldn’t have been possible without all of your financial support and prayers!
As my first month in Chile is now coming to an end, I just want to share some of the highlights of how we’ve made a difference so far!
One thing I’ve realized is that MINISTRY doesn’t always mean “preaching in churches, experiencing signs and wonders, or saving the world.” Let me tell you what serving and ministry meant for my team this month:
Ministry is sometimes doing the small, mundane tasks.
For example, house chores like cooking, cleaning the house, doing the laundry, babysitting the kids, mowing the lawn, and running errands. It may not sound like exciting ministry work, but our hosts (Pastor Juan and Elvira) were very blessed with my team’s help this month as they are going through a very difficult season in life. Instead of being served by them, we were able to serve them in the everyday tasks they needed to do and for that, we were able to uplift them and be a blessing while we stayed in their home.
Ministry is sometimes just simply building relationships.
Meet Cynthia, the English teacher I assisted for the last three weeks at Espana Elementary School. I was able to work alongside her English classes and assisted 400+ students. At first I thought I wasn’t making much of a difference because I was mostly observing, but she said what a huge blessing it was for me to be able to connect with her personally, have deep conversations, and just building that relationship with her. When it was time to say goodbye, she said she never had an assistant teacher who she connected with so deeply and she was very thankful we were able to meet even if it was only for a short amount of time. Right when she said that, I realized that I am accomplishing what I’m supposed to do! Sometimes ministry means simply being there for someone when they need it most.
Meet Fernando, a local Chilean who attended church occasionally. He said he was in a very dark place for a long time, struggling with his faith until he met our team 4 weeks ago. He was inspired and encouraged by all of our testimonies and stories of how we stepped out in faith and obedience and this rekindled a “spiritual fire” in his heart. Because we got to spend time with him, he said he was able to get back on track with his journey with God and he said he was so thankful for letting God use us to speak life into his circumstances. What an amazing God we serve that he can use our stories to bring life and hope to people!
Ministry is sometimes just simply saying “YES” to whatever God is asking you to do.
I mean when I say whatever, it means WHATEVER. There was one day our host asked my team to perform a song in front of 300 people at a park for a huge, Christian event. We were nervous, we didn’t have enough time to practice, and most of us can say “singing” wasn’t our strongest suit. However, we’re on this trip to serve in any way that we can so if they needed us to be a music band then so be it!
We did it, we sang our hearts out on stage, and we didn’t do too bad! Sometimes God will make you do crazy things and you just have to learn how to say “yes” and be open to it!
Wow! What a learning experience it has been this month in Chile! Ministry is definitely something I didn’t expect to be, but I am grateful that God is teaching me through this process.
Thank you Chile for teaching me what ministry means! I can’t believe it’s now coming to an end! Month 1 down, 10 more months to go! Next country is Argentina!! I wonder what’s in store!
